I jumped ship to Atlas Code 55

[Greyryder]

And the Frogs expand faster than Magic Water.   

You laugh but that s%$t was expanding so fast it nearly flooded my basement.  I nearly had to call in sick and work on the layout all day . . .

Erik

Remember, freeze it with fire extinguishers, and the military will be there shortly, to transport it to anarctica. ;D

I'd love to switch over to Atlas code 55. I'm still on code 80, and it's starting to look obnoxious, to me. It's just not in the budget, right now. :'(

[DKS]

Then again, if it's "Permanent", why not glue EVERYTHING down!

This is what I do, mostly because it's very difficult to clean a layout--particularly with a vacuum--if things are not very well attached (save for items deliberately made removable, which of course are removed prior to cleaning).

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It's just tough to beat this:

[DKS]

It's just tough to beat this color:

What, no number boards...?

[Bob Bufkin]

Alright, already, I'm getting a headache looking at all those Conrail easter egg diesels.

[Erik W]

Here are some photos of my slide switch turnout throws.  They are dual purpose.  They power the frog and manually throw and hold the switch points.  I like them better than Caboose Industries ground throws since they are significantly smaller.  They work flawlessly.  As seen in the last photo, they also work with hand laid turnouts.











Erik

[chuck geiger]

Cancel that CI - Ground throw order Chuck - I goin' toggle switch - That is freakin' awesome.

[Pomperaugrr]

Very nice use of the slide switches.

[wm3798]

Your ballast is Bangin' Erik...  Makes Ed's look like peanut butter...

Lee

[Hyperion]

The slide switch throw is great, but with all that touching on the throw how do you hide the Cheetos dust?

[Dave V]

Well now...

Been thinking about going 55 myself.  And now that I see those slide switches, I'd be all over it.

Well done, Erik.

[John]

The only thing you have to watch with the ground throws is that you don't get any ballast into them .. so you need to vacuum every once in a while .

[ljudice]

Well thanks for the encouragement!

Update - I ordered a bunch of stuff from BLW. Seems to be in the occassional BLW blackhole though - is Pete OK? Usually my orders arrive the next day.

So I treked to the LHS - the Model Railroad Shop in Piscataway, NJ - which you may know is the oldest and one of the largest train stores in the US. Surprisingly - they had 1 #7 switch and 2 #5 switches in stock. Never even had any #10's - they said no call for them.  Got some great advice though on soldering techniques for the smaller railhead, so overall glad I went.

Question for Eric - is there a particular slide switch you need for this technique? I imagine you need just enough - but not too much throw length.

Question for everyone - power the frogs or leave them alone?  I am DC right now, going to DCC soon.

Lou

[wm3798]

I've got my mainline turnouts powered, but most of the industry switches are not.  I will ultimately power them all.  Depending on the wheel base of your engines it's generally not a problem, but there are a few spots where stalls are problematic.

These are mostly on the temporary section.  When I get around to finishing it all, everything will be live.

Lee

[Hyperion]

I placed a track order with BLW a couple weeks ago.  Took 10 days to ship.  It was a fairly large order though, so I imagine they ordered it from their supplier.