Easitrac

Overview of progress to date

I have been busy laying Easitrac for the last few weeks,  I have now completed most of the track for the scenic section except for the area around the turnouts. All has gone reasonably well though I do find that the Easitrac glue dries very fast which can make laying the track difficult. Thankfully most of the track is straight so I aligned the track against a ruler before pushing it into the glue.

Test running track with a selection of locomotives

The electrical feeds are provided to the track via brass sleepers.

Electrical feeds

It was pointed out to me recently that the sprue that holds two sections of Easitrac sleepers together are actually set to the 6ft way.  I have taken advantage of this by assembling the Easitrac with sprues in place every two or three sections to maintain the 6ft way gap.  Once the track has been glued I then cut through the sprues to remove them.

Sprues ready to be cut once glue has dried 

At baseboard joints I have used brass sleepers to provide extra strength.

Brass sleepers at baseboard joints

Turnouts

I have finally finished the three F20 turnouts that I need for my layout. The single right hand turnout is around 500 mm long and the right hand crossover is around 750 mm.

The turnouts are constructed from flat bottom rail soldered to my own custom etched chairplates on PCB sleepers. It took around 6 months to draw and etch my own chairplates and then a further 6 months to construct the turnouts. I have calculated that I have soldered over 900 chairplates in total; I am glad I didn't calculate this before I began soldering!

Baseboard edging

I have taken some photos of the baseboard edging and baseboard ends. These are laser cut from a mixture of 4 mm mdf and 4 mm ply. The drawings were prepared in CorelDraw.

Baseboard edging templates

Brass pattern makers dowels for alignment , holes for these also laser cut

Bridge and baseboard edging viewed from South

Bridge and baseboard edging viewed from North

View of layout from above showing progress to date

View of layout from side showing progress to date

Weathering

I have had a couple of my models weathered and detailed by Mercig Studios. I have taken a couple of photos of them passing through Swinton.

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Bridge

Have now completed my laser cut bridge except for painting and etch fencing for the bridge sides.

Mk3

Finally have some mk3 coaches including buffet for my two swallow livery HST 125.

Station platforms

Completed assembly of station platforms.

I have taken photos of the model to match photos of the prototype.