Street Track and Overhead Cleaning Part 1 ~ What I'm Using.

The BEST way to keep track and overhead clean is to simply run your trains! But oftentimes we need a little extra help to get to that point first.

After spending years trying everything to clean track and overhead, I've seem to have finally settled into a pretty good technique.

As you can imagine, cleaning track under the overhead wires can be quite challenging. But clean track and overhead is imperative for smooth operation. So what to do?

I used to reach under the overhead with a Bright Boy track cleaning pad. But this has proven to be rather destructive, my elbow inevitably bumps a line pole somewhere, slightly bending it enough for the span wire to sag. Unsightly!  And with more and more delicate details being added to the layout, well, my big ol' clumsy paw is just too much. The city now has ordinances against such practice!

The Bright Boy is also too abrasive. It scrapes the paint from the streets revealing the bright white plaster underneath, ruining the realism of the scene. (If I had to do it over again, I would add a grey tint while mixing the paving material (Durham's Water Putty) so if it does chip, it would still have the street color). So at some point I'm going to need to do some touchup painting on the streets- with the overhead in place!

So- except for extreme situations, the Brightboy is out!

So what to do then? Well, one of the benefits of being a member of the Southern California Traction Club are members who have experience of such things.  John McWhirter for one has a great way of cleaning the clubs track and overhead which I have adopted for my own layout:

Double Headed Cotton Swabs. These are perfect for reaching through the overhead to clean the rails. The cotton heads are tightly wound so I'm able to scrub the track without them getting all fuzzed up like Q-Tips do.

Apply drops of the cleaning solution to the ends of the swab for cleaning rails and then apply drops to the sides of the swab to clean the contact wires.

The swabs fit nicely in the girder channel scrubbing the contact surface well.

Slide the side of the swab to clean the contact wire. I'll pinch the wire between my thumb and swab for extra tough spots.

I picked these up at a (now defunct) electronics store, but they are readily available on line. They come in packs of 100 for heap cheap.

For the cleaning solution, DeoxIT works very well for me and seems to be widely available.  Many model train manufacturers also offer track cleaning solutions. A nice property of these contact cleaners are that the solution conducts electricity!

Which brings us to- Wet VS Dry track and overhead. But I'm out of time right now so I'm going to end this here and tackle this subject and the cleaning process with the next post.

Yes sir! Wet VS Dry contact surfaces.

Dandy

Click here for part 2

Turnouts Turnouting

 These were snap switches for so long that its actually nice to watch them throw in a more prototypical fashion:

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Yes sir! 

Nice to watch.

Dandy

The Rise and Fall of Tarnation

Construction Begins in Earnest on the Oil Drilling Module, but then Stalls because the Fates had Different Plans!

The big layout of the Southern California Traction Club is a magnificent layout with its City quarter, Suburban quarter, Industrial quarter, and Country quarter. Naturally I want to build some modules for the layout too. So I designed a few, then decided to start in on this one first for the Industrial quarter.

Remember this building?:

The Tarnation Supply Co. warehouse was the first structure that I built for the module. Its location can be seen on the plan and historical photo.

Then construction began on the module:

The module was built to regular HO modular standards: 1x3s with 2'x4' Homasote.

Cork roadbed glued and pinned into place.

The turnout was located first since its placement is critical having to fit between tanks and avoiding having its frog in the road crossing.

SCTC club member George Jones rasping the cork so as to bring the siding track below grade.

It is prototypical practice to have the sidings below grade. One of the reasons is so that cars sitting on the siding won't accidentally roll onto the mainline.

After the flex track was installed, the next step was to locate the main road. Thin strips of wood (paint stirrers) were used as forms for the road. I then mixed approximately a 50/50 mix of sifted gravel and Durhams water putty and spread it into the form.

After the mixture had set up a bit but was still soft, I used a vehicle to imprint some ruts in the road.

A small glimpse of what could have been. 

Here is a test shot I took to see how things were looking. But that was as far as work ever progressed on the module. The module has become a victim of progress.

The City Quarter of the Southern California Traction Club by far attracts the most attention and comments. Visitors are always crowded around the City marveling at the cars navigating through the steep canyons of the tall buildings. It was decided to extract the City Quarter from the main layout and expand on it making it a layout all in itself. It has been exhibited at a few shows now with great success. I'll explain more in a future post, but its proven to have been a very good direction for the club to grow.

So I don't know what the future of the module is. Besides the club moving into a new direction, there are exciting new projects in the works that have now captured my imagination and enthusiasm.

Too bad. This module would have been spectacular. Yes sir. It would have been spectacular.

Dandy

Grand Union Intersection Trackwork Complete!

The rails are in. The turnout machines are hooked up. The bugs worked out (for the most part). And the streets are paved. Lets watch the McWhirtagig battery powered test car negotiate the entire intersection:

So with that done, work on the overhead wires may now commence. Yes sir! Work on the overhead wires may now commence!

Dandy

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3, Testing!

Working out all the kinks in the track before the overhead goes up.

Making adjustments to the track after the overhead is installed would prove to be very difficult. Since trolley track usually isn't electrically insulated for two rail operation, testing the trackwork before the overhead is installed requires some other arrangement.  Southern California Traction Club member John McWhirter built a pretty darn nifty battery powered car that will do just that.  I was able to borrow that car to test out the track on my home layout, especially that intersection. Sure enough, it found some sections of track that needed some attention:

Thank you John for the use of your car (which we here at the Dan D.Sparks Plywood Development and Transportation Co. car shops have christened the "McWhirtagig"). It has been very beneficial toward achieving our goal of "0 derailments" operation. Now, back to testing and adjusting. Yes sir! Back to testing and adjusting.

Dandy

Paving the Way

Pouring the Streets and Sidewalks. 

Extensive testing of the track is essential before its covered with street paving. Especially that intersection. Making revisions to the track would be most difficult when its buried in plaster. Plus its fun to just run the cars around too!

It seems logical to me to pour the sidewalks first. I used angle stock that was the thickness I wanted the sidewalks to be. Where the sidewalks curve at the corners I cut slots in the angle stock so that it could bend (sorry about the dark photo). Then the angle stock is spiked down to create a trough to pour the plaster into. 

I used lightweight hydrocal, but if I was to do it again, I would use Durhams water putty. 

Originally designed for DC operation, the track is cut into electrical blocks. In the photo above you can see where the wires come up from under the layout and soldered onto each rail of each block. That also has to be tested for electrical continuity before being buried in the plaster.

 Once the sidewalks were in and the track passed inspection, I started in on the streets. Stripwood equal to the height of the rails were glued against the sidewalks (where the gutter would be). Then plaster could be be poured in between. The stripwood and rail would be used as a guide for a paint scraper to smooth out the plaster. I stuffed thick string into the flangeways to keep the plaster out, but I think I could have just masked if off with tape.

Interestingly, all the spikes rusted and soaked through the plaster. But I don't think the strength of the spikes were compromised. Besides, everything is now held firmly in place by the plaster. Derailments should be nonexistent since the whole layout is basically a rerailer!

Finally I sanded down the all the streets and sidewalks with a block sander to make it all nice and smooth. I don't want any pour marks showing. I also scribed expansion joints in the sidewalks before the plaster got too hard.

I can't get over how different the layout looks now. It's all looks so neat and tidy. Now I have got to get some paint on it. Right now it looks like a winter wonderland. Yes sir! It looks like a downright winter wonderland!

Dandy

Gandy Dancing in the Streets

Layin' Track 

Originally the layout was built 4 feet by 4 feet. But the curves proved too tight, the streets were too tight, the city blocks too small, the sidewalk corners had to curve to clear the intersection tracks... it just wasn't working. But just by adding another 6" to each side of the layout made all the difference in the world. So the intersection was cut out of the old cramped layout and then spliced into the spacious real estate of the new 4'6"x4'6" layout. 

Then, the mainline finally began advancing forward. Soon it made a right turn, then another right, and maybe even another! Then reconnected to the intersection. Route 1 is in baby! So you know what that means...

Time to put a car on the track and take her for a spin! Yeah, sure its "roundy roundy". But after all this time were finally rolling! I'll take "roundy roundy" over "display, display" any day. And when it does finally get old, well...

With the mainline continually advancing forward it wasn't long until all four blocks were in. Now the cars can dance the "Cloverleaf", the "Double Untwisted Figure 8s", or even 4 simultaneous "Roundy Roundys" and everything in between!

Pretty neat, eh? Yes sir! Pretty darn neat!

Dandy

Yous Young Punks Has it Easy!

Building a Grand Junction Intersection is a lot easier these days than it was when I was a kid.

Here are some old construction photos from that hot summer way back in 1984 when I built that intersection:

 Each rail had to be cut and shaped and then spiked into place. Checked with a track gauge. Adjustments made. Checked again. And then tested with a car.

Running rail is Code 83 and the simulated channel rail is Code 70. They were spaced with a straight pin and spiked together with track spikes.

Fortunately, even though this represents some of the very first track I ever hand laid, careful construction and the liberal use of the NMRA track gauge, the trackwork holds up to this day (some 30 freakin' years later!).

But now!:

Building such intricate track work has become a lot easier now with premade castings from such suppliers as Custom Traxx and Proto87.

Andy Reichert was able to piece this special track work rather together quickly using his "Electric Avenue Easy Track System".

Here I spent all those years building something I thought would be very unique, and now any ol' Dandy off the street can build it. Yes sir! Any ol' Dandy can build it!

Dandy

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Say Mister! Ain't You Forgetting Something?

I know what your thinking: "One minute your building cars, the next your installing the overhead. What happened to laying track?!"

     Well, the truth is, this layout was begun years ago (decades actually!). And as it turned out, traction modeling is not an entry level endeavor. The basics of model railroading should be mastered before delving into traction. So the layout languished in storage for well over a decade before conditions were right to dig it out, dust it off, and pick up again.

Historical photo from the time of no color. Brass car, lead folk, white plaster. We've come a short way over a long period of time! Photo circa 1988 Dan D. Sparks.

The track work was done way back then. So to help fill in this "track gap", I was able to locate some old construction prints. So in between wrapping wires and repairing poles and fine tuning track, I will scan some of these and post them for your eyeballs to devour. Yes sir! Post some old layout construction photos for your eyeballs to devour!

Dandy