Rationale for the Railroad Part 3 - Planning for Operations

The railroad will be a part of a freelanced 4th Subdivision of the Cascade Division of the Great Northern. The 4th Subdivision travels eastward from Port Gulick Bay, intersects with the North/South GN mainline at Ferndale, WA, and then travels into the Cascade Mountains to the town of Greenstone. Port Gulick Bay, on the Puget Sound, has potential for a small shipyard, bulk petroleum operation, lumber shipping, log dump, lumber mills, and canning operations. Located in Whatcom County, and inspired by the 3rd Subdivision in Skagit County, the railroad has a heritage of support to timber and agricultural production. Plus, in a totally fictional history, a rich series of veins of ore were discovered in the Cascade Mountains, near the Badger River, leading to the founding of Greenstone and several mines. Copper and silver ore continue to be mined into the 1950's with the ore shipped by rail to the smelter in Tacoma.

The first part to be built is an interchange junction of the 4th Subdivision with the Puget Sound and Badger River Railway, a logging road inspired by the Puget Sound and Baker River RR, east of the Mainline at Ferndale, but still in the valley/lowlands. The interchange is at Willow Junction and the initial layout also includes Willow Springs, a station on the 4th Subdivision. Willow Junction includes a small yard and engine facilities for the road switcher stationed there. Willow Springs includes several  opportunities for switching.

First-draft track plan: Willow Junction at the top with Willow Springs at the bottom.

Among the possibilities for industries at Willow Springs are a box factory, canning company, produce warehouse, grocery distributor, team platform, fuel company, freight house, and small foundry. Any of these have prototype examples in the lowlands of Skagit or Whatcom counties. While not shown on the track plan, staging will be provided at both ends of the "U" shaped initial layout.

The operating scheme is designed for solo operations or operations with two or three operators. Car movements will be orchestrated using car-cards and waybills as well as switchlists. Train movements will essentially be sequence operation, although a time element could be added. One small scheduled passenger train will pass through Willow Springs eastward and then return later in the day. One scheduled freight, a turn from Port Gulick Bay will pass through daily and return.  The turn may drop off or pick up cars at the runaround, while the Willow Junction road switcher will be in charge of  spotting the cars and blocking cars for pickup.

Cork Roadbed

Over the past week or so I have started the trackwork on Willow Junction (one side of the U-shaped initial layout in the attic) by laying cork roadbed for this small yard and interchange. In this post I will attempt a "how to" approach to the process.

Materials

Materials needed to lay cork roadbed

• Cork
• Sanding block
• wood glue
• small nails
• needle nose pliers
• hammer
• paper towels
• utility knife with sharp blade
• pencil and sharpie
• metal rule
• putty knife
• spackle
• brush or shop vac

First Steps

1. Make sure all track center lines and turnout locations are marked on the sub-roadbed (plywood in my case.)   
   
2. Split the cork.
3. Glue down the cork strips (with the bevel to the outside) following the centerline and then tack in place with small nails just into the plywood. Remember, the nails will be removed after the glue dries.
4. Offset the cork strips to avoid ends butting side by side.
5. For turnouts glue and tack just the outer strips.

Turnouts

For the interior of the turnout, measure by overlapping and then mark with a pencil or sharpie in order to make an accurate cut.  The cut will first be a taper and then trimming the bevel of the cork so it fits between the existing cork strips. I found that I was fitting the cork strip that followed the divergent route first before the strip following the straight. Both should be test fit and adjusted before glueing either of them in place.

Finishing Up the Cork

1. Allow the glue to dry overnight and remove the small nails.
2. Sand the bevel to remove the ridge left along one edge after splitting the cork in half. Some people recommend doing this before installing the cork, but I find it easier to do after the cork is glued in place. Just make sure it is done before painting the cork or installing track. 
3. Spackle any gaps in the turnout splice work. I spackled the nail heads in the plywood at the same time.
4. It might be a good idea to paint the cork at this time, at least flat black under turnout locations. On the other hand, it might be prudent to finalize track placement and drill holes for turnout controls before painting.

Special Applications for Willow Junction

The two yard tracks were trimmed square as they were glued down, while the mainline cork offsets the plywood for later final trim when staging is attached.

The cork abuts a cedar shim as the interchange towards the front will be code 70 track representing the Puget Sound and Badger River Railroad, a lumber line.

The cork for the siding in the back abuts the piece of gatorboard that will be the base for the construction of a small engine house. I learned this technique from Pete Gulick, one of my modular railroad friends in Seattle.

Trackwork First Steps

Yesterday I transferred the paper track plan for Willow Junction to the layout  by establishing base lines on the plywood, laying out the turnouts, and penciling in the centerlines.

 I marked the turnout ends as well as lines at the switch rod location. (While I am not planning on using switch motors here, I will drill holes in case I might want to add them in the future.) The one change from the track plan was to locate the switcher engine house track at 14" from the edge instead of 15".

Laying out Willow Junction's track plan: without a backboard in
place, the sprayed-in, closed cell foam insulation is visible.

The next steps before actually starting to lay track are to lay the cork roadbed and to modify the turnouts. I have the cork, track, and turnouts, but the turnout pads are on backorder so I may have to  splice the turnout cork from straight sections. David Popp on MRVP has a good video on modifying turnouts as a part of the Olympia Logging video series. Also, the Peco instructions that came with the Electrofrog turnouts are clear and helpful. It looks like there are four steps to turnout modification:

1. Connect the point rails and stock rails
2. Construct point rail jumpers at the hinge
3. Remove wires connecting the center rails to the frog and use insulating rail joiners at end of center rails past the frog
4. Attach feeder wire to frog