Exploring the World of Model Railroading
Imagine if you will, a friend gives you a 200 ft spool of microphone cable for your feeders (and says there’s more if you need it). The cable has 2 pairs (black/red, white/green) of stranded and tinned copper wire, 22 AWG that would be great for feeders. The catch is, the pairs are shielded and also twisted along with another ground wire. This is the part of the hobby I really do not enjoy because it is very tedious. When are we going to “do” trains finally?
A bit more work was done today on the staging yard. The North side of the double-ended main staging yard has been laid down, feeders and all.
After a bit of a break, which was spent mostly shoveling ungodly amounts of snow and ice, it’s official. First feeders have been installed on the railroad.
The day wasn’t spent in Shipping/Receiving parcels, as the previous post might make it look like. No Sir, actually real work has been done on the railroad. Crews have been busy drilling the sub/road bed and fitting turnouts and motors. Finally, we are “doing trains” !!
…or “Making a Mess”. It was bound to happen after spinning in circles for a day, trying to figure out whether I’ve missed something glaringly obvious or not. I wasn’t ready to commit cork to the helix sub-roadbed yesterday, so today I bit the bullet. Truth be told, I did re-adjust 3 spots on the threaded rods last night where the height did not match the calculations, but that was only a matter of adding or removing a 1/32″ washer. There’s no going back now.
After painting the cork, what more is there left to do on the roadbed? It feels like all these mundane things you do inch you towards a milestone, and when it finally arrives you don’t really feel it, or you keep asking yourself: “Is there anything else left?” Left before starting the track work that is.
Moving at a snails pace, or more precisely at the pace the caulk dries, I finally completed laying the cork sheets down across the entire Staging deck. This took about a week, as I worked in stages, couple of hours each day after work, and letting it dry overnight.
