Isolating track and Layout Progress

[jonathan]

Thought I'd share a little progress on my layout and show how I accomplished a little track isolation, since the question comes up from time-to-time.

This is my industry yard which sits inside the mainline:

DSC_1112 (2) by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

I put in quite a bit of scenery, BEFORE I got around to powering up the track.  Gotta make it operational now.

To start, I need to be able to park my locos that will push the freight out onto the mainline:

DSC_1115 (2) by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

I used a dremel and cutoff wheels to create an isolated parking space for my 4 locos.  Then jammed a piece of plastic in the cut.  Secured it with CA and trimmed the plastic.  Finally, added a bit of paint to hide my work:

DSC_1106 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

DSC_1104 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

I'll drop in a bit of fine ballast and diluted glue to hide the gouge left by the dremel.

Then I need to solder a couple feeder wires to the track and connect them to a switch to turn on/off the tracks:

DSC_1123 (2) by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

I'll number the toggle switches and track to know which switch is which...

Next, I need to add feeder wires to power the track.  I used some solid core wire... because it was free and I have a lot of it.  I soldered the feeder wires to every-other track joint.  I use to over-engineer and add feeder wire to every joint.  Getting old and lazy:

DSC_1108 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

Again, a little paint and ballast should hide my work.

Finally, I need to clean the track, loco wheels, and test my work.  These little 0-6-0s can push quite a few cars on level track:

DSC_1119 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

At some point, I will need to build/modify a curved loading dock for this industry:

DSC_1116 (2) by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

Anyway, making progress...

Regards,

Jonathan

[WoundedBear]

Looks really good man! I really like the first pic.....the wide view.

Very nice addition to a basement in my opinion. 

Sid

[jonathan]

Thanks, man!

Regards,

Jonathan