The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[OldEastRR]

What does NFSW mean?

[DKS]

What does NFSW mean?

Not Safe For Work (in other words, stuff you wouldn't want your boss seeing over your shoulder, like pron)

[Jbub]

This gave me a good chuckle. Thanks for making my day

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Not Safe For Work (in other words, stuff you wouldn't want your boss seeing over your shoulder, like pron)

Not Safe For Wusses too.

I'm glad this has some legs.

[Lemosteam]

I'm glad this has some legs.

attachimg=1

CENSORED

[wm3798]

Well!

[DKS]

(Attachment Link)

Curious... artwork representing the female buttocks gets banished to the Crew Lounge, but a photograph of same gets a pass...

Just sayin'. (Not that I'm complaining, mind...) 

[davefoxx]

The adhesive and lightweight spackling have set up, so it's time to start sanding the grade to straighten the whoop-de-doos.  Not wanting to make matters worse, I came up with the idea of clamping two straight pieces of wood to each side of the foam inclines.  This allowed me to sand the unevenness out of the grade where two pieces of incline met.  I just sanded the raised area of the foam incline down to the wood pieces, which kept me from sanding a divot into the subroadbed or from making it unlevel side to side.  This worked great; it's much straighter now!



Now, I have to work on the transitions from flat to the 4% grade at the top and the bottom of the grade.

DFF

[pdx1955]

Question for you Dave... I noticed that you use lightweight spackling for your go-to for smoothing transitions and other scenic elements with foam. I had bought earlier a bucket of this and I'm finding I have to fight with it to smooth out a lot more than with a wetter product such as joint compound. It just tends to ball up and not stick as much as I would expect. You make it look easy, so do you do anything first like prewetting or is just a manner of getting enough down at once?

[davefoxx]

Question for you Dave... I noticed that you use lightweight spackling for your go-to for smoothing transitions and other scenic elements with foam. I had bought earlier a bucket of this and I'm finding I have to fight with it to smooth out a lot more than with a wetter product such as joint compound. It just tends to ball up and not stick as much as I would expect. You make it look easy, so do you do anything first like prewetting or is just a manner of getting enough down at once?

Peter,

Just keep working it, and it will stick.  Sometimes, it helps to rough up the foam with sandpaper to give it a tooth.  I've also been known to get a liberal coat of lightweight spackling down, not worrying about it being perfectly smooth, and then coming back with a quick sanding and a light second coat to smooth it out.

For example, this afternoon, I was working on the transition of the subroadbed from level to the 4% incline on the branch.  I slapped down a 6" wide layer of spackling (up to 1/8" thick) to fill the transition and walked away.  Once dry, I'll sand it and lay on another coat or two, as necessary to build up a smooth vertical easement.

Hope this helps,
DFF

[davefoxx]

Not exciting stuff, but here's an update.

1) I had a turnout with geometry that has bothered me since the day it was installed.  In the following picture, it's the turnout to the left of the track with the pushpins.  On the diverging route, it's got that short section of straight track just beyond the frog, preventing a smooth transition into the curve (which is the mainline) and creating a spot where the mainline tracks' centerline is awkwardly narrowed.



So, since I have become much more comfortable hacking up turnouts, I pulled up the track and cut this piece out of the turnout, which eliminates that straight section:



Much better.  I also replaced the track in the curve around the corner to the next turnout, which eliminated a track joint that was created when I double tracked the layout.  That joint had become a slight issue.  Nothing was derailing, but cars were sometimes rocking through that joint.  I checked the gauge and it was narrow.  So, that joint has been eliminated, and the curved track is much closer to parallel with the inside track which is the other mainline track:



2) I'm still slowly working on the transitions from level to the 4% incline on the branch at the top and the bottom of the hill.  By the way, these photos shows the improvement in clearance.  I should have no problem with a trestle that will clear the double track at a shallow angle now.  You can see that I even added a 1" piece of foam to the other side of the tracks to raise up that side to match.  I just need to use the power sander to grind it back to the hill profile:

BEFORE:



AFTER:



DFF

[narrowminded]

Very nice and the precision you're famous for.

[Bendtracker1]

Nice chop job on that turnout Dave!

[DKS]

Most excellent.

[Point353]

Not exciting stuff, but here's an update.

1) I had a turnout with geometry that has bothered me since the day it was installed.  In the following picture, it's the turnout to the left of the track with the pushpins.  On the diverging route, it's got that short section of straight track just beyond the frog, preventing a smooth transition into the curve (which is the mainline) and creating a spot where the mainline tracks' centerline is awkwardly narrowed.



So, since I have become much more comfortable hacking up turnouts, I pulled up the track and cut this piece out of the turnout, which eliminates that straight section:



Much better.  I also replaced the track in the curve around the corner to the next turnout, which eliminated a track joint that was created when I double tracked the layout.  That joint had become a slight issue.  Nothing was derailing, but cars were sometimes rocking through that joint.  I checked the gauge and it was narrow.  So, that joint has been eliminated, and the curved track is much closer to parallel with the inside track which is the other mainline track:



DFF

The "after" version resembles one of the lead ladder 'c' type turnouts from the ME ladder track system:
http://www.crusaderrail.com/pubs/mec_temp_14-714.pdf