Day 25 - I moved the fountain pond into place. Added more leveling screws.
Day 26 - I finish the leveling screws, trimming of excess PVC. Spray paint all the mending plates and fill all the PVC holes with insulation. All that remains is to lay the track.
Day 27 - Laying down the track! I never documented the sections I had to cut. This covers laying down and attaching all the track that didn’t need to be cut to fit.
Nicolas…can you include some close-up pictures or videos of how the leveling screws are installed and how they work, also some close-ups of how you attached the track to the roadbed?
Thanks.
John Passaro said:
Nicolas…can you include some close-up pictures or videos of how the leveling screws are installed and how they work, also some close-ups of how you attached the track to the roadbed?
Thanks.
I can and will do soon. I’ll explain your requests and follow up with some pictures.
The track is currently not attached at all. Eventually I plan to put screws in it to keep it on, but I want to paint the pipes and roadbed so I am holding off on screwing it down until then.
The PVC boards take two screws, one on each side. The first screw levels the roadbed between the posts, and the second screw levels the road bed perpendicular to the rails. I used a clamp pushing against the ground and a level to achieve this. Sometimes I had to overcompensate the level because the pipe didn’t go in exactly vertical or something else is causing the roadbed to sink or rise to the left or right. I would apply extra pressure compensating and screwing it in again.
I was wondering why you kept going back there and “fidgeting” with that area. The 2 screws make sense and explain your multiple visits to the post/roadbed interface.
Boy, I bet you are looking forwards to actually running some trains real soon!
Greg
Nicolas Teeuwen said:…
Eventually I plan to put screws in it to keep it on, but I want to paint the pipes and roadbed so I am holding off on screwing it down until then…
I wouldn’t put the screws through the plastic ties, if that’s what you’re intending. When the track shifts around, contractions and expansions and whatever, the ties tear away from the track and you got a mess on your hands. Don’t ask me how I found this out. I started using screws on the bottom part of the rail…keeps them in gauge better that way too. I cover the wide screw heads will a little ballast and no one is the wiser.
Greg Elmassian said:
I was wondering why you kept going back there and “fidgeting” with that area. The 2 screws make sense and explain your multiple visits to the post/roadbed interface.
Boy, I bet you are looking forwards to actually running some trains real soon!
Greg
I was back in the beginning of May. I have had trains running since the 4th of May. I am quite looking forward to having my shed finished because then I can run trains more often. Right now I have to consider how much time I have to cart them in and out of the house to set them up to run them. Once the shed is finished I can run them with much less time and put them away equally quickly (depending on how much I take out).
The moment so many have been waiting for.
Here is the video of opening day for the Red Baron railroad.
A lot has happened since then. I completed a pedestrian overpass to make it easier to get to the side of the house. I have the shed 80% done. Currently painting it. I have ordered materials for the second phase of the railroad which will be adding a few spurs, one of which will go down below some of the existing track.
I won’t be doing time lapses for the remaining work.
Enjoy!
Very cool. I like Snoopy riding in the well car.
Chris
Nice job Nicolas! It runs really smoothly. A testament to your precise leveling. Thanks for sharing. 
Spectacular Nicolas…really spectacular. This is what happens when you do something carefully and thoroughly right in the first place. Great stuff. Congratulations.
Be sure you keep us up to date on all your improvements.
EDIT: I am compelled to admit that one of the reasons why I’m so impressed with your work habits and methods is that I feel I spend about half my time re-doing stuff on my railroad that could have been done better the first time. I can’t stand that!!
Thanks John. As you can see from this thread, I spent about 9 months thoroughly researching and planning before I began to build. In part, I didn’t have the time and the weather was not optimal.
I will begin the second phase as soon as I finish this email. Adding the spurs with some elevation.
Way to go dude, great looking railroad. Nice to see it running.
Asked one of my train engineers to record a tour with his phone. Enjoy.
That is some smooth track. Nice job Nicolas.
Chris
Yep, you can tell by the fact no wobble of the cars, and how smooth the camera rides.
NICE JOB Nicolas, very impressive. You will enjoy the extra care in the design and building every time you run.
Greg
But, I thought regulations prohibited train crews from using their cell phones while operating the equipment.
Been a while since I rode with Mr. Rabbit. Nice run.
Tell Jack thanks.
John
Very nice Nicolas and congrats on getting a train up and running!