Gettin' the Kinks Out

From the beginning I've had a kink in track in the mainline going around the Matthews freight yard that I've tried to ignore. I was doing great with that until I tried to run my new (Christmas present) Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 locomotive through the kink. The front "4" wheels derail almost every time they hit the kink. Poor trackwork will eventually catch up with you!


Here's another view of the kink shown on the right track by the turnout.



Here's the tools I used to fix the problem. The alcohol is 90% which is the same stuff I use to wet areas before I apply white glue when I'm doing ballast or scenery.

The good thing about alcohol is that is will quickly dissolve dried white glue, and since I used track nails to secure the track and not contact cement, the removal was a simple matter of wetting down the ballast and landscape around the track section I needed to remove.

After allowing the glue to work a few minutes I went to work with the scraping using various tools including a screwdriver, putty knife, and dental tool.

I had the vacuum handy and cleaned up the loosened material as I went along.

Next I pulled out the track nails using my track cutting pliers.

I used my Dremel tool with a fiber reinforced cutoff wheel to cut the track. I used a fiber reinforced cutoff wheel instead of standard cutoff wheel for two reasons: 1.) The reinforced wheel doesn't shatter like the non-reinforced wheel, and 2.) the reinforced wheel is larger in diameter making it easier to make a right angle cut through the track.

So, once you cut the track, how do you undercut the plastic ties so they can be removed to allow for the track joiners? It's easy to remove the ties when the track isn't in place because you can just snip them with your cutters and slide them off the end of the track. With the track in place there isn't any way to easily cut up through the plastic tie joiners. I solved the problem by heating the tip of my dental tool, sliding it up under the track and through the plastic piece joining the ties. I could then easily slide the ties off the end of the track.

Here's a view of the cut before I used my hot dental tool technique to remove the ties. The joints have to be offset.

Here's the area cleared of ballast and track. I also cut back the plaster scenery area to the right to allow for a larger radius turn.

Here is the new track in place with the rail joiners soldered on both ends.

And the finished (not painted or ballasted) product with the kink gone. The new 4-4-0 locomotive runs though the area without a hitch!

I learned my lesson on track laying - do it right the first time! If something is not right after you lay the track, fix it right away.

Piedmont Pilgrimage at the Richlawn Railroad

The Piedmont Tour included the Richlawn Railroad on Sunday, November 1st from 1pm until 5pm. This is the second year on the tour, with the major progress on the layout in the mountain area which didn't exist last year. As visitors entered they were able to see a pictorial history of the railroad along with information sheets about the concept and future.
Click on pictures for a larger view.


My chief operator/assistant this year was Charlie Crawford (right)who did a fantastic job of keeping things running while I was able to spend time chatting with the visitors. Charlie really "earned his pay" late in the afternoon when some gremlins entered the trains and we started getting some "hickups" that required switching out some locos. Later examination showed a combination of dirty track & loco wheels. This is interesting as I did a "wet" and "dry" cleaning of the entire layout and locos that morning.


My other operation/ assistant was I.D. Jackson (left) who kept busy backing up Charlie, keeping an eye on things, and chatting with our guests. Speaking of guests, "Coalfinger" Ken (right) from our NCIOG group showed up to offer support and talk L&N to another "Old Reliable" fan (me).

The visitors trickled in at the start and we had a number of visitors from the neighborhood as this was the first year I put flyer on all 37 house's mailboxes in our neighborhood.

It was great to see a number of small children (future model railroaders?) and everybody did a great job of "look, but don't touch". The camera car was a hit with both the children and adults as they could see themselves on TV!

Many of the visitors commented on the mountain area and liked the waterfall and lake area. The group below is looking at the Matthews freight yard where there is alot of potential action with locos and rolling stock.

"What scale are those buildings on the mountain" was a popular question. The answer is they start as HO down at the bottom, reduce to N scale half way up, and are Z scale at the top. The Z scale vehicles at the top are actually charms used on a charm bracelet. They're only $1.23 at Hobby Lobby instead of $$$ from the model railroad suppliers.

George Potter's wonderful N scale layout was on tour the same time as ours, and just like last year we had flyers for each other's railroads with directions and pictures. It was a popular handout and many of the visitors had just come from George's or were headed there next.

We had a "jam" of people for a period of about an hour were we had up to 15 people there at one time! The railroad room was full of people and people had to wait outside for their turn. This gave them time to visit the refreshment table and have a seat in the waiting area. Is that Joe in the hat??? He was a first time visitor and it was great to have him visit and give his input.

With the two running trains speed set correctly, Charlie stepped out of the room to allow more space for the guests. Speaking of guests, another member of the NCIOG, Paul stopped by to visit and also dropped off some stuff I left at Bob's. Thanks, Paul. His layout is on the tour and he and the NCIOG group have been working hard to get him ready.

It was a very successful open house with a total of 63 people with 44 of them not being member of the NMRA. I believe we helped promote model railroading and had a great time doing it by spending time with our guest listening and talking to them.

A special thanks to Charlie Crawford, I.D. Jackson, and the Piedmont Division for allowing us to showcase our layout on the tour!