Ok…Spring puttering has officially began…For the first time I was able to pick up on new construction and not have to fix everything I built last year…I reached a small goal today by completing the roadbed for the staging yard I started last November…Note Fred…CUP DOWN!!!
Track is roughly 12 ft long and three tracks wide on 8" centers…rail will be salvaged from the track sections pictured and relaid on new wood…
Good start, Bart
Nice benchwork… track looks a little rough, though. Not using fine-scale flanges, I guess?
I know I can certainly see the improvement of the track not being on the ground. Bart, it doesn’t look like there is any evidence, at all, of frost heave. 
Congratulations! I hope to see track expanded, soon.
What do you mean, “No frost heave?” Why, it’s hove 3 ft or more in the air!
Grading crews were out today…and the South Loop is ready to receive track!
Rain came up so I didn’t get to start on the tangent frame like I had wanted to…Theres still tommorow!
Good work, Bart.
We have about 3/4’s of the related roadbed in place at Ironwood…seems both of us are actually getting a lot done !
Bart,
Now why didn’t you show those sunken posts and that frame work before? You are making progress. I see possibilities in your future. I see trains running. I see rolling stock being transferred and couplers bannging.
Actually yes…the tangent is gonna be tracked with some track sections I already had layed on PT plywood from a previous incarnation…So really once I lay the track around the South Loop. I’ll essentially have a functioning branchline with an Iglenook at the end!
Did some puttering myself this weekend. At one of my Garden Center stops I picked up a bunch of ground covers. Been deciding where to plant them.
Got around to framing and installing the first of the tangent frames today…
First 6 feet of track are down and ties to about 10 feet.
And the standard tools I use for laying track:
Homemade track gauges, small framing hammer, nail set, pliers, KD coupler gauge and a cordless drill
Looks good. I like your track gauges.
Cheap is the key word with my track gauges! Pushed 12 feet more of track tonight…both curves are now laid…and ties are all in. Rail on the straight is about to the point where ties stopped in the picture above…I should get the last 5 and a half feet on South Loop done tomorrow evening…ran outta spikes tonight…
Bart what size are the ties and what are you using for spikes? Later RJD
1/2 x 1/2 roughly…I use 18 x 3/4 brass eustucheon pins for spikes…
Yep…the connection is made!!!
7/8 scale Shay No7 and a flatcar make the trip over to Tangent…
…I notice in the background, the BBQ and the makings of a still…!!!
Looking great Bart. Maybe you are having too much fun…
Fred Mills said:Well, Fred, a crew's gotta eat, and as for the still, his live steamers are gonna need alkie fuel. That's my theory, and I'm ... hic ... sticking to it ...
.....I notice in the background, the BBQ and the makings of a still......!!!!