January 2004: We Lay the Last (M) Track, and Get Creative with Catenary...
It's 2004, and to kick off the new year, I spent two days in Cincy to help put down the last of the Marklin M-track. That's right, the "Nebenbahn", or branch line, took shape over two days and fulfilled all our expectations.
David had picked up a Bemo "Glacier Express" locomotive and cars on a visit to Switzerland, and had always wanted to have this train running in the mountains behind the Thomsonbahn. Well, far be it for me to turn down this request, so the original Thomsonbahn design called for not only the Glacier Express line, but also a branch line from the main station to an end station where the Preiserlings from town could make excursions up to ride said Express. The track plan called for an intermediate station with a passing siding, so that one train could be going up the mountain while another was coming down, and the two would pass at this intermediate station. It was a concept not uncommon on German branch lines, and one which offered some additional "railroading fun" on the layout.
We used the tried-and-true method we had perfected during construction of the spaghetti section, and in no time flat, the homasote and plywood were cut and fitted. The initial elevation of the Glacier Express was abandoned, as it would have required a 7% grade on the helix up from the main station, and David and I settled on a 5% grade (love that Insider grade measurement car!).
That's how the branch line looks from the door of the train room. The station "up top" has a passing siding, and with two tracks in the station below, David could have a total of four trains going up and down the mountain. Don't worry- the RAM TEE probably won't be one of them - it was just a "tester".
This is the helix with the intermediate station. When the scenery is in place, a high mountain will cover most of the helix. Note the fact that the access hole is still useable. In one spot, trains pass around the exit hole on 5 levels!
Another view of the helix...
... and from behind the station tracks...
The branch line wasn't the only thing we concentrated on in January. David and I also began the task of putting in catenary in some places we had been avoiding. You see, in order to minimize the grade up to the main station from the spaghetti section, the elevation difference between the two was very, very small, and regular catenary masts and wires would not fit. After lengthy discussions and some experiments, we decided to stick with Marklin catenary, albeit in modified form...
It's not easy to tell from the picture above, but the tops of two catenary masts have been cut off in the photograph's middle. Also, the top of the catenary wires has also been cut, and so a single strand of wire, with the wire loop on the end, hold the wire over the rails. This works surprisingly well, and solved most problems.
Here you can see how the wire top has been cut off, and only the bottom piece of the Marklin catenary wire is used. In this spot, there was no space to even put a mast, so the wire was hot-glued to the bottom of the plywood. This worked amazingly well, though David and I still need to run EVERY electric locomotive trough the whole layout to prove that the pantographs won't get snagged anywhere.
Take another look at the photo above. Does anything strike you as unusual about the catenary cross-spans? Specifically, take a look at the cross-span closest to this end of the station...
You may have noticed that the span is just a little wider than anything Marklin has ever produced! Well, because of track and signal spacing issues (see the four cross-over switches in the photo above the preceding one), it was necessary for one cross-span to cover an extra two inches of track. The solution? A soldering iron, solder, an extra catenary cross-span, and Patience, Patience, Patience! By splicing in an extra chunk of catenary cross-span to an existing cross-span, we were able to put the masts where we wanted them, and the beauty of the design is that it is almost impossible to see the splice! The photo above shows the extra piece, right in the middle.
Catenary and branch lines weren't the only things on the "menu". In addition, Dave had been lamenting the lack of siding space for his freight cars. Sure, we had several freight sidings already on the layout, but David really wanted a few more. Well, where there is a will, there is a way, and by eecking out the last square inch of train room space and making it useable train area, David was able to add another freight yard to his empire.
In all, David was able to add a total of seven tracks (six in the back and one in the front). It may not seem like much, but even those shorty sidings will hold a good number of cars, plus the added yard makes for even more shunting enjoyment. Bravo, Dave!