March 31, 2023
The last few days have been used putting down cork. The main yard is on 24″ x 8′ long sheets. 2 are down with 1 more to go. I had white glue (not the school type) on hand so used that. 3/4″ plywood did a pretty good job of holding it flat. The edges seemed to curl up. 5/8″ staples fixed this and a couple of bubbles.
The main line and yard lead curved track have the track installed. Midwest cork has been glued down for the tracks leading into the East yard. Yellow glue was used.
Switches are ready to be installed tomorrow. I made all 156 switches in advance. Originally, they would sit on individual ties. The decision was made to purchase Fast Track’s Quick Sticks to speed along construction. It was discovered that the #8 tie strips were longer than the jig used to make the switches. In some cases, I had to trim some off. Of course, there is a lot of trimming at crossovers and where switches are placed close together. A track gauge keeps the ends aligned.
I am really very happy with the quality and rapidity that they could be constructed. I will write a separate post about this in the future.
