Track

    Stomper #1

    The track jig I use lets me build 6 - 12' of track a day. The plans were in Garden Railways magazine in a Marc Horovitz series on building handlaid track from December 1996 to June 1997. I also recommend the use of an electric brad nailer to nail the battens on - it saves a lot of time. The stick just below the sawhorse is my curve profiler. I built the roadbed first and use this to trace the path of it and profile the curves on the jig. You can also see the chalk marks I use to determine if the profile has too sharp a radius at any point. I try to keep above 4' ( yeah, I know 10' is the recommended minimum radius... and backing up my hard disk every day, eating 8 servings of vegetables and reading only good books and not Stephen King are also good recommendations.... Hey I've only got 10' x 30' to work with here!)

    Here's a nice closeup of my track after six months in the rainy wet coast climate. The red primer on the aluminum track hasn't fallen off yet, the spikes are rusting slightly and the ballast is starting to thin a bit. I probably should have treated the ties with some stain, but that only occurred to me after.

     


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