Building the Frisco System 1980 - Construction Project Documentation - HO-Scale Layout

Pretty cool...a huge layout out in the middle of a corn field.

 

Quite literally the middle of a corn field. Here's one of the pictures I sent my wife when we were deciding where to build. I took this about 2 minutes after the combine left the field.

 

Bondo (body filler) sets up HARD because it has to. Drywall paste is much easier to sand.

GS

 

That's been on my mind the past week. Look for an email later this evening.

 

Today, I hosted my first track laying session. Keith Robinson and Rick McClellan came down and lent their expertise for the day. Big thank you to those guys! All of the track for Kansas City staging is in place, and we made a good start on the north end of Rosedale yard. I still need to drill holes under the turnouts for switch machine throw rods, and then wire everything up and test run it. Harvest is coming up soon, so that will slow down progress for a couple months. I'll share more next time I make progress.

 

Now you're into the fun part!

GS

 

Can't think of 2 better guys to help!

 

This is very inspirational! Looks wonderful.

 

I've made some progress on the layout the past couple weeks, but it's not very apparent at this point. I've split my time between soldering feeders on the staging yard, preparing track for instillation, and setting turnouts. I'm close to having all of the turnouts pinned in the Rosedale Yard section so we can make the most of the next track laying session.

This morning, I decided to glue down a few straight sections of track on the north end of Rosedale so I could start laying out the curved section of the yard. I'm giving the sweep sticks a try, and so far I like the results. I did figure out that if you pull the stick back from the start of the curve a little bit, you can still get an easement into the curve. I think these will work well to keep the yard tracks consistently spaced 2" apart all the way through. The mock up pictured below isn't glued down yet, but gives an idea where we are headed.





This mock up hasn't been glued down yet. I've still got tomorrow to work with, but corn harvest starts Monday, so progress will stop for a couple weeks

 

Looking great, Ethan!

 

Thanks again for hosting me, Ethan. I just missed catching Keith and Rick by a few days. Hopefully, I'll make it up during a time that I can also contribute to construction. The layout and building are looking great.

-Bob T.

 

I wound up having some time to work on the layout this weekend, so I made a bit more progress. On things that aren't visible, I added more feeder wires to the staging yard. I still need to do the underneath wiring for the right rail of tracks 5-8, but all of the feeders are installed beyond the yard ladders for staging. The the left rails are all wired together, but the right rail of each staging track has it's own bus wire so I can isolate and separately power each track. It's extra work and wire upfront, but should be worth it in the long run.

Beyond that, I glued down a few more sticks of track to give me enough main line run to get a train in and out of staging. I've also got most of the turnouts placed for Rosedale and some of the track roughed in. It's almost got a recognizable shape now.





I even had enough time to set some cars on a staging track and run a train out and back. A trio of GP38-2's had the honor of making the first run. Also pictured is 2 sets of pooled coal train power waiting for their hoppers to be unboxed and set on the track.

 

Nothing is as refreshing as a 5 year old room temp Mt Dew. Really "tickles your innerds"

 

5 yr old room temp...

This is looking great!

 

Update time! I finally crossed another finish line this weekend: I finished putting down the curved yard tracks for Rosedale.

I'll do a long version, and short version

Short version: Sweep sticks are a great tool for laying curved flex track

Long version: I'll try and make a video on the process I used at some point, but the one thing that made this process rather easy and trouble free, Sweep sticks. I invested in a quarter turn of sweep sticks for each radi of curve I planned to lay, and assembled plenty of spacer gauges to use with them. I can solder the track joints while they're completely straight, and then snap the guides into place and have a pre-formed piece of track that's ready to press directly into the adhesive. I think the trick for best results is simply patience. Wait for the caulk to cure completely on each section before starting the next, that way the previous track cant move as you space the current section. The other trick, is to snap in the piece a little beyond the "start" of the curve so that you still get a nice easement into the curve, while maintaining a steady radius through the other ~95% of the turn. The first piece glued down takes a little extra time to get the easement right, but if you line up the start of the sweep sticks every time, that easement will follow each time.



I had to get creative and shoot over the top of the wall for this one



Beyond meticulously laying track, I've slowly worked on unboxing some equipment. The staging yard looks a a little more full now. One trio of Frisco power awaits cars to be added, while another already has a manifest in tow. The first FSE is on the tracks, it's power just needs to be tacked on. A pair of run through coals trains are mostly assembled and ready for transport to Rush Island.

 

Looking great!