Sugarwood Blog

Over the past week and holiday, I was able to complete laying the track for the Sugarwood Yard and I started laying the sub-roadbed to complete the east end of Sugarwood Siding.

There is not a whole lot to be said about laying the track in the yard it is pretty straight forward. Thought I did want the yard to look like it has been around for a while so I did not use a straight edge to lay the yard perfectly straight, as can be seen in the two photos below.

To connect the east end of Sugarwood Siding I decided to go with the spline roadbed approach and I find it easier and faster than I thought. I am using 1/8” x 1/8” basswood glued to the foam. I have been surprised that how fast the glue dries, about thirty minutes after laying a spline I can remove the pins and lay another spline. Towards the upper center of the top photo and left center of the bottom photo, the east end of Sugarwood siding can be seen.

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.

Work on the layout proceeded a bit slower this week.

I having been working on Sugarwood Siding and had to build the two industry turnouts for McFoods and Olie’s Cold Storage. These two turnouts are now installed and connected to the west end of Sugarwood Siding.

I am stilling deciding on just how to connect the east end of the siding and the industry tracks.

My current thinking is to use 1/8-inch x 1/8-inch strips and take the spline roadbed approach. Another approach I am considering is to create a template and cut it out of a plank of basswood.

The benefit of the plank and template is that most of the work could be done at my workbench, the reason I am using 1/8-inch basswood/plywood for my roadbed, but I think there would be a lot of waste using the plank and template. I will have to think a bit more.

In the meantime, maybe I will work on the yard tracks.

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.

Sorry I didn’t get a blog posted last week.

The events of the week before, a lose neutral on the electric company side of the meter to our house, caused a lot of stress. We lost several surge protector power bars, a transformer on the furnace and a transformer to our alarm system. With the resolution of the power issue, life returned to the new normal and with the stress relieved my diverticulitis acted up and as a result I spent Friday before last and that weekend with a fever and pain in my gut. Not to worry, my wife insisted that I get tested for COVID and as expected the test came back negative.

That week, I did manage to install all five turnouts frog switches and their point pulls. I chose to go with crank type throw. This allowed me to have all the turnouts aligned to the straight route with the nobs pushed in and the diverging route when the nobs are pulled out.

Here are the parts that make up the switch and pulls. The green parts are 3D printed by a friend of mine.

This is a DPDT slide switch that flush mounts. Another friend of mine directed me too.

The assembled switch.

Under the layout the assembly looks like this.

A crank and sleeve ready to be installed. Once the sleeve is installed the crank in installed then bent and connected to the slide switch.

Installing the sleeve. A drop of Superglue as the sleeve is pushed in to hold the sleeve in place.

Installed Top

And Bottom all wired and installed.

So that was the end of last week.

This past week I completed the main line and installed east Sugarwood Siding turnout.

Trains Roll

Next step is to complete Sugarwood Siding and added Olie’s Cold Storage and McFoods sidings, then finish the yard track and on to scenery.

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.

This week has been full of interesting things.

From power issues in the house to actually getting trains running, oh yea, there was Canada Day On July 1st.

I have the turnout to the Service/RIP track in and functioning as it should. I am now working on the yard ladder. Then the entrance to the yard then the sidings west turnout. With those working in can turn my attention to building the two turnouts for McFoods and Olie’s Cold Storage and then laying the rest of the track for this area.

Here are a few pictures, I hope to have a video and an explanation of installing the turnouts next week.

Join the Service/RIP turnout to the yard ladder

Facia Control Nob

Slide switch that routes power to the frog

The trowbar

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.

I have finished the backdrop prep and it is painted!

Prep complete

Backdrop done

And the earth coat

My plan? My track plan is on my website Sugarwood.Info and I am happy with my track plan. There is a small yard, seven industries, staging and a town scene. I have added the track plan to JMRI Operations and run many virtual trains, I think it will work.

The Sugarwood is a regional privately owned railroad. I originally planned on running 2 trains.
• The Transfer – This train runs from a nearby Union Pacific yard (Storage Yard) to the Sugarwood yard and back to the Union Pacific yard, bring in cars for the local industries and returning with outbound cars. In practice I would build the train on the staging track and the train would run from staging to Sugarwood yard and back to staging. This train is usually 4 to 6 cars.

• The Local - Starts from the Sugarwood yard and builds a train the switch the industries on the layout. This train’s size depends on the industries to be switched but no more than 5 cars.

Using JMRI Operations I noticed some things with the way cars flow on and off the layout.
1. I notice cars going from Storage yard to Sugarwood yard and back to Storage yard with out going to an industry.

2. Cars that do not have any business coming to Sugarwood

3. Several car types I have and would like to see on the layout.
I will read up on JMRI Operations and report on items 1 and 2 when I start operating.

Item 3 however I have figured how to handle. I created a virtual city with virtual industries and virtual train, The Greenville Turn.

Greenville is a city east from Sugarwood. I currently have three industries there that handle the cars I want to see on the layout. Part of the “Locals” job is the assemble the Greenville Turn on Sugarwood Yard 1 track. Also break down the Greenville Turn. So in a way the Yard 1 track is like a visible staging track. I will give more details in a later post.

So now, on to track and my technique.

In my second post Bright sunny days then rain! I showed some hand laid track section I started in preparation for this weekend, even though I did not know the actual I would be installing them on the layout. Well here are the first two pieces fixed to the layout. Next step is to tie them together.

Sugarwood siding and Yard entry.

Sugarwood Yard.

The rest of the siding and the two industries, McFoods and Olie’s Cold Storage.

I hand lay the code 70 rail on 1/8 inch sub-roadbed (basswood or birch plywood the yard piece can be seen in the above photo) this way in can work at the work bench and not standing against the layout.

Once I get this section’s track installed and tested, I can move on to the other three modules. That will be a little while, for now I have several things to do and see if this technique works or if I have to start over.

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.