Saturday, October 19, 2013

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 10.19.13

After dinner, I painted the OSB subroadbed.  Later this evening after it dried, I worked on trackwork.  I laid out some of the turnouts and cut some of the flex track for Ottawa Silica.  Nothing is glued yet.  It's looking good!






I need to pick up a 1/32" drill bit to drill holes for the throwbars.  Once I have that, I will start gluing track down.

Friday, October 18, 2013

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 10.18.13

The turnouts have arrived!!!  This evening, I started placing the turnouts in preparation for the track crew to hit it hard this weekend.  We're ready to move some sand in Ottawa!

This first batch included 25 turnouts.  This will allow me to complete most of Ottawa Silica and L-O-F minus one right-hand turnout.  I will also be able to start heading west on the mainline as I will have the turnouts for the entrance to the yard (but not the yard ladder).  I have devised a plan for the remaining batches (smaller) of 6 to 8 turnouts each.

Phase I (Received): 
Ottawa Silica
Libbey-Owens-Ford
East Ottawa Main / Yard Entrance

Phase II: 
Remaining Ottawa Silica Turnout
West Ottawa Main / Yard Entrance
Belrose Silica Entrance Tracks (West and East End)
All PQ Tracks
Utica Mainline Crossover

Phase III: 
Internal Facility Tracks at Belrose Silica
Westclox
Peru Water & Power Co.

Phase IV:
All remaining Ottawa Yard Tracks, RIP Tracks, Locomotive Facility
This will complete all trackwork.

The turnouts exceeded all of my expectations.  Simply Wow!  They look great!!  I laid them out for Ottawa Silica and L-O-F this evening.  I realized I had to change up L-O-F a little.  I was using #5 turnouts to determine a basic trackplan.  The #6 turnouts require a little more room to work.  That changed the plan in L-O-F, but ended up saving me some turnouts overall.  Money saved is all good!

Here are some photos of one of the turnouts.







In other news, I ordered and received the Azatrax signal controllers for both road crossings in Ottawa and Utica.  Once the track is laid in Ottawa, I will be anxious to install the controller to test out the operating gates and lights.  Cool stuff!

Let the games begin!


Sunday, October 13, 2013

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 10.13.13

This evening, I completed gluing the crossties to the gauntlet track.  I need to spray paint and clean up some.  I tested and it functions well.



The first batch of turnouts are shipping Tuesday.  I'm looking forward to laying some track next weekend!