Easitrac Turnout

A few days ago I promised a posting on the progress I've been making with assembling an Easitrac turnout. Tonight I made quite a bit of progress on it, so it seems a good time to show you what I've been up to.

The photo above shows progress after the first evening. The straight stock rail is in place, and the crossing assembly has been soldered-up (using the assembly jig on the right). This is a left hand B7 turnout, and is build using a C&L template. The turnout timber positions don't match the milled base exactly, but are close enough for my purposes.

Another couple of hours work tonight brings the story up to date. I've yet to make the turnout blades, and will probably build a jig to make filing these easier, particularly as I need several more turnouts of this type. There are also more chairs to add to the left-hand end of the stock rails. The crossing nose needs a slight adjustment with a file as my first trials with a wagon showed that one of the flangeways is a bit on the tight side.

I'm sure subsequent turnouts will be quicker and easier to make - this is my first 2mm turnout and it's been a bit of a learning curve at times.

Andy

Brafferton Update - 4. Trackwork Pt i

Okay; now I can tell you about the tracklaying. Whilst the lie of the land around Brafferton is fairly flat, I do want some areas to be slightly below track level and try and avoid that "train set" look often evident when all of the scenery is above rail height.

So the track will be on a base of 4mm ply and this will sit on frequent blocks of 8mm ply (2 lots of 4mm!) giving a potential scale 6ft drop to the main baseboards. I used the computer to draw templates for the trackbed, tacked it with Pritt and then cut the ply with a sharp Stanley knife. I lightly scored the track centre with the knife and then inked it in following removal of the template:



Anybody not heard of Easitrac yet? Right I'll see you after class for detention then. I've mentioned before that I'd been trying out this new system and now I'm ready to dive in the deep end. Some sections of 10"-12" were made up using the Easitrac jig. Then using the recommended glue, I positioned one section at a time:

The glue seems to cure fairly quickly, but doesn't go hard like PVA; it retains a rubberyness and the very slightest "give". You will see that I am using PCB sleepers at each end of the section. This is more for electrical connection than anything else. At this radius (31") I have more than faith in the robustness of the Easitrac bases:

Here we have the trackwork completed for baseboard No.1. I may have to trim the track back slightly at the far end to fabricate an accurate cross-board joint:

Now onto board No.2 and some pointwork. If I get a pass out for Saturday, I'll bring the progress to date along.

Get on with some modelling, Simms!

Enough of all this prattle about looking at other peoples layouts and spending money! I have actually done a (very) small amount of modelling in the last week or so...


The D49 approaches the finish line albeit rather slowly. While I've been sticking small details onto the loco body, the chassis has been running in. Here you can see the addition of; cab side steps, buffers, steam pipes from the boiler to the cylinders, smokebox door, chimney and dome. There are still a fair number of items to go; front steps, grab handles, whistle, valves, Wakefield lubricators, not to mention the cab roof. I also need to fabricate a backhead to go in the cab.

The more eagle eyed of you will have noticed that the loco was stood on a piece of Easitrac. I assembled four lengths in less than 1/2 hour and even glued one down! You can see from the unglued sections that there is severe wobble on the rail. Gluing the track down overcame this issue, but I hope that the tension won't subsequently lift the track unit! Onward...

Money, its a hit

So, what did all the dosh get spent on at Expo? A major purchase for me, and the guys seemed to be doing a brisk trade all round, was a batch of Easitrac. I am hoping that this will speed the Layout Challenge entry along a bit faster; there are only 24 months to go after all!

From the main shop, I got a roll of rail. I'm still concerned how this curves about especially in the vertical plane. A Blackburn jig to help soldering Bob Jones point chairplates was also acquired; I don't think I can wait this time for the Easitrac guys to get their point system to the table. Additionally all the bits and bobs required to make a start on the J72 were assembled; wheels, bushes, gears etc. I already had a suitable motor so this eased the pain a little.

Finally, a major purchase; Association Loco Kit No1 - 350hp diesel shunter (08 to you youngsters!) - this will be some time coming as I've plenty to do before starting this kit!