Track Laying
My supplies of track arrived late last week, so much of the last few days has been spent busily laying track.
It’s interesting to note that almost every article you read about layouts tells you how to ballast the track but none of them ever describe the process of laying the track. Okay, so there’s articles about constructing your own track, but nothing on the everyday process of laying flexible track. It leaves you feeling that laying a couple of points and a few lengths of flexi-track is so easy it’s not worth mentioning.
At first sight it is an easy job. Put a couple of points down, cut a length of track to length and join them together, and pin the lot down.Then just carry on around the board until it’s all done. Easy.
Until you start doing it for real. There’s holes for point motors to be made and dropper wires to attach (for power feeds) and route through the baseboard. And then there’s bits of flexi-track that need to be joined on a curve in such a way that some of your stock can go over the join without derailing.
Okay, I’m not saying any of this is an impossible task - it’s not once you’ve got the basic rules and a bit of practice - but why do those ‘in the know’ not give us ‘newbies’ some pointers?
But that’s enough whining for one day. When I’ve picked up enough skills to describe how to do it without misleading you too much I’ll put an article up on here with some of my methods. Until then I’m off to run some trains - even if it does mean pushing them by hand because I’ve yet to attach any dropper wires.