November 13th, 2013

As I'm sitting home today sick as can be, I figured it was time to update the website. As it has been most all this year on the railroad, I'm going at a slow but steady pace as I get closer to finishing the main line and laying that coveted "golden spike". I'll keep things short and let the pictures do the talking.
Put in the curved turnout at the north end of Mammoth, got the roadbed finished to almost the yard, and have started gluing down ties for some of the turnouts in the yard. I also temporarily set up some track and ran a train south from the helix to just before the yard. Yeah, I should just get it glued down and wire it up, but my interests have been on the yard as of late. I'm sure I'll jump on it fast when I get enough yard tracks done to run a train. I'm hoping that will happen before xmas, fingers crossed!

Getting the MDF cut out to start on the yard trackage.

All cut out and screwed down.

Time to tie in the spline.

Getting that last piece of spline glued in. Note the MDF is cut out and the spline is resting against it.

Drawing track lines. The yard lead is the line at the left.

Looking from lower right, Main 2 is on the outside, Main 1 is middle, yard lead is left. Main 2 is a 23" to 22" radius, Main 1 is a 22" to 21" radius, and the yard lead is a constant 20" radius curve.

Main lines on the right, Arrival/departure tracks at center.

Looking at the other end of the yard, the A/D tracks are right at the joint with the swing bridge.

Laser light makes the track lines prefectly straight.

All lines drawn for the classification tracks. 9 in total.

Other end. It's a small yard, each track holds only 11 standard 50' boxcars.

To get the MDF even with the spline, I had to do some "cookie cutter" benchwork and raise the subroadbed 3/8" of an inch.

Raised up

Homasote is glued in where I will be hand laying the turnouts.

Gluing down the roadbed for the yard lead.

The start of the yard! Ties for the A/D tracks, all #8 turnouts.

Ties glued down for the north end of Mammoth.

Gluing down the roadbed for the siding at Mammoth. The helix is just to the right.

Cardboard cut out for super elevation.

Looking through the helix.

Outside rail spiked down and Main track glued down.

And on to the siding track.

Started wiring the track at Mammoth.

Running an autorack train through the curved turnout.

Cut out the spline over Rock Creek and installed the aluminum channel that will support the bridge.

Close up. The aluminum bar sits on a support which holds it at the height of the roadbed. The outside pieces of masonite keep it centered.

Gluing down the EZ Mat. For the lower level, I went with a thinner size than I did on the upper level, since I'm not too happy with how the track works on the thicker size.

I topped the thinner EZ Mat with sheet cork that comes in rolls found at Michael's craft store. I like how the track sits on the cork and it is far easier to sand the edges at a slope than the EZ Mat. I also get the sound deadening qualities of the rubber base of the EZ Mat on the bottom.

Here is the (almost) completed curved turnout at the north end of Mammoth. This thing gave me fits the whole time, but I finally got it to work great with my single axle Frontrunner flat cars. Inside curve is a 23" radius, outside curve is around a 24" with the easement starting about where the supports for the tortoise are.

Looking through the helix again, note the easement and the super elevation.

Setting up the temporary track on the siding.

More temporary track taped down.

Roadbed and track stop just to the right of the mock-up hill. Need to get the roadbed done on this last little section, then I'll glue the track down and wire it up. Getting close to that "golden spike"!

I'll end this update with a picture of a 30 car stack train in the future Rock Creek Canyon area.

All material on The Owens Valley Subdivision website is Copyright 2007-2013 by Michael Stoner. None of the material (including text and photographs) on this web site may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission.