Page 18 - July August 1998
P. 18

   used the appropriate Peco rail joiners.
Turnouts were to be actuated from below the baseboard. Once the positions of each tie bar was known accurately, a 3/8" hole was drilled through the baseboard for the operating mechanism.
All the track was glued in place - there are no pins or spikes. A thin bead of Evostik impact adhesive was run along the plastic web of the flextrack under each rail and the track carefully placed. A long straight- edge may be used to ensure arrow- straight track as shown in the photo at the head of this article. Bob also uses a length of aluminium extrusion intended as support for the brackets in a kitchen shelving system. This just fits between the rail heads and helps hold everything straight. Simple gauges were made from styrene sheet to ensure that the appropri- ate tracks were parallel. Sighting along the track also helped identify any mis- alignment - the Evostik allows for some adjustments before it dries. When the position of the track was correct, it was pressed down firmly using a small piece of softwood run along the rails. Once the glue has dried the track is very stable. The modules have been stored in a shed over one Winter/Summer with no ill effects.
An area requiring special attention was where the tracks cross the joint between the two modules. They were laid with the two modules clamped together and aligned by the dowels described in the previous article. Continuous track was laid across the joint and each rail was soldered to two 3/4” no. 4 brass countersink wood screws, one each side of the joint. The rail
 was then cut using a razor saw. When all tracklaying tasks were complete, the ties (sleepers) which had been removed so that rail joiners could be fitted were replaced. Individual replacement ties were cut from a length of flex track and glued in place. This step is often forgotten, but is essential for realistic, convincing track. The feeds to the various rails were con- nected by fine wires. 15 Amp fuse wire is suitable for this. As shown in fig 10, the wires were soldered to 5/8” no. 4 brass woodscrews below the baseboard. More robust flexible wires were used to connect from the screws to the rest of the layout. Bob solders the feed wires to the bottom of the rails as shown in fig 10. This is easy if they are soldered before the track is laid. However, it is also possible to add them after track laying if necessary. A
small (3mm) right angle bend is made in the upper end of the wire. This is heavily tinned - to the extent of leaving excess solder on the end of the wire. Some non-corrosive flux is applied and the
  An underside view of the baseboard showing how the wire and tubes used to operate the points can be curved if necessary. Also visi- ble is one of the drop-down flaps used for the mainline magnets.
  tinned feed wire is then held in place under the flange using fine pliers. The sol- dering iron is held at the junction between the wire and the rail so that both are heated and the solder on the wire melts - joining it to the rail. This must be done quickly using a powerful solder- ing iron to avoid melting the plastic ties. This “Solder reflow” approach results in a feed which is invisible once the track is ballasted. However, it takes skill and con- fidence in your soldering to do this (more than I have!). An alternative is to solder the fuse wire to the outside of the rail as shown in fig 10. It is not very noticeable and the thin wire is big improvement on the often-seen approach of soldering thick wire direct to the rails
Point Operation
A mechanical method was chosen to avoid the expense of point motors/power supplies and their potential for failure at an exhibition. Wire-in-tube and toggle switches were used as shown in Fig 8, based on the system used on “Aldridge Indiana”. The toggle switches move the point blades and also change the frog
  18 ROUNDHOUSE
 Tom Winlow























































































   16   17   18   19   20