Testing, testing 123...

Okay, so I picked up all my stuff from the local pusher and got around to making a test section to try some of the hand lay techniques from the web.

Everything works! I attached the N scale cork roadbed down onto the plywood with wood glue, then after drying, attached the ties to the cork with Mod Podge. This is pretty much the same thing as acrylic matte medium, without the price tag. 

I stained the ties with washes made from PollyScale Railroad Tie Brown, Grimy Black and SP Light Grey. Then I attached the rail using contact cement and ran a soldering iron along the rails to heat the cement and get it to set. The small metal pieces on the wood are the N scale track guages for gauging the rail. 

The white plastic jig you see in front is for making tie strips. It's two sheets of .040" stryene with a .080 x.125 strip on the back and .040 x .100 spacers between the ties. As you can see, I have another strip of ties already in the jig, ready for tape. 

The next project is to make a test jig for my turnouts to make sure they work.

Here we go...  This is the track plan I've put together for my Ferrocarril de Tropico. First is the lower level, which will have a port and the main city, Santa Barbara.

In the upper left corner is the helix up to the upper level. In the bottom left is my computer desk and workbench.

The plan shows the yard, sugar mill, and the port of Puerto Cortes. One operator will handle switching at the port itself. The branch to the port will work under the city to reach the yard at Santa Barbara.

Here is the upper level..

When the trains come out of the helix, they reach Santa Lucia, when the the Alcoa plant will be. There's also a sugar cane loading area, livestock and banana dock here. Into mountain, the train pops out at La Parada de Bandera, This is a tourist stop and also has a banana loading dock here also. Continuing on, we reach San Marcos, which has a sugar cane loading, fuel oil dist and banana loading dock. Also found here is the Tropico Rum distillery. once we leave here, the last town on the modeled railroad is Rabinal. This is the terminus for the sugar cane train and also has a fuel oil dealer, cigar factory, plywood mill and packing plant. Trains continuing from here go to the upper staging at El Chol.

Track materials arrive on Weds, so I plan to start construction this week. Pictures will be on-line once I start.

Well, I've got my track plan pretty much figured out. I hope to start laying track in the next couple of weeks. But I need to get off my duff and clean out more room in my train room.

One thing I can happily say is I have figured out what rolling stock I need and how many. So I've decided to start working on masters for casting most of them. About the only cars I don't need a fleet of are the stock cars. But I need alot of the others. So I'll get to work on that the weekend. And if anyone is reading this and really cares, I'll have extras more than likely that I'll be selling via e-bay. I'll post up here when I'm ready..