Mosslanda: Defiance - inlaid turnout…
The ‘challenge’ in modelling this latest Mosslanda based layout was inlaid track in N, especially a turnout. I like these small projects to have something I’ve not tried before to give them some impetus and energy to move from sketchbook to reality, and with a ‘spare’ Code 55 turnout from Peco here in the workshop, as threatened yesterday, I could start straight away…
Peco N scale track is from a time of steam roller flanges and pizza cutter rims. This results in deep and wide flangeways that contribute to un-realistic ‘frog drop’ where modern finer wheels drop as they cross the gap between closure rails and frog. I described some modifications to a Peco turnout in a previous post to improve some of these areas - this work builds upon that turnout.
I considered British finescale track but the American models are not as keen on Code 40, especially the slightly older locomotives. The other option, I figured, was Arlas as I’ve not tried this before - and I must pick up a turnout for evaluation at some point. These look to have a slightly finer tolerance but a wider rail profile. Give and take…
But the Peco Code 55 N scale (finescale) turnout was here - some scraps of 30thou styrene from the parts box and some 15thou micro-strip plus careful cutting resulted in the above test. I removed the outer check rails, and set the left had piece at 5mm wide (because of the distance between closure rails at the tiebar) and 6mm at the frog end. The result was quite satisfying. Certainly from viewing angles, passable.
The result (above right, and top) is pleasing and captures the feel of the prototype nicely despite the clunky rail profile and compromise of using a pre-made turnout. Whilst the paint is likely to rub off this part if I’m not careful with the track rubber, it is easily re-touched. So, this is a success… next up a turnout mechanism to work in a Mosslanda shelf, and mimic the prototype. Watch this space! Until next time, more soon…
But the prototype has a metal gridding over the tiebar, and I wasn’t happy with the infill at the tiebar end of the turnout. I carefully cut this back, and added a 6mm wide piece at the toe of the turnout. The gap received a piece of folded metal mesh, which looked a little coarse (left below). I looked though my old etch box, stumbling upon some Kaslo shops bonnet door grilles from the RS23 kit, these were about 5.5mm square, and 3 (with one cut down) worked across the top of the previous mesh…
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This is an object lesson in planning to view the layout at near scale eye-level, and not from a helicopter. As previously suggested, look at the model as if looking over a low fence while sitting on your bike. The gap between rail and the infill of inlaid track is minimised.
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