About a month after the last post I'm back at work on the layout. Although I still don't have all the track I need to finish the main line I have enough to proceed with at least attempting to figure out the hardest part of the layout- the station.
The little device above will be instrumental in completing the station. As mentioned in the previous post, I was going to need to bend a bunch of rails into radii that just don't exist. The solution? Use Marklin's 5998 flex track kit and make them myself. I had the track kits, but had no clue to what I was doing. Step one was understanding how the track kits work. Turns out they are easy to understand and very smart! The only issue I had with the process was the rather unscientific way Marklin suggests bending the rails. So instead I went in search of a rail bender, and discovered the beauty you see above, the Rail Ben 250 from Sunset Valley Railroad. The Rail Ben 250 was designed for, as you can guess, code 250 rail, i.e. G-scale. It takes a little practice, but the Rail Ben 250 works with Marklin 1-scale rail, which is actually code 200, I believe. A little practice bending and unbending rails, and I was ready...
Those are the four station tracks at the 'north' end of the layout. I laid them out provisionally this evening to see how they looked. They look a little ridiculous going from the tight radii at the far end to the broad radii further down, but I'm hoping the signal tower, station, and a few well-placed trees help hide the tight curve as it comes out of the tunnel (yes, the plan is to have a tunnel at each end of the station).
About two-thirds of the station tracks are made of the gentle flex track. The other third, towards the bottom, will be straight. As soon as the remaining curves arrive (looks like I need two more to finish the main line) I can complete the track plan and be ready to finally run trains around the layout.
More to come, hopefully soon!
