Conrail Windsor St Yard (York PA) Engineering Report

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Not very exciting, but last night I screwed the hinge that holds the end of the engine terminal back in. I also realized that to properly close the gap there up, I have to elevate the end of that section until it's way beyond level. Lee, was that a design feature of the original?

[davefoxx]

That sure doesn't sound right to me, Ed.  If you can't adjust the hinge, I'd recommend losing it and just screwing a cleat underneath to support and line everything up.

DFF

[wm3798]

On the original installation, I set the hinge and leveled the platform, THEN I installed track right across the hinge point, and ballasted it in tight.


Like so.


Then I Dremelled across the hingepoint at an angle, so the lifty part would open clear of the fixed part.


Finally, I used a razor saw to clean up the remaining ties and glued ballast. 


And Voila!

What you're probably seeing is the angled cut and the resultant gap made by the dremel disc.  The gap was never tight, there was at least a 1/16th" there for slop/expansion etc.  Except for the switching lead, shown below with the BL-2 on it, and the adjacent track with the coal train, I didn't have to do anything to compensate for the cuts.



On those two tracks I provided a guard rail on one side to prevent wheels from crawling out the gap as they navigated the steep angle of the cut in the curve.  It worked pretty well even when switching cuts of cars back and forth.

Unless you want to use the hinge to access something, I would recommend simply installing the section permanently and re-laying the track across the joint.
Lee

[wm3798]

Here's the hinge.  I used a section of piano hinge with wood screws.  The flip down was hardly ever used, so there shouldn't have been much play in it, but it's possible that the wood screw holes might have worked themselves into a tizzy during deconstruction...

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think I'm going to end up replacing the hinge with some wood, since it doesn't have to fold.

In other news, I'm reposting this from weekend update.


After spending some time at the Timonium show today I was inspired to get working on the yard. So that's what I did.

My first priority was getting some of the tracks repaired, which I achieved.

It looks like I'm making good progress in this photo...



But not so much in this one.



That then allowed me to do some work under the layout to add a set of Kato unitrack plugs (it's what I've used for the other layout too) to connect in a DCC system or an analog throttle. This allowed me to run some interloping light power back and forth to try out the repaired tracks.

The Chessie visitors posed with some CR power at the north end of the yard. The Chessie power is sitting on the utility track, and the CR engines are on one of the A/D tracks. 

[wm3798]

Sorry I didn't cut the rails more cleanly!

If you're going to run Chessie on it, I might have to add a surcharge...

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lol, I did that just for your benefit.

No worries about the cuts. Code 55 joiners are a bitch no matter what, and it's nothing a few passes of a file don't fix.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This is a momentous occasion.

Last night, Steve K came over and helped me finish up the last track replacement.



Having those tracks in has allowed me to pose some scenes like this:



What you see there is the MP15 coupled up to the cars for Spring Grove, heading out of town on WHYK-40, the local to the Spring Grove PA PH Glatfelter paper mill. The next track has a couple building products cars headed to Stewartstown PA via Conrail local WHYK-10 and then the picturesque Stewartstown Railroad.

The closest track holds a couple door and a half cars, the preferred conveyances for the Caterpillar warehouse served by the WHYK-20 local.

As Steve was working on the tracks, I replaced the hinge on the drop leaf with another riser and a pair of angle brackets. That brings it all up much closer without needing the grade.

[mu26aeh]

Speaking of Spring Grove and PH Gladfelter, are you planning on modeling any of that, or is that off layout staging etc ?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I wasn't really planning on it. The way the space is, I couldn't do it justice, and I'd have to model it all the way at the end of a branchline that needs to end in staging, which means it can't be along the "main".

[Rich_S]

Then I Dremelled across the hingepoint at an angle, so the lifty part would open clear of the fixed part.

Lee,
   I know this is water over the dam now, but I do not understand why you cut the track at a angle when the shelf folded down? Would not a straight cut have worked since the movable part was moving away from the stationary part?

 

 

[Rich_S]

What you see there is the MP15 coupled up to the cars for Spring Grove, heading out of town on WHYK-40, the local to the Spring Grove PA PH Glatfelter paper mill. The next track has a couple building products cars headed to Stewartstown PA via Conrail local WHYK-10 and then the picturesque Stewartstown Railroad.

Ed, looking good two thumbs up 

[wm3798]

Lee,
   I know this is water over the dam now, but I do not understand why you cut the track at a angle when the shelf folded down? Would not a straight cut have worked since the movable part was moving away from the stationary part?

At the end of the day I suppose it didn't matter, but I figured the angle would work better.  Also, an obvious point was that with the dremel, it would be impossible to do a true vertical, so I might as well rake it to minimize the appearance from the primary viewing angle.

Lee

[davefoxx]

I would have used a razor saw and kept the gaps as small as possible, but, as those of us who operated on Lee's layout know, those gaps never caused us a problem.  But, the rest of Lee's trackwork?  Well, that's another story.   

[Rich_S]

At the end of the day I suppose it didn't matter, but I figured the angle would work better.  Also, an obvious point was that with the dremel, it would be impossible to do a true vertical, so I might as well rake it to minimize the appearance from the primary viewing angle.

Lee

Without hyjacking Ed's thread  , I completely understand the Dremel dilemma