Model Railroading > Southern Transcon - The Mighty Big Yard Update

Hi all, things have continued to move forward with the Southern Transcon.

1. Emporia yard continues to grow with the block swap yard completed. Much as the name suggests, road trains will pick up and drop off block of cars in this part of the yard. The local yard is starting to come together on the right.

2. More progress on the local yard.

3. A 99.8% complete Empoira yard. There is one more switch that needs to be installed, and it will be installed as soon as it arrives in the mail. Our version of Emporia is as how the Santa Fe had it with the yard leads for the local yard. BNSF removed these leads and tied the local yard ladder into the rest of the yard ladder. Our lead is one train length long (25').

More to come...

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4. Spacer ties were installed and the block swap yard was painted. We still need to paint the rest of the yard and weather the rail. But, that will come soon.

5. With track work wrapping up, switch machines, DS74s, and bus wiring was added. You may ask how that was done? Like this!

6. Since most of the work in Empoira was done, we went ahead and installed the bench work for El Dorado, KS. All that's left is attaching the brackets to the bench work. We opted to use foam board here in order to save weight.

More to come...

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8. We haven't forgot about the helix or Curtis Hill. Over on the helix, the last loop before the 2nd level was installed and the roadbed was attached.

9. After sanding everything, cork was glued down.

10. And the final product. The 2nd level is now attached to the helix!

More to come...

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11. The roadbed for Cassoday was installed on risers. This was pretty straight forward and went in very (to us) quickly. Cork and track followed shortly after.

12. Currently, the road has reached Chelsea and that's were we are at this time.

13. Between Cassoday and Chelsea, the ties swap over to concrete. Just like the real thing.

More to come...

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13. Over on Curtis Hill, the switch was installed. It's all double track down to the 2nd level.

14. Cork was glued down and sanded smooth.

15. Self explanatory, Track was glued down. Track one has wood ties while track 2 has concrete. This was the case when BNSF double tracked Curtis Hill not long after the merger. 

That wraps up this update. Question, comments, and complaints are always welcome.

Enjoy,
-Dave

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WOW....This is every ones dream to have a modelroad like this, you guys have done an excellent joboj constructionso far...When its operation time, what a time will take...lots of fun...

Quite a layout indeed!

Great job, keep up the good work. Operations will be awesome.
Joe

Thanks for the update.  Always interesting to watch the progress being made.
jb

That "bent over backward" photo:  that part would kill me.

There sure is a lot of blue there!  Is that to blend in with the sky on parts of the layout?

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> There sure is a lot of blue there!  Is that to
> blend in with the sky on parts of the layout?

Good observation! The color is Autumn Sky Blue. Another reason for painting the wood is being in a higher humidity location, the wood swells and shrinks with the change of seasons. We found that sealing the wood helps minimize the movement.

Also, it helps make the layout stand out to folks. I mean, how many blue layouts have you seen?

-Dave

WOW! I do have one questioon I have never had answered, how do you paint the rails of the concrete tie track without painting the ties? Would seem a bit labor intensive with a brush or paint pen.
CR

Wow, that's a huge yard!  I'm enjoying the progress from afar.

WM1977 Wrote:
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> WOW! I do have one questioon I have never had
> answered, how do you paint the rails of the
> concrete tie track without painting the ties?
> Would seem a bit labor intensive with a brush or
> paint pen.
> CR

Good question. I haven't painted concrete track yet. However, I imagine It'll be the same process as painting wood ties. I paint the ties first with Hunter Camo Brown spray paint, then mask and paint the rail with Tru-Color rust rail brown with an airbrush. For the concrete ties, I'll have to find a spray paint that looks like concrete.

I've also found that N scale cork is the correct width for inside the tie plates and leaves a gap so the rail can be sprayed. I just use painters tape to cover the ties outside the gauge.

-Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/24 18:27 by djh4d.

Awesome progress! Just curious, but what is the minimum and maximum height of the styrene strips that you use for superelevation?  Thanks for any assistance.

Cheers,
Harry

tracktime Wrote:
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> Awesome progress! Just curious, but what is the
> minimum and maximum height of the styrene strips
> that you use for superelevation?  Thanks for any
> assistance.
>
> Cheers,
> Harry

Hi Harry, we use .030 inch strips 12" long just under the outside rail.

-Dave

Thanks for the update Dave.

If I'm not mistaken, it looks like your using the new Walthers turnouts and trimming the headblocks. What's your plan with those? Just trim and flip? Or do you fabricate new ones?

Chris