Staging Yard Points

As you recall, the staging yard is on a wide window sill, and that means there is no room for Bullfrog or other switch machines below the roadbed. Because the room provides a number of functions in our house, we want to be able to make the staging yard look like a clean window sill, […]

Cat TV

My friend, colleague and fellow creator, Mitch, bought a LulzBot 3D printer last week. I believe I’ve agreed to buy a share of it, and now might be the time.

More Lines – Laying out the Staging Yard

Andrew came over last night and, after we’d finished installing the last Bullfrog, we plunked the staging planks on the window sill and laid out the staging yard.

North switch machine

Andrew came over last night, and together we had a productive evening, installing the switch machine for the north switch and laying out the staging yard. But that’s another blog post. FastTracks expedited a spring to finish the last Bullfrog, and so, we were away to the races. Thank-you FastTracks, I was delighted by your […]

North switch guard rails

As far as I’m concerned the guard rails are largely cosmetic. However, they need to get soldered, so I do them before the detailing stage of a turnout. With Micro Engineering code 55 rail, anything bigger too (and probably code 40, but I don’t know for sure), the profile is a little wider than the […]

Design for turnout control

I decided to take a break from the trackwork this evening. The Bullfrog is going to be a two-person job, and so, I’m going to ask Andrew to help me on Wednesday. The guard rails can go on either on Monday or Tuesday evening. In the meantime, I have some visitors coming to use the […]

North switch points

The points are by far the hardest part of getting Proto:87 running. The flanges are so tiny that they like to find any excuse to go the wrong way. For this switch, I originally planed the points using the Screaming Banshee Rail Grinder almost a year ago. Miraculously, I found them in my increasingly dusty […]

North switch closure rails

The first step in forming the closure rails is to bend the wing rails at their ends, leaving them over-length. I then bend the closure length so the rail wants to lie very close to its final position. Here the diverging rail has been bent and is awaiting trimming. Once I am satisfied with the […]

North switch feeders and stock rails

To accurately locate the feeders, I place the rail in position, and then file a groove in the bottom of the foot with a triangular file. I use my old file, so it doesn’t get gummed up with Pliobond. I then flip the rail over and deepen the groove slightly, and then scrape the Pliobond […]

North switch ballast and rail preparation

I am getting the bulk of the ballast in before the rails go down on Pembroke. I’ve always found that ballasting after the rails takes a lot of fussing, and then it moves anyway. I’m leaving the areas around solder clean until they are proven to work, but the plain track, which is glued, is […]