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…...............................................--- Upper Level Track -- Pt. 1 ---

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With all of the major scenery in place it is time to lay the upper level track. After that will move to the lower level.

I felt from the beginning that the section of track show above was going to be the hardest track to lay due to it being on the upper level with a long reach in. Further complicating this is that two turnouts need to be installed near the middle of the scene. I didn't see an easy way around it if I wanted the scene to look like it does so got with it. It took about 2 1/2 days to get this track and the two turnouts in (not full days...4 hrs. per day).

Making one's turnouts and using servos can go a long ways to decreasing cost, especially if you need a lot. I can have a turnout and turnout control for about half of what a commercial turnout costs alone. More info on the low cost, easy to do, (no Arduino) turnout control ( HERE ).

One section of scenery was removed above to help with the mounting of the servos for the two turnouts. The tunnel sections were also remove to make track laying easier.

I came up with a new servo bracket this past year and use it almost all of the time now. It is very easy to install. Put the turnout in place (temporarily) .... drill a small diameter hole down into the layout through the throwbar hole.....enlarge that hole from the bottom to 3/8 inch.....put the servo mount up in that hole......and drive one screw to hold the bracket/servo. You can do most of this from the side of the layout. In this case I only went under to drive the screw in.

The wire to the throwbar will be perfectly centered in the throwbar hole. A huge plus if you have ever tried to install servos.

More info on these brackets and a video to show how easy it is to use them....

Self-centering servo mounts....... https://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Trackwork/page-46b.html

Servo mount install video........... https://youtu.be/oX_eTz8dMDs

I had a ladder on each side of the layout and was on one or the other for most of this. I could also kneel on the layout top, bottom right above.

I caulked the track down with a very small bead of DAP Dynaflex 230 and spread that flat with my finger. Put the ME code 55 in place and pinned it down. Micro Engineering flex track is very easy to work with and will hold any curvature you put in it with the simple tool ( HERE ).

The track here will cross the trestle ..... run to and past the sawmill on the other side of the divider and then recross the trestle. Appears to be a two track mainline on the trestle but is actually a 'dog-bone' run of track with the trestle representing two different scenes.

Got the track laid and turned out to not be as bad a job as I thought it would be.

Still need to solder some track drops to the track and take them to the perimeter bus on the side of the layout.

The layout will have 8 power districts all powered by a DCC-EX command station with 8 track outputs. Any of them can be switched at any time with the throttle to be DCC Main, DCC program, DCC Auto-reversing and/or DC and DC reverse polarity. There will be one district than will be DCC only most all of the time. I'll be able to switch the other 7 to DCC or DC at any time so I can run both types of engines on the layout.

There will be a short section of track (siding) where helper engines can cut off the train and sit until they are needed or return to the lower level.

To be continued and a link to this whole build ( HERE ).

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