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Tyson Rayles
Moderator
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/15/2020 : 06:22:53 AM
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Good looking fence!
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Country: USA
| Posts: 13438 |
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George D
Moderator
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/15/2020 : 08:11:10 AM
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Thanks, Mike.
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Fly Army |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16795 |
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desertdrover
Engineer
    

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Posted - 07/15/2020 : 08:14:05 AM
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Very impressive progress George, and I agree with Mike, great looking fence as well. There is no doubt you can flow some solder. Your track work is beyond bullet proof.
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 Louis Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast Post count: 5000 posts added to below count.
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16115 |
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George D
Moderator
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/15/2020 : 08:49:17 AM
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Thanks, Louis. I hope the track is bullet proof. I'm now wrestling with adding the sidings. A lot of thinking - little doing. 
George
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Fly Army |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16795 |
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George D
Moderator
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/15/2020 : 08:49:18 AM
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Thanks, Louis. I hope the track is bullet proof. I'm now wrestling with adding the sidings. A lot of thinking - little doing. 
George
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Fly Army |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16795 |
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Frank Palmer
Fireman
   

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Posted - 07/15/2020 : 09:34:12 AM
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George, nice track plan. You’ve hit a milestone with the quality of the hand laying. The track assembly board and method are well worth studying for future projects.
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Frank |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6131 |
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George D
Moderator
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/15/2020 : 6:53:29 PM
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Thanks, Frank. My next test will be doing the code 55 sidings.
George
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Fly Army |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16795 |
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George D
Moderator
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/16/2020 : 4:54:14 PM
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I have the baseboard's basic frame done. It needs internal bracing, which will be done once I determine the exact location of the Tortoise machines. Here's a picture of the track sitting on it (not final position). As you can see, the sidings need to be added.

I'm going to try using code 55 rail for the sidings. The rail I've been using is code 70, so I need a way to make the transition between the two size rails. To do this, I modified some rail joiners. I started with a code 70 rail joiner and slipped a piece of code 70 rail in one side and a piece of code 55 rail in the other side. I laid it on a metal ruler with the two pieces of rail meeting right at the edge of the ruler. I placed a piece of steel over the code 70 rail and tapped the steel with a hammer.

Here's the result.

Now, back to soldering.
George
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Fly Army |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16795 |
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nortonw
Section Hand


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Posted - 07/16/2020 : 5:25:14 PM
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As I understand it you could also crimp the Code 55 side flat and solder the rail to the top of the joiner instead of in it. I think I have seen where that lines up the top of the rails pretty well and since you are soldering the rail anyway...
JMHO
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Norton
The V & T lives in my garage (soon) |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 93 |
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George D
Moderator
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/16/2020 : 6:25:42 PM
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Norton, now that you brought it up, I remember reading that somewhere. Oh well, I now have my rail joiners made.
George
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Fly Army |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16795 |
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jbvb
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/16/2020 : 9:22:23 PM
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The only spikes I found with heads small enough for Code 55 rail are Micro Engineering's 'Micro', which are prone to bending even in basswood ties over Homasote.
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6809 |
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Michael Hohn
Fireman
   

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Posted - 07/16/2020 : 10:42:56 PM
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George, I think it’s rather elegant what you did. Might even work better in keeping the rails aligned.
Mike
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Country: USA
| Posts: 7230 |
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BurleyJim
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/16/2020 : 11:42:21 PM
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Everything looks great. Now here is the dumb question of the day (I'm waiting until it's late), why didn't you use code 55 for the switches?
Jim
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Take the red pill |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6178 |
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adrian_batey
Fireman
   
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Posted - 07/17/2020 : 07:24:20 AM
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George, Neat trick on the C55 rail joint. I'm planing on hand laying a double deck layout 10x20 although simple track plan. Im contemplating the hand spike or pcb ties like you have. If i hand spike i don't thin i will ever finish it.
Proto87 have the etched spikes that i believe work well with code 55 rail by the way. Have not used them myself.
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Owen Pass Lumber Company HO Logging Layout in a Shed. https://owenpass.blogspot.com/ |
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Country: Australia
| Posts: 1308 |
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George D
Moderator
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 07/17/2020 : 07:46:33 AM
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James, I'm staying with solder and PCB ties. The art of spiking is beyond my talents.
Mike, I'm hoping the rail joiners make connecting the sidings a simple slip on process.
Jim, I'm waiting till the next day to answer your question. I simply approached the project as a code 70 layout with code 55 sidings. Thinking about it, it would be more difficult to make the turnouts using code 55 rail.
Adrian, I've only worked with soldering. I know there are folks who believe spiking is the way to go and do some beautiful work. I find with soldering, if things aren't just right, you can un-solder and re-solder. I'm not sure it's as easy for spiking. I'm prone to mistakes, so I need an easy way to correct them.
George
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Fly Army |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16795 |
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