Canada Southern Railroad (CASO) Free-Mo Group
click on image for large version….
For the last several months in addition to my Bronx Terminal layout I have also been involved in a Free-Mo (Free Modular) group modeling the Canada Southern Railroad, a line that ran through Southern Ontario between Fort Erie and Windsor. This line was a “short cut” across Ontario and was used by several railroads over the years and has a very interesting history.
In the fall I was asked if I wanted to join the group and build a model of LaSalette, a town not far from where I grew up (Delhi). I accepted the offer and have had lots of fun working with the group on the project.
This past weekend was our first set up of all the modules involved. This took place at the former CASO train station in St. Thomas. This station is an impressive structure that is being restored to its former glory and was an excellent venue for this event. I spent more time photographing the building than anything else (pictures soon).
I have set up a gallery of pictures of the layout from last weekend. The pictures show a few shots from the modules, including my LaSalette module. Below are a few from the gallery…
The complete gallery can be found at the link below, the CASO gallery is at the bottom of that page.
CASO Free-Mo group modular layout gallery.
-T.
Three blonds were walking in the forest one day. They saw a set of tracks and started arguing over what kind of tracks they were.
The first blond said, “I think they’re deer tracks!”
The second blond said, “I think they’re dog tracks!”
The third blond said, “Well, I think they’re cow tracks!”
They were still arguing when the train hit them.
Even though there is a “about the author” thing below this post, I didn’t write the joke above. I can’t take any credit blame for it, other than copying it from somewhere else. Pretty much sums up the entire internet.
-T.
Curved crossover
click on any image for large version….
Well that didn’t take too long. I re-read where I left of on the trackwork construction and realized it was exactly one year ago today I posted the 3D drawing for this section, and figured I would have it done in two days. Talk about getting distracted.
Anyway, I built part 7 this weekend and it turned out well. You might notice I did this section a bit different than all the other pieces, I have decided to use all PC board ties. Initially I was going to laser cut wood ties to complete the trackwork, but after giving it some thought I figured it would be easier to simply use all PC boards. Using all PC board ties will ensure extremely strong trackwork, it will be quite durable, which I am looking for as I intend on moving this layout around a lot. The downside is I have to go back and add in all the missing ties in the previous sections of trackwork. I will likely do that as I mount the sections to the layout permanently.
Also a bit different with this section is where I am gapping the PC board ties. To help keep the gaps less noticeable on the finished trackwork I moved them closer to the edge of the rail. Since all the ties will be PC boards and have gaps I wanted to ensure an obvious line wasn’t right down the middle of all the ties. On a typical turnout a few ties with gaps goes un-noticed, but every tie gapped might stand out a bit.
The gaps are very hard to spot on the non-turnout portions of this trackwork. They are two gaps per tie, beside each rail.
Curved crossover in place (right side of dog).
I also built some sections of curved and straight track, again with all PC board ties. This is a section of 90′ radius (12.5″ in HO) curved track that is adjacent to the freight house. Represented here by a dog.
Unpawsed version of same location.
When primed and painted the all PC board tie track looks great!
In the coming months we will (finally) be releasing fixtures to build straight and curved lengths of track along with double gapped PC board crossties in all scales and gauges in a large variety of radii. Keep an eye on the Fast Tracks site if you are interested.
Well that didn’t take too long, only a year. This is the second to last complicated piece of trackwork for the terminal, the next piece is a pair of curved turnouts leading into the wye. After that there is only a single turnout at the wye and all the remaining straight and curved sections.
I will probably plug away at the straight lengths of track for the next while as it is a very relaxing process. I need quite a few feet of straight track for the yard.
You might have noticed that between Part 6 and Part 7 a layout showed up. Initially I was going to link all the trackwork construction posts together, but since this layout is much more than just trackwork I decided to add links through the entire build process. To keep watching the progress, just clink on the “Next Section” links at the bottom of the pages. This will take you up to the most current construction post in the blog.
on to Next Section
-T.
