Module Construction Begins!

Tonight I cut some roll cork to fit the plywood decks I cut for the first two modules.  Since the modules will depict track in city streets, a couple of spurs, and two small yards they will be flat with no change in grade for the tracks.  As such I am using simple box frame construction with plywood tops.  I am using cork to dampen the vibration and resonance of running trains.  Since the modules will depict flat urban scenery I chose to lay a sheet of cork on the plywood to keep everything level.

I had cut the plywood tops a week or two back so they were ready.  I unrolled the cork and trimmed two sheets to fit each of the two pieces of plywood allowing a small overhang all the way around on each piece.

Once I had the cork cut I coated the cork and each piece of plywood with liberal coats of contact cement.  I used an old canvas drop cloth to protect the floor.

I used "nonflammable" contact cement.  It cleans up with soap and water making it easy to clean the paint brush I used for application.

I waited about 40 minutes for the cement to dry somewhat and get tacky.  Once it was ready my wife helped me set the plywood panels over their respective cork sheets.  You only get one shot at this with contact cement so we were careful to maintain the cork overhang on all sides before carefully lowing the plywood onto the cork.  We then pressed each sheet down to make sure the contact cement was grabbing good.  I then flipped each panel over and trimmed the excess cork from around the edges using a hobby knife with a #11 blade.

Once trimmed each panel has a nice flush edge so the module fascia will be able to fit snugly.

Next I will move to the framing and attaching the plywood tops to the modules.  I hope to get that completed this weekend along with assembling the module leg sets.  Check back for updates!

Pensacola Port Yard Track Plan

The track plan for the Pensacola Port yard has been added to the Track Plans page. This module will connect to the tracks that cross Main St. on the Tarragona to Port Entrance Module.

This small yard borders the north end of the port property south of Main St.  When being switched the track heading north up Tarragona St. was used as the switching lead.  This line branches off the main line about two miles to the north and only one train occupies this line during normal operation so the only worry is non-rail traffic on both Tarragona and Main St.  Fusees were used so I may look into simulating that for operating realism.

Although the number of tracks on the plan is greatly reduced from what was there during the era I'm modeling it's not far off in length ...and is pretty close to what remains there today in both number of tracks and arrangement.  The plan has the tracks named following the prototype.   The tracks exiting the module on the right side are tracks that enter the port property through gates in a chain link fence.  The arrangement of the turnouts is very close to the prototype and will allow future expansion should I decide to add another module.  It would include another warehouse on the port property and is served by tracks on either side that would connect to the tracks exiting the yard module.

As drawn the yard will easily hold a couple of dozen cars.  Since the interchange yard will hold about a dozen this should work well since the yard job (Y202) always brought a cut of cars down the hill from Goulding Yard to start the evening switching.  On the model a dozen or so cars can come from staging representing Goulding to the north.  Y202 was always a shove using one of the L&N's bay window cabs as a shoving platform.  Following prototype practice the crew will then pull the cars from the Frisco interchange ( a dozen or fewer on the model) back to the Port.  This could easily load the port yard with a couple of dozen cars to sort and make a shove back to the interchange.  Finally the crew will spot the port and Tarragona St. industries before heading back to staging

I am still researching what paperwork I want to drive the operation.  I am considering car cards and waybills although a switch list or work order as used by the prototype would be more realistic in terms of actual paperwork.  I will leave that to cover in a later post once decided.