# The Steely Railroad — Construction Begins



## EBrown (5 mo ago)

I finally moved houses (took forever) and yesterday began building benchwork for my layout. I put some foam on as well, and should be ready to get things rolling.

I had to get a new soldering iron, and I believe I’ll need to order some rail nippers too, but I should be able to start laying track this week to get the layout roughed-out, starting with the yard. After that I’ll do the ess through the middle.

The layout design is in another thread (The Steely Railroad - Diesel Transport), and I'll be updating this one as I progress laying track.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Nice gathering area for spectators around the water cooler and window! I'm envious of the room you have.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

Fire21 said:


> Nice gathering area for spectators around the water cooler and window! I'm envious of the room you have.


This basement was a huge selling point of the house. The area right in front of the window will be the Yard, with a programming track (I think) off on the water-cooler side.

I also have my entire home-office staged in front of the train corner (you can see one of the desks in the picture above), and there's a bathroom down here, as well as a ton of storage on the other side of the far wall in the picture.

Overall this is a great area. I get my half of the basement for my train layout, office, etc., and my wife gets half the basement for her home office, theatre, and her tonal / gym area.


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## JeffHurl (Apr 22, 2021)

That looks like a great space! I'll be honest though... the more you get into scenery (plaster, ground turf, fine leaf foliage)... , the more you'll wish you didn't have carpet. Scenery can be a messy. But until then, it will be nice to have the carpet while playing around with track layouts, etc.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

JeffHurl said:


> That looks like a great space! I'll be honest though... the more you get into scenery (plaster, ground turf, fine leaf foliage)... , the more you'll wish you didn't have carpet. Scenery can be a messy. But until then, it will be nice to have the carpet while playing around with track layouts, etc.


Yeah, I'm hoping I can avoid any issues with it by running 1/2" foam along the entire back, and using plastic lining affixed to the benchwork to keep any mess on the plastic, and off the carpet.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

So I should be getting cork today or tomorrow to lay under the track, once that's done I'll be able to start placing & glueing track down, then I can get some ballast and move on from there.

I have to run to Ikea this afternoon to get a new desk for my other office desk & my workbench, so probably no real progress today other than maybe getting cork.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

Cork will be today, yesterday ended up being a "go to IKEA and get new desks to finish the home office" kind of day.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

It ain't much, but the first bit of cork is down. Before I lay any more than this one strip I want to let it dry and see how it comes out. Using PL300 to glue it down, I've read that it should work well. Needs around 24 hours to cure, so hopefully around 3 tomorrow I have a feel for how it works.

If this goes well, I should be able to lay cork for the mainline around the yard tomorrow, then I can start with track.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

I got some more cork glued and track laid, been going slowly bit-by-bit to make sure it’s coming out in a way I like. The cork and track are all glueing together well. Ran some electrical tests while I only have 8 pieces glued down to see how they went, they look good. Will probably do permanent power drops on some of the pieces once I get the other curves on the right side done.


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## JeffHurl (Apr 22, 2021)

You could probably get away with using a lot less adhesive, especially when attaching the track to the cork. I only used straight pins. Originally, I used sdtraight pins to lay the track on the ork since it was simple to make subtle tweaks to geometry. I was going to go back and glue it down, but the straight pins have held for about a year now with no adverse effects. I just "painted" the heads with a sharpie and called it good enough.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

JeffHurl said:


> You could probably get away with using a lot less adhesive, especially when attaching the track to the cork. I only used straight pins. Originally, I used sdtraight pins to lay the track on the ork since it was simple to make subtle tweaks to geometry. I was going to go back and glue it down, but the straight pins have held for about a year now with no adverse effects. I just "painted" the heads with a sharpie and called it good enough.


Yeah, I'm still getting my "rhythm", which is why I started where I did. It's the easiest spot to modify going forward, and has the advantage of the first curve on the right there being the least-important (that's the programming track that goes out from the rerailer to the switch).

I just dropped a new line of cork and was able to get it to spread much more thinly, which looks nicer as well. I'll take pictures in a bit, but I'm also still working on how to lay my curves too.

I'm using some sewing pins I inherited from my (now deceased) grandmother, and they're working well to keep the cork flexed and aligned where I need it while it dries. A box of screws for some weight, and I'm getting away with no clamps at this point.


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## JeffHurl (Apr 22, 2021)

You may like to use T-pins to hold the cork while it dries. I would apply Elmers glue to bottom side of the cork, and spread it thin with a cheap foam style paint brush. The use the T-Pins to hold it all in place while it dried over night. After it dried, I had to put some pressure on the cork with one hand while to pulled the pins out with the other to keep the cork from lifting up. I like it like that because it's pretty simple to pull it up with butter knife if things need corrected.

The T-pins are inexpensive. I think I paid about $5 for package of 100 2" long pins. I would pout a pin about every 3 inches... a lot simpler than using all the cans of soup in your pantry, lol.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

JeffHurl said:


> You may like to use T-pins to hold the cork while it dries. I would apply Elmers glue to bottom side of the cork, and spread it thin with a cheap foam style paint brush. The use the T-Pins to hold it all in place while it dried over night. After it dried, I had to put some pressure on the cork with one hand while to pulled the pins out with the other to keep the cork from lifting up. I like it like that because it's pretty simple to pull it up with butter knife if things need corrected.
> 
> The T-pins are inexpensive. I think I paid about $5 for package of 100 2" long pins. I would pout a pin about every 3 inches... a lot simpler than using all the cans of soup in your pantry, lol.


I may run out today or tomorrow and grab some and try it.

I'm working through a strategy to make my rail joiners less obvious, I think I might cut / shave just a bit off the last tie on each piece at a joiner to get them a bit closer, so that there isn't an ugly gap in the ties themselves.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

On another note, I've changed my plans (because getting insulated joiners is a pain in the rear): I am only insulating the joint off the two frog-rails now, and using metal joiners on the outer travel rails. I don't anticipate any electrical issues from doing this as those rails are fixed power, and it will eliminate the number of insulated joiners I need in general. The original plan needed 13 packs of insulated joiners, this modification reduces it to 7.

I also ended up eliminating a turnout, I'll describe that on the layout design post.


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## kilowatt62 (Aug 18, 2019)

Just a thought here. You don’t need insulated rail joiners at all. Just leave a gap upon assembly or, push everything together tightly and comb back a bit later with a dremel tool and cut off wheel. Make your own gap.


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

I use map pins. They are also great for detecting track problems. stick a map pin in the general locations of the problem, as it helps keep your eye in the right place then as you watch you can adjust the pin location to get it to the exact spot, and debug from there.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

I succeeded in completing stage 1, there was a snafu with the curve closest to the camera and I had to rebuild it at the end, but the main loop works. I’m going to try to order parts to do the yard cut l-through, and go from there.


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## REdington (Aug 20, 2018)

Congrats on getting the trains running.
Watch out. Once you have trains rolling on the layout, progress will slow some as you'll want to run trains.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

REdington said:


> Congrats on getting the trains running.
> Watch out. Once you have trains rolling on the layout, progress will slow some as you'll want to run trains.


I actually ordered all the track parts I need for the S curve through the yard (which is also a reversing loop), as well as more MTL MT-7 conversion kits, and some Kato Gunderson MAXI-IV’s to add to my trains.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

USPS alleges that the turnouts I need to run the "ess" through the middle will be here today. This will also include one more crossover siding.

If they are here, tonight I'll be setting that section of track up, and then dropping this reverse loop controller in and seeing how it plays.


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## JeffHurl (Apr 22, 2021)

I'm looking forward to hearing about how the reversing module works.

Also, your instinct about insulating only the "frog rails" is correct. The "stock rails" do not need insulated, only the 2 that come off the frog need be insulated.

I don't solder any of them, except maybe the stock rail of the diverging track, and only then if the solder is absolutely necessary to prevent a kink in the curve if using flex track to continue the diverging route.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

JeffHurl said:


> I'm looking forward to hearing about how the reversing module works.
> 
> Also, your instinct about insulating only the "frog rails" is correct. The "stock rails" do not need insulated, only the 2 that come off the frog need be insulated.
> 
> I don't solder any of them, except maybe the stock rail of the diverging track, and only then if the solder is absolutely necessary to prevent a kink in the curve if using flex track to continue the diverging route.


Won't be today, tracking says "Delivery Attempt, Held at Post Office, At Customer Request", so I go there (because they also delivered a bunch of mail to me that isn't mine), they said that there will be a re-attempt tomorrow, and that they use this reason as a catch-all when it gets mis-delivered because it's "too much work" to select another one (apparently).


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## JeffHurl (Apr 22, 2021)

Nothing more disappointing than a delay in the mail when you're chomping at the bit.... Kind of like being at the horse races.... the trumpets flair, the gates open and out pops a herd of turtles...


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

So the parts all arrived, just in time for me to redesign the yard and now have the wrong parts 

I need 2 SL-396's, and 3 SL-395's, I have 4 SL-396's and 1 SL-395.

I can convert one of the SL-395's to an SL-396, just makes one portion of the yard ugly, but it might work out in the end. I'll still need to order at least one more right-hand turnout though.


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## REdington (Aug 20, 2018)

At least you can start playing around and see what works and if you need to buy more.


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## JeffHurl (Apr 22, 2021)

More turtles on the track, LOL!


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

So I was able to (mostly) fix the redesign of the layout, I'm still not thrilled about one part of it, but I don't want to have to re-structure any track I currently have laid down.

Effectively, what I've done, is move caboose and diesel storage _closer_ to the front-edge, giving me more room for a freight-loading yard, and meaning I don't have this weird system of trucks having to loop all the way around the diesel/MOW storage to get to the freight zone.

Going to start looking around for a building that would work as a suitable engine shed, I could use one of those to start planning out the three diesel-storage lanes to make sure they are spaced properly.

Once I get this S-reverse loop finished I'm going to start some initial scenery work, maybe do some ballasting, and go from there. I've roughed-out the S, now I need to drop cork, cut, glue, and wire it.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

Thanksgiving saw a pause in construction, but today I’m back in it and glued down the last of the yard “sidings” (only yard parts left are spurs and the cut-through). This had to get put down before the cut-through, as this has to be parallel to the mainline and yard-line.

This weekend should see the S cut-through get put in position, after that it’ll be round 1 of paint / starting scenery.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

So I was trying to find some "oops" paint yesterday that would be a cheap answer to turning the pink into something else, but was unsuccessful. What I did find was a pack of Testors Acrylic water-based paints, 36 different colors, so I'm going to try my hand at making a tan/brown wash to apply to the pink base layer (may do several layers of different tints, depending on how thin I can get them to spread), and maybe a grey one for the cork so I can give it a more "rocky" look.


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