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T O P I C    R E V I E W
George D Posted - 06/29/2020 : 6:05:20 PM
I'm starting this because if I publicly commit myself to building this switching layout, it has less of a chance of being put on the back burner than some of my projects. My plan is to build a 2'x6' switching layout with hand laid track. My freelance railroad is the Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler and New Castle Railway commonly referred to as the Harmony Line. It's based on an interurban line that ran north out of Pittsburgh and the old right of way ran along the property line of the house I grew up in. Unlike the interurban line, my freelance railroad didn't fail because of the newfangled automobile. I assume it prospered and became a standard gauge railroad.

I'm going to model Harmony Junction with three tracks going to staging (fiddle yard), one south to Pittsburgh, one east to Butler and one west to New Castle. There will be one siding to hold junction cars and two sidings for industries. Here's my track plan.



I'm using Templot, a free program for my track planning. It's designed more for making templates for hand laying track than track planning, though it works for that. That track plan is a collection of pages that are printed out for laying the track. This diagram is an index of these individual pages.



To see the detail of the drawing, this is page b/2 of the track plan. To make the drawing, I only worked with the track center lines, the details like ties, point rails, guard rails and the like came from the Templot software. Those tie numbers mean nothing to me.



Templot is a fantastic program with a killer learning curve. You can make turnouts of any size or any radius to fit exactly what you need. I'm not putting it down, I think it's fantastic, however, unless you plan to do some hand laying of turnouts that are a non standard size, don't waste your time trying to learn it.

George

15   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
George D Posted - 02/21/2021 : 09:25:35 AM
Thanks for checking in, Mike, Bruce and Jim.

Jim, no problems with metal wheels, which all my cars have. The problem can be with steel weights, particularly the big weights on Athern Blue Box cars. On my Timesaver layout with Kadee under the track magnets the center of the cars would be drawn over the magnet, making it impossible to uncouple. I've replaced the weights with a sheet of styrene for aesthetics and put lead inside for weight.

George
BurleyJim Posted - 02/21/2021 : 08:56:27 AM
George,

North to South, South to North, noticing any drag or lift on the metal wheels? Next you'll be doing MAGLEV on that neat project.

Jim
Dutchman Posted - 02/21/2021 : 08:29:46 AM
Please keep us posted on your magnet experiments, George.
Tyson Rayles Posted - 02/21/2021 : 07:44:50 AM
Great looking building! Good luck with the magnets.
George D Posted - 02/20/2021 : 8:58:51 PM
I took a break from layout building to build this ice station for the layout. It was part of the Choices Challenge and I detailed the build here, http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=53480



Now I'm back to working on the layout. I've been running some switching operations and I've been using pointed bamboo skewers for uncoupling. I found myself leaning on my elbows to steady my hands while uncoupling the cars. I suddenly realized this wouldn't work once scenery was down, so I needed to look at some other method. For a number of years I've been playing with magnets for uncoupling Kadee couplers. My experiences have ranged from Kadee under the track magnets on a Timesaver layout to movable magnets that I wrote about in the December 2010 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. The under track magnets have to be installed as track is being laid – too late for that. The movable magnets that I wrote about were better suited for permanent layouts and also had to be installed before track was laid. My friend Chuck Davis wrote an article in the November 2008 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman about using cylindrical neodymium magnets mounted between the ties. I've seen his clinic and been to his layout and saw how they worked. I've also experimented with them.

I dug out my old piece of test track and started playing with cylindrical magnets again. Specifically 1/8” diameter and 3/8” long magnets. I placed some magnets in some old holes I had in the test track base. These were mounted vertically between the ties inside the rails. It worked, but it's weak and doesn't always pull the Kadee glad arm out far enough to uncouple the cars. I also tried placing them outside the rails, which didn't work. For what it's worth I'm using N52 magnets, the strongest that you can get.

I decided to try to boost the power of the inside the rail magnets by mounting a second one outside the rail. That increased the magnetic field enough to get reliable uncoupling.

This first picture shows a coupler pulled to the side by one magnet inside the rails. The magnets are hard to see and will, hopefully be more difficult when painted the same color as the ballast. The magnets are at the same level as the ties.



This pictures shows two magnets, one on each side of the rail. Here, the coupler pin is being pulled over the rail.



One set of magnets are fine, but require very precise movement to get the couplers directly over the magnets. Several sets will be required. Further testing will decide that number.

George
Tyson Rayles Posted - 01/04/2021 : 09:08:08 AM
George D Posted - 01/03/2021 : 09:08:14 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Tyson Rayles

At last! Some scenery!!!!


Where are the RR-Line's sarcasm police?

George
Tyson Rayles Posted - 01/03/2021 : 08:41:39 AM
At last! Some scenery!!!!
George D Posted - 01/02/2021 : 3:03:54 PM
Thanks for following, Larry.

I think I've run enough rolling stock through the switches to be satisfied that they are reliable. I'm ready for a change of pace, so I'm joining the Choices Challenge and scratch building an ice platform for the layout. I printed up the side views of my drawings on cardstock and made a mockup to see if it would fit and hide the entrance hole in the backdrop.



I've started a new thread for this construction project. http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=53480

George
BigLars Posted - 12/19/2020 : 4:20:50 PM
George,
I have now read though your whole thread. Some great information and I may be borrowing a few ideas. Thanks for posting.
George D Posted - 12/19/2020 : 11:10:41 AM
Bernd, I hadn't thought about that thin aluminum, but I'm sure it would work too.

George
Bernd Posted - 12/19/2020 : 11:02:31 AM
That's a great idea with the index/business card. Another thing that would work is a piece of thin aluminum such as from a aluminum cooking tin.

example: https://www.amazon.com/8x6x2Aluminum-Disposable-Rectangle-allowable-Containers/dp/B08GYZ9QKD/ref=sr_1_13?dchild=1&hvadid=78477695754977&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&keywords=aluminum baking pans&qid=1608393659&sr=8-13&tag=mh0b-20

Bernd
George D Posted - 12/19/2020 : 10:34:53 AM
Pete, that does look like styrene. I'm using cardstock the thickness of an index card. It has to be thin but stiff enough to slide into the unsoldered joint.

Thanks Thayer, I'm just following Pete's idea. I did some more this morning and it makes the task easier.

Thanks, Larry, glad to see you checking in.

George
BigLars Posted - 12/19/2020 : 09:33:05 AM
Great tip. Thanks for sharing it. Not sure how I missed this tread. Going back to read it now. I love the cassettes you made.
thayer Posted - 12/18/2020 : 11:54:40 PM
That is a great tip, thank you both for sharing.

Thayer

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