Now if you want to make some interesting track work try this. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1614077
This was at Columbus, Ks.
Shows you just how small the wheel flanges are.
Bruce
what i find interesting is the location of the insulated rail joints. evidently 2 of the routes are signalled, but the third is not. very odd as a junction such as the one this crossing is destined for should be fully signalled on all routes.....
Double frog turnouts.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1171464
Rich
This is a unique thread, my contribution:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ogden_UP_yard.JPG
how about a layout in HO scale? this trackwork is definitely beyond my skill level......
http://www.bronx-terminal.com/?p=5
Bob, I thought this would be near & dear to your heart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Railroad
What locomotive is this - not line but EMD, GP, etc?
(https://secure.reservexl.net/wwwimg/img/tours/2108-5.jpg)
Rick
that locomotive is an alco c420. atlas makes them in both HO and N scales.
note the low clearance placement of the air horns and bell. my guess is that it was probably one of the old lehigh valley units that were sold to the d&h. d&h had trackage rights on the northeast corridor and ran under overhead wires which would affect placement of those items. after all you wouldn't want 25000 volts arcing through the locomotives because the air horns got too close to the power line.
The Bronx terminal has great possibilities for someone wanting to expand a simple oval of track.
Haven't been in the South Bronx for a few years but the last time I was in the area of the terminal the trackwork had been much simplified. One problem they had in the 70s were the locals who amused themselves by hurling cobblestones at locomotives. That's when Penn Central, and later Amtrak and Conrail, adopted "Ghetto Grates" over the windshields.
The original would be a really interesting project but to model it accurately would require a lot of room and special trackwork.
A lot of the trackwork was in a cut. You could actually park on the street and look down at the trains going by. Some local streets were also paved with Belgian block; that's what often provided the ammo for the miscreants who liked to target trains.
That part of the Bronx has undergone revitalization. Next time I'm over that way I'll take a look.
For many years there was a purple Chateau Martin reefer parked on a siding not too far from the wye. I often wondered what became of it. (for you newbies out there, Chateau Martin was a wine producer and they had a fleet of refrigerator cars painted in a grape purple. They had a warehouse in the South Bronx that had sidings for their cars.)
Quote from: Woody Elmore on May 26, 2009, 10:11:17 AM
For many years there was a purple Chateau Martin reefer parked on a siding not too far from the wye. I often wondered what became of it. (for you newbies out there, Chateau Martin was a wine producer and they had a fleet of refrigerator cars painted in a grape purple. They had a warehouse in the South Bronx that had sidings for their cars.)
No foolin'? I remember AHM (I think it was AHM) used to sell an RTR reefer lettered and painted for Chateau Martin Wines. I never knew it was "for real," though.
Here in Philadelphia we have Chateau Lucerne. I think Chateau Lucerne is up in North Philly, somewhere. ...
Mommy...these guys are making my head hurt!
Ray
Quote from: jward on May 25, 2009, 10:45:34 PM
how about a layout in HO scale? this trackwork is definitely beyond my skill level......
http://www.bronx-terminal.com/?p=5
Wow... I just spent a lot of time reading through that project. Hopefully I will be able to see that layout in action sometime because there is no way I would be able to reproduce it.
Aw, you guys make me want to hand-lay my track now! I might, but I have a off-topic question:
Is it cheaper to hand-lay track, if so, E-Z track gotta go! (No offense, I like to do things that take longer so I can have a more self-accomplish-feeling layout... That made no sense, did it?)
Anyway, that would be a great way to get visitors. Perhaps styrene for the securing side-attachments to avoid short-circuits and regular track for the rails? It will call for some more 'precise' ballasting... there goes the spoon, on comes the... well I guess you could use the spoon still. :-\
Joshua
from my experience, handlaid track works out to about the same cost as flex track. your savings are in the switches. i can build those for a couple of dollars apiece, vs 16 or so for the ready made ones.
jigs are available but they are somewhat expensive. once you have them, though, you can build as many switches as you want for the cost of rail and solder.
for ties, i use cut down match sticks. you can't get much cheaper than that.
i started handlaying track on my dad's layout about 30 years ago in exchange for trackage rights over his line. we both had model railroads which connect3ed. once i was out on my own, i continued handlaying my track as a way to keep construction going from pay to pay. with regular track you can spend a fortune on track and have it all down the same day. i can only handlay about 3-6 feet of track a day.....
here is a photo of some very interesting track work. Do you know what it is and why?
(http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u134/pdleth/doubleturntable.jpg)
Looks like the site of two roundhouses of different length served by adjacent turntables.
John II
and?
there does appear to be a jumpover track on the far left side of the photo.
Actually this is a double turntable / roundhouse in Hamburg Germany. When originally built, there were two small turntables side by side but as the engines got larger the turntables were enlarged as well. They overlaped and ran that way for years. There were circuits in the separate units to prevent them from colliding. This was a cheaper solution than to move the round houses and associated tracks.
they also have jigs for laying ties.
*shacks head*, pdlethbridge, didn't we already have a topic about that photo awhile ago?
Joshua
EDIT:
jward,
I believe you forgot to mention about staining the ties and then coating them lightly with some paint... Preferably Tie Brown.
Interesting. Will a soldering gun work instead of an iron?
Again,
Joshua
you are right, i did forget to mention staining ties. as for painting, they are already stained, why would they need paint?
as for soldering iron vs gun, the irons are easier to work with, being smaller and having tips that are more precise. i am not a fan of guns, though i do like the fact that they heat up rapidly when you need them to, instead of letting the iron cook in the stand.
Back in the days when your choices (in HO, at least) were flextrack with cardboard ties, or Atlas track with code 100 rail and oversize ties, hand-laying track made sense from an appearance standpoint, if nothing else. I think overall, especially when counting in turnouts, that hand-laying is less expensive than pre-fab. But, today's modern track selection, with code 83, code 70, even code 55 available with proper ties, makes the case for handlaying much tougher. It comes down to how you want to spend you hobby time. My current layout, in On3, was begun 14 years ago when the only thing available was some code 100 flex track from Precision Scale. The visible portions of the track are all hand-laid, but I used the flex in the tunnels, and I also used flex for the loop of O standard guage. For the turnouts, I bought HO point-frog kits, lengthed the closure rails and replaced the point tie rod with a wider one. Today, I would probably use flex, and there are (finally!!) pre-fab On3 turnouts available.
To pdlethbridge : Question . Is that site still a functional operations center ? Unfortunately I can not make out whether it is still in use do to the scale. John II
"Is that site still a functional operations center ? Unfortunately I can not make out whether it is still in use do to the scale."
I found the location in Live Maps and the colors for their arial photography seemed a bit brighter. It appears that one of the tracks that led to one of the turn tables goes nearly to the turntable but has a bumper.
The turn tables are definitely gone, and it appears there might be some ties left from the other track leading away from the tables, but no rail and what is left is rubble.
no, its almost gone now.
Considering the bombardment during WW II in & around Hamburg it would have been a wonder that something that large & complex would have been overlooked .
it was still servicing steam in the 60's