Tried my hand at cutting Unitrack this afternoon and it went pretty well. I had three pieces of track (29mm+33mm+38mm) along a straight section of mainline, so thought I'd create a 100mm section from a 124mm piece. I could have instead found a 62mm and added it to the 38mm piece to make 100mm with only two pieces, but I wanted to try to produce one section. I won't show a "how to" because the technique is out there on the Internet in multiple places. I made my first cut between ties to hopefully retain some semblance of proper tie spacing. You can see evidence of a tiny notch where I cut at the red arrow. Square cuts and some liquid glue made a nearly invisible joint and with good tie spacing. I spent a lot of time fine tuning the 100mm length and dressing the ends of the cut rails. I made the initial rail cuts with a Xuron Track Cutter, which does a very good job. I'll have to make another custom length on a curved track. That should be interesting.
Yay, got the Unitrack fit on my reversing section. The crossing will eventually allow access to an industry to the left. I didn't want to be making switching moves on a reversing section, so figured this was the best way to reach the industry. I had to make two custom length track sections to precisely place the crossing so that it will mate up to track on the right (not yet in place), accessed by the turnout in the foreground. The black lines on the table top outline areas where NOT to drill holes for wires because table legs, brackets and power supplies sit below at various locations.
Looks Great !! Question and suggestion: The track that has the crossover...where the red boxcar is. Do you have an absolute need for that track to be straight up from there..at that angle...to that little building where you then have an 's curve' going into that turnout in the upper right? If not...I have a suggestion. Cut a large radius curve section down to make that track (starting right at the boxcar) do a short slow curve and lineup straight into the diverging route right at that turnout up there. Something like this.... . That would elliminate that 's curve'. JMO...YMMV .
Or, move that turnout on the top further to the left so you can do a "straight shot" to the turnout on the bottom. Think a stretched mirrored "Z".
I see what you're suggesting and normally it'd be a good idea, but I set out to make the reversing section as long as possible so as to hold an entire train within it, so as to assure metal wheelsets on a long train aren't bridging the gaps at the ends (which could create trouble because the polarities are different) and to allow the section to also be used as a holding track. As @MK suggested, I could have also moved the turnout to the left to make the section straight, but that would have also forced the crossover (hard to see, but it's just to the right of the tower) to be moved to the left, partially obscuring it behind a series of truss bridges that will eventually cross over where the red boxcar is. I love the crossover and want to be able to enjoy seeing it in the open. I think the area will make for a nice looking interlocking and I plan to add one of the N Scale Architect's fine looking towers there. The current layout provides needed length and visibility to the crossover. Keep those ideas coming.
Got it! What about moving the cross over to before the (upper) turnout? But I suspect then it might be too close to the curves on the end. It looks like the curves are just outside your picture. Do you have an aerial track plan?
That's it exactly and there will be a tunnel portal to the right just before the curve. I don't have a nice overview of the track plan, but rather snippets of segments here and there. It's an 'L' shaped layout made of two shortened HCDs each 36" deep, about 34 SqFt..
I just drew up the basic mainline track plan. The yard is in the lower center. Trains depart the yard running counterclockwise. By setting the crossover to, well, crossover ( ), a train can stay on the oval. Set the crossover straight and a train runs the whole route, oval and extension over the bridges. At any time, a train can take the reversing section from the top or the bottom. It's then running clockwise and has the same options as before (oval or the extended route) and can end its run whenever wanted, entering the same yard it left from. Passing siding within yard (not shown) will allow the power to cut off and run around its train, move down the ladder tracks and move to the engine terminal (tracks not shown) at lower right.
It looks like you could treat the entire left end of the oval as a reverse loop, rather than just the diagonal track across the oval. You'd have more boundaries to electrically isolate, but it could be worth it, if your goal is to maximize the length of a train you can reverse. As I see it, the electrical boundaries for the loop would be the switch at upper right, the through exit of the switch at lower left, the diverging exit of the left end switch to the yard, and the lower left corner of the double crossover at the top. Just a thought...
Looks great! What tower is that? It looks like an N scale version of the old HO Revell tower. Oops, I guess that's what the old Bachmann tower is, isn't it. And, I have one. "Dennis junction". Doug
It's one of these items that I've had forever and its legacy has long been forgotten. Being a huge fan of interlocking towers, I have at least six. As seen below, XO Tower is an Erie prototype and it may return to the new DS&N v3.0 after a bit of fixing up. Here's the prototype, WC at Waldwick, NJ, in service at the time. [07/1982]
A good idea that would have worked. The new layout is nearly the same dimension as my old one (though with an all new track plan) and my freights rarely exceeded 12 cars on the old road, so I think I'll be okay with the reversing section as it is. My memory is a bit hazy, but my previous layout's reversing section was no longer than this one and I'm pretty sure that I never had problems with metal wheels bridging the insulated joints. Even so, if it becomes a problem, I can easily kill the power to the trailing block and all will be well. The reversing section is used only once per operating session, so it'd be no trouble.
Hope XO finds a home on the new layout. It sure is a great looking model. It seems based on all that you have described, the reversing section should work out just right. Really like how the track plan is coming together!
