Large Scale Central

Rail clamps

Track and Trestles
#21

David Russell said:

Noel Arnold said:
Laying ballast now, hope to have “Golden Spike” driven by July 1st.

I’m gonna hold you to that date! :wink: Can I talk you out of those railclamps and suggest hard soldered track for say 15 too 20’ runs then clamp? Looks like my kinda RR :slight_smile:

Me too, I hope. I’m going to try and post another pix to show the ballast progress, kinda hard to see the rail as I haven’t brushed a lot of it yet. BTW, I have heard of soldering joints, but don’t quite understand soldering several and then doing the clamps. I have clamps and LGB paste at EVERY joint. To clarify, the building where the cinder block is, is the shed, and the power wires will be coming out of there to all of the tracks you see, plus there will be two feed to the freight yard. If you’re planning on coming for a run, here’s some of the specs: Main line, 20’ diameter curves, distance between track centers on curves 7", on the rest of the track 6"-7", maximum grade >.5%, all turnouts to sidings are approached from the frog end in normal operation. There are two mainlines, each approximately 750’, all turnouts between the two mains are #6, each main is controlled by an Aristo-Craft handheld through a 15 amp power supply, all track on the mains is brass. Freight yard approximately 175’, all turnouts #4, all brass rail and controlled by an Aristo-Craft hand held with a 10 amp power supply. Live steam can be supported by the benchwork, but we do not have full power for the operation of DCC (although we could do that easily enough if necessary). We run a lot of battery powered units, and, depending on your system, you may need to follow you engine around in this mode due to range limitations. You can walk around most of the layout, and we are in the process of constructing bridges to get to the inner circle that does not have full access. Any thoughts on building the access bridges would be greatly appreciated.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/noela/_forumfiles/MVC-598S.JPG)

#22

Very impressive!

#23
Noel Arnold said:
Ralph Berg said:
Noel Arnold said:
If you're in the neighborhood and you run track power or battery, c'mon in for an operating session.
What neighborhood would that be? Nice looking railroad. Ralph
Orange County, NY Laying ballast now, hope to have "Golden Spike" driven by July 1st. (ground should be dry so that full walk around is possible).
What town? Im just over the border in Wantage 10 min from Port Jervis but in NJ.
#24
Bruce Chandler said:
Very impressive!
Yes!

Noel,
Solder is 60/40 rosin core on clean brass as Jack Verducci has written already. His ideas are smokin!
Ex tow truck operator says it all.
:slight_smile:

#25

That’s very impressive and looks good, also.

#26

Howdy. As for railclamps I have used hillmans - splitjaws both over the rail and over the joiner types. I think they are the best they are very robust and hold the track very well but they are a little on the thick side as far as looks go. Last year I ordered a bunch of AML ones and I didn’t like them and sent most of them back. These were reviewed in GR magazine this month and they came to the same conclusion about the over the joiner ones. They don’t hold well. The over the rail ones were ok but inspecting track this spring I found 3 of them had cracked and split. Keeping your track aligned I think they are ok but really holding to ensure electrical contact not so good.
WOW Noel that is some layout! I showed my wife the photo and now she can’t honestly say that I took over our backyard.

#27

Noel! Awesome! Had I known this spring when I was out that way (drove from Wallace NY to Port Jervis and then in May from NYC to Ellenville) I would have looked you up! I’m really going to have to plan a trip out from W NY sometime to visit you and Shawn!!

Chas