Home Page › Forums › Modeling the Missouri Pacific, Texas & Pacific, etc › Mopac or Texas & Pacific layouts › I’ve bit the bullet, Jan. 15, 2011 › Reply To: I’ve bit the bullet, Jan. 15, 2011
Now that I’ve had several visitors, a new surge of inspiration has appeared (along with newly-freed-up time).
Module 9 has been moved from the other room and connected to the adjoining module, which still leaves me a gap to allow easy movement around the room. It has absolutely no scenery, but it extends the main line by seven feet and a nice s-curve.
More electrical work, using a neat inset switch-mounting device which is almost impossible to get. For some reason, the website is not well maintained, but if you can actually place an order, the part is really useful. It mounts in a 1-1/2″ hole, which is the right size to pull the wiring through and mount the swich (I use a clothespin to keep the wire loop from falling back through while I’m soldering the switch).
The device I refer to is called the T-cup, and it’s available on line direct. I haven’t seen it stocked by anybody.
And today I finished four #7 turnouts. I have a bad habit of building through a turnout, getting as far as installing the frog and leaving the innards unfinished while I lay more straight rail. So I had two turnouts at the north end of Conway Springs and the two mainline turnouts at Durand that I finished. The ones at Durand represent the end of the line so far, so I was in no hurry to get them completed. Same with the ones at Conway, which are out on the beginning of the Larned line. Model-wise, these turnouts lead back to my hidden yard, so I do have some incentive to get those completed also. It’s now possible to run under power from one end of module 1 to the other end of module 3, then all the way through modules 4 through 6, through the stock siding at Sallyards. The wiring of other modules is under way. Memo to self: try harder to do the jumpers from the power feeds to the rail while the module is free-standing, before it gets built into the layout and becomes easier to crawl under it than to turn it over. I use a crawler stool made for automotive use, so it’s not too bad. The height of the layout is such that I can’t kneel on the floor and reach the underside of the modules (too high), which is good because the knees aren’t suitable for being on the vinyl tile floor any more anyway.
Reference the turnouts, I use CV turnout tie strips, Micro Engineering weathered rail, and Proto87 Stores frogs and points. The tie strips can be cut through to make curved turnouts, of which I have a lot.
Ron Merrick
