Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Track gang reaches Essex Junction

The track gang has reached the outskirts of Essex Junction, Vt. Of course, Essex is situated on the former site of White River Jct. so perhaps this post should be titled "Track Gang reaches this corner of the basement....again."
I've spent a number of hours over the last few weeks of evenings finalizing the Essex track arrangement. While there will be some compromises from the prototype I believe it captures the spirit and look of the place. 
Commercial turnouts, even "curved" Micro-Engineering no. 6 turnouts, don't allow for a fluid enough geometry to look right and maximize the track arrangement so I'm planning on hand laying a fair number of turnouts in this section - the first of these is shown here - a curved no. 6 (and 3/4 or so!) left hand. One leg will form part of the Essex junction yard/wye trackage, the other leg will be the lead through the fence and into Fort Ethan Allen. (note the photo was taken before the throw rod was installed!) 

4 comments:

Trevor said...

Congrats on the progress, Marty. A great way to start the new year.
Cheers!
- Trevor (Port Rowan in 1:64)

Matthieu Lachance said...

Marty, the more I work with commercial curved turnouts, the more I think they never blend correctly with adjacent track curvature. I can't wait to see how that new Essex Junction will take shape.

Tony M. said...

Good post.

Tore Hjellset said...

German manufacturer Weinert make some great flexible turnouts. Although they are code 75 and are of a German prototype, they could perhaps be an alternative to handlaying? Here's a link to a couple of pictures from my webshop: https://www.togbutikken.no/product/weinert-mein-gleis-sporveksel-y-fleksibel-kort-166/#