Your rail joiner tool, if you bend the tip of the rail at 1/2 of the length of the joiner, then you can use the tool to push the joiners on. Put half the joiner onto the tool with the bent rail, then using the tool, push the joiner onto your rails that you already laid. I am not sure if the explanation makes sense.
There's a certain satisfaction in handlaying track that I find to be one of the most rewarding aspects of the entire trackwork portion of the hobby. After a couple false starts and awkward moments, I've decided that working from turnouts outward to the ends of spurs makes life much easier than that terrible realization your 6 foot mainline is 1/4 inch off from where those 3 turnouts and a turntable lead absolutely must go. Arrgh! I haven't used Pliobond. Gorilla Glue offers some interesting possibilities. The foaming, non-foaming, and CA thick Gel all can work. A chisel blade in an X-acto holder makes short work of getting rid of the foamed glue blobs; much quicker than I initially feared once I saw the glue foam out.
Having a gap is my nightmare and I try to strategize as best as possible to avoid it. The pliobond can leave a little bit of sheen that I don't really like and it doesn't except wash/stain, but at a reasonable viewing distance it isn't very noticeable. I hadn't considered CA or polyurethane glue. In my experience CA doesn't do a great job bonding metal to wood, but that could just be me.
Congratulations, you are the first place winner of the Bowser Covered Hopper giveaway. You can find my email address on my channel page. Please get in touch with me to make arrangements.
Great job on the yard! Always good when you can get extra help! As always look forward to the next video. Keep them coming! And a give away! What a bonus.
Go for it! I'm thinking of doing another video soon with a few more details on my approach to hand laying track. Sometimes it can be difficult to demonstrate all the nuance that goes into modeling.
Thank you Drew. With the prices of track these days. I am now looking into hand laying my yards. I have the fast tracks Jigs to build my ladders. So I guess I should jump to it. Thank you for showing me a yard is not as big a deal as I am making it out to be in my head. Thanks.
Incredible work Drew! I’m enjoying these yard videos and they are very helpful. I’m a bit perplexed and challenged as I put together a yard on my railroad. Thanks
Nice job on the yard Drew! You'll be shunting cars in no time! I'm really looking forward to doing a multi-turnout piece as well since you kind of gotten me hooked on making my own turnouts. Best of luck to all who enter your contest! - Jason
Thanks, Jason. I'll need to lay down the switching lead before I can do ops here. Building these turnouts is so much fun. I think I might make another multi-turn out piece for the engine service section.
Wow that's awesome work. I love how intricate this hobby is. Your railroad scheme reminds of the Siver Dollar City Railroad in Branson, Mo. Which is awesome!
Very impressive work Drew! Keep it up and looking forward to seeing more progress on your layout. My grandfather worked for the KCS out of Pittsburg, Kansas and your white river line reminds me of where he used to work. Happy railroading and be safe Benjamintrains!
Looks like it's coming along great! I model N scale, everyone at my local club does HO. I told them about your channel and they're all impressed with how you're hand laying the track.
Congratulations, you are the second place winner of the Bowser Covered Hopper giveaway. You can find my email address on my channel page. Please get in touch with me to make shipping arrangements.
@@WhiteRiverLine I don't even remember entering a contest .... but thanks, I appreciate it. What is the" build date" on the covered hopper??? If it is after 1971 it would probably not get built. Just saying ..... please feel free to pass it along to another who "needs" more cars on their layout. No offense intended. Hope you understand.
@@railartist001 No offense take. The build date is 53. You can find a photo of it here, ruclips.net/user/postUgkxd3Klj-lq8OSZOySZi9NjQihl_iACbfWc It is the one on the left.
The layout and trackwork is looking excellent. Have you considered ballasting the ties before you lay the rail? You can achieve superb results this way, especially for tangent track. Cheers ~ Boomer.
I hadn’t even thought of that. Might give it a try. I’m still not sure what technique I’m going to use to weather the rail and I imagine that would impact ballasting before or after.
@@WhiteRiverLine There are many advantages to "hand-laid" track and this is one of them. If you pre-paint the rail and then spike it down you get a real nice "sharp" weathered look to your trackage. This is what I used to do in O Scale and it looks really good.😁
@@WhiteRiverLine I just pre-solder short jumpers (leads). Don't strip the end until after painting rail and drilling hole in sub structure, feed through, strip and solder to bus. Once the track is spiked, clean the top of the rail. It's one way of doing it. Just go with whatever you are comfortable with. Cheers.
Amazing work. I still purchase my track and turnouts, but try to weather them up like you do. That GT hopper would be perfect on my layout! Thanks for the vids. Like the background music too. Cheers!
Your track is coming together nicely. I too built a tool for the ME jointers, I put a tapper on both sides of the rail, kinda like you do to make the point rail. I.v never had much luck with the soldering iron o get the Ply Bond to eneale. I started using an old clothes iron to heat the rail to get the glue to set. Kinda like ironing clothes only ironing rail instead.
You are an Incredible Modeler. I would have nowhere near the patience for hand laying all my track. Excellent work, can’t wait to see your nearly complete (model railroads are never fully complete lol) railroad. Happy Modeling.
That Looks great again Drew! Did you think about painting the soldered ties before gluing the ladder down? How are you going to connect the yard to the main line? Will you do a crossover after going around the curve? I really hope it works as good as it Looks. Can‘t wait to See your consolidación moving around in the yard!
Thanks for watching, Mishell. The issue with painting the PCBs first is that despite using primer the paint is pretty delicate. In my experience, it chips easily. I knew that I would need to handle this piece a lot during install, so that is why I waited. The yard will connect to the main just like you suggest, with a crossover after the curve. Yes, hope it works well too.
Drew, keep up the awesome content! Your calm and methodical build process is very much appreciated. You've given me the confidence to start building my own turnouts this winter holiday for my upcoming layout.
I've got a gap. If you consider this section as the left side of the layout, the gap is kind of in the bottom right corner. It is currently a lift gate, but I might go with a lift out instead. I've kind of gone back and forth on it.
@@WhiteRiverLine what about a swing out? I see where others are having better success with a swing out gate than lift up bridges or lift out sections. NSmodeler24 and Crooked River & Eastern RR are a couple of channels that have a swing out. - Jason
@@TheTrainFreak Maybe. I'll check that out. The problem with the liftgate is that'll have to have a gap in the rails because of the hinge, probably at least 1/16", which makes me nervous. I'll figure something out.
Maybe it's an N scale thing, but I only solder the outside of the rail. Do you ever have issues with the wheel flanges hitting the solder on the inside?
I don't use much solder and most of it flows into the joiner at the base of the rail. Some solder does get on the web, but it is well inside the outside edge of the head. My spikes are more likely to interfere with the wheels than the solder. I do suspect that scale makes a difference though.
Great looking track Drew. As I am seriously considering swapping to O scale or On30 because of not so steady hands, you can leave me out of the contest. Question, I have heard pros and cons on this, is there any benefit to sanding the ties where the rail joiner sits? Story is that the joiner sitting on a tie causes a small bump. In my one experience in hand laying track I did not do this, so maybe this is just a bit of over thinking???
Thanks, Jack. O scale seems like it has a lot of opportunity for great detail and if I had the space (and money I understand the rolling stock is a little expensive), I'd consider it too. I hadn't really considered the bump in the rail at the joiner. In working with it I haven't really noticed anything but the Micro Engineering joiners I use are considerably thinner than, say, Atlas joiners.
@@WhiteRiverLine Thanks for the reply Drew. I used the wrong name in my initial reply and have fixed it. O scale is pricy. Fortunately I have 2 On30 locos and a O scale standard gauge also. Cars, well I would prefer to build them and not buy RTR. We'll see. I have been dealing with the shaky hands bit for a few years now. I am going to seek out some alternative medical help and see if the rumors are true that it can be corrected.
Hey beautiful work on the layout. Few questions, first what do you use for ties, I heard you cut your own so I was curious and second what would you suggest for switch building if you don’t have a large jig or pcb strips. Thanks from Sarasota FL, Tyler
I used 3/32" square basswood strips. I've provided a link in the description to the product on Amazon. I cut them down with my chopit from Micromark. You can find more on my process here, ruclips.net/video/WLCBTk8H-ms/видео.html. You can build switches using paper templates. I do sometime similar, although a bit more complex, here, ruclips.net/video/dB56x0WNXXg/видео.html. However PCBs are key to the process. I don't think I've seen any technique that doesn't require PCBs.
I don't get much help from the kids, but occasionally. They all stay pretty busy and often modeling is my alone time for my mental health. My oldest is an excellent artist and has a really great eye for color. I get her advise frequently when I'm painting. I'm looking to get them a little more involved.
@@WhiteRiverLine hey there's nothing wrong with getting some alone time for something your passionate about. My parents have let me use the guest bedroom as a train room. Starting to build my first layout since I was a kid has really helped my mental health.
Wait, wait, wait! KC Champions shirt, but you live in DENVER? You should be an enemy of the KC Cheifs and you should be rooting for the Broncos instead! Power to you on hand laying track!
Drew, I’m really impressed that you are building your own turnouts and hand laying track on your layout. Very impressive.
Your rail joiner tool, if you bend the tip of the rail at 1/2 of the length of the joiner, then you can use the tool to push the joiners on. Put half the joiner onto the tool with the bent rail, then using the tool, push the joiner onto your rails that you already laid. I am not sure if the explanation makes sense.
That makes sense. I might give that a try. Thanks, Heath.
Nothing better than my Friday morning coffee and a video from the White River Line! Looking great Drew!
Thanks, Yukon.
There's a certain satisfaction in handlaying track that I find to be one of the most rewarding aspects of the entire trackwork portion of the hobby. After a couple false starts and awkward moments, I've decided that working from turnouts outward to the ends of spurs makes life much easier than that terrible realization your 6 foot mainline is 1/4 inch off from where those 3 turnouts and a turntable lead absolutely must go. Arrgh!
I haven't used Pliobond. Gorilla Glue offers some interesting possibilities. The foaming, non-foaming, and CA thick Gel all can work. A chisel blade in an X-acto holder makes short work of getting rid of the foamed glue blobs; much quicker than I initially feared once I saw the glue foam out.
Having a gap is my nightmare and I try to strategize as best as possible to avoid it. The pliobond can leave a little bit of sheen that I don't really like and it doesn't except wash/stain, but at a reasonable viewing distance it isn't very noticeable. I hadn't considered CA or polyurethane glue. In my experience CA doesn't do a great job bonding metal to wood, but that could just be me.
I admire your dedication and the fine work you are doing. The hobby brings family closer, and your son there is proof :) Be safe!!
Thank you. We enjoyed our time together.
I am really enjoying the build. Don't forget eye protection when snipping those rails!
Good call!
Your doing an awesome job and glad to see the younger generation get involved keep it up
Thanks. I'm prepping to teach a model building merit badge class to some scouts. Kids really love this stuff.
Nice work Drew. One suggestion: wear some sort of eye protection when you're spiking. Those little things can really cause some serious damage.
Noted!
Currently building a yard myself, the ladder build and this gave me a lot of great tips. Thanks Drew! Great work!
Glad it was helpful.
Congratulations, you are the first place winner of the Bowser Covered Hopper giveaway. You can find my email address on my channel page. Please get in touch with me to make arrangements.
Great job on the yard! Always good when you can get extra help! As always look forward to the next video. Keep them coming! And a give away! What a bonus.
Thanks again for watching, John. It was fun to do a little work together. Mimi is a great helper.
Excellent! I’m going to be working on a freelance logging line, and I’m leaning towards hand laying the track. Your videos help inspire confidence!
Go for it! I'm thinking of doing another video soon with a few more details on my approach to hand laying track. Sometimes it can be difficult to demonstrate all the nuance that goes into modeling.
Another great informative video on track laying. Showing the vulcanization step for the Pliobond was something I hadn't seen before.
It seems to work pretty well
I enjoy watching you lay the track and progress along, great job. Cheers
Thanks, Don.
A family project 👌
Thank you Drew. With the prices of track these days. I am now looking into hand laying my yards. I have the fast tracks Jigs to build my ladders. So I guess I should jump to it. Thank you for showing me a yard is not as big a deal as I am making it out to be in my head. Thanks.
I was intimidated by it to, but just tried to take it one step at a time.
Incredible work Drew! I’m enjoying these yard videos and they are very helpful. I’m a bit perplexed and challenged as I put together a yard on my railroad. Thanks
Glad they are helpful.
Nice job on the yard Drew! You'll be shunting cars in no time! I'm really looking forward to doing a multi-turnout piece as well since you kind of gotten me hooked on making my own turnouts. Best of luck to all who enter your contest! - Jason
Thanks, Jason. I'll need to lay down the switching lead before I can do ops here. Building these turnouts is so much fun. I think I might make another multi-turn out piece for the engine service section.
Wow that's awesome work. I love how intricate this hobby is. Your railroad scheme reminds of the Siver Dollar City Railroad in Branson, Mo. Which is awesome!
I loved riding the Frisco train at Silver Dollar City when I was a kid.
Very impressive work Drew! Keep it up and looking forward to seeing more progress on your layout. My grandfather worked for the KCS out of Pittsburg, Kansas and your white river line reminds me of where he used to work. Happy railroading and be safe Benjamintrains!
Thanks, Benjamin.
Looks like it's coming along great!
I model N scale, everyone at my local club does HO. I told them about your channel and they're all impressed with how you're hand laying the track.
Thanks for watching and sharing with others.
Outstanding presentation and even better work being done on the ladder track. Keep up the good work !!!!
Thanks so much. I felt really intimidated by that build, but it has turned out pretty well.
Congratulations, you are the second place winner of the Bowser Covered Hopper giveaway. You can find my email address on my channel page. Please get in touch with me to make shipping arrangements.
@@WhiteRiverLine I don't even remember entering a contest .... but thanks, I appreciate it. What is the" build date" on the covered hopper??? If it is after 1971 it would probably not get built. Just saying ..... please feel free to pass it along to another who "needs" more cars on their layout. No offense intended. Hope you understand.
@@railartist001 No offense take. The build date is 53. You can find a photo of it here, ruclips.net/user/postUgkxd3Klj-lq8OSZOySZi9NjQihl_iACbfWc It is the one on the left.
Pretty cool! Love it.
The layout and trackwork is looking excellent. Have you considered ballasting the ties before you lay the rail? You can achieve superb results this way, especially for tangent track. Cheers ~ Boomer.
I hadn’t even thought of that. Might give it a try. I’m still not sure what technique I’m going to use to weather the rail and I imagine that would impact ballasting before or after.
@@WhiteRiverLine There are many advantages to "hand-laid" track and this is one of them. If you pre-paint the rail and then spike it down you get a real nice "sharp" weathered look to your trackage. This is what I used to do in O Scale and it looks really good.😁
How does prepainting impact soldering the jumpers?
@@WhiteRiverLine I just pre-solder short jumpers (leads). Don't strip the end until after painting rail and drilling hole in sub structure, feed through, strip and solder to bus. Once the track is spiked, clean the top of the rail. It's one way of doing it. Just go with whatever you are comfortable with. Cheers.
Thanks, Boomer.
Great job! I would love to have one of those 2 bay hoppers!
You're in!
Great tip on the rail jointer tool.
Yeah, my buddy Keith did me a solid on that one.
Wow what a project that is but it sure looks good!!
Yeah I kinda bit off a lot. Thanks.
Amazing work. I still purchase my track and turnouts, but try to weather them up like you do. That GT hopper would be perfect on my layout! Thanks for the vids. Like the background music too. Cheers!
Thanks for watching, Derek. Turnouts can get quite expensive. I'l probably get to weathering the rail in next couple of months too.
You lay some beautiful track!
Thanks, Matt.
Your track is coming together nicely. I too built a tool for the ME jointers, I put a tapper on both sides of the rail, kinda like you do to make the point rail. I.v never had much luck with the soldering iron o get the Ply Bond to eneale. I started using an old clothes iron to heat the rail to get the glue to set.
Kinda like ironing clothes only ironing rail instead.
Thanks for the tips! I think I'm going to work another track laying video where I'll concentrate on tips and tricks.
Maybe you have convinced me to give hand laid track a go besides the turnouts.
Give it a shot.
Wonderful job! I’ve really enjoyed your series
Thanks, Colin.
You are an Incredible Modeler. I would have nowhere near the patience for hand laying all my track. Excellent work, can’t wait to see your nearly complete (model railroads are never fully complete lol) railroad. Happy Modeling.
Thanks, Steve. There is so much more work to be done, but I'm hoping to get some wiring done soon and run a train.
Layout looks great!! Thinking of trying hand laid rail for my new Ho scale layout
Go for it.
That Looks great again Drew! Did you think about painting the soldered ties before gluing the ladder down? How are you going to connect the yard to the main line? Will you do a crossover after going around the curve? I really hope it works as good as it Looks. Can‘t wait to See your consolidación moving around in the yard!
Thanks for watching, Mishell. The issue with painting the PCBs first is that despite using primer the paint is pretty delicate. In my experience, it chips easily. I knew that I would need to handle this piece a lot during install, so that is why I waited.
The yard will connect to the main just like you suggest, with a crossover after the curve. Yes, hope it works well too.
Drew, keep up the awesome content! Your calm and methodical build process is very much appreciated. You've given me the confidence to start building my own turnouts this winter holiday for my upcoming layout.
Thanks, Kicker. That's great to hear that your are building your own turnouts. They are a lot of fun.
In the beginning, it looks like you are inside the layout. Is there a duckunder, or is there a gap in the benchwork to get out of there?
I've got a gap. If you consider this section as the left side of the layout, the gap is kind of in the bottom right corner. It is currently a lift gate, but I might go with a lift out instead. I've kind of gone back and forth on it.
@@WhiteRiverLine what about a swing out? I see where others are having better success with a swing out gate than lift up bridges or lift out sections. NSmodeler24 and Crooked River & Eastern RR are a couple of channels that have a swing out. - Jason
@@TheTrainFreak Maybe. I'll check that out. The problem with the liftgate is that'll have to have a gap in the rails because of the hinge, probably at least 1/16", which makes me nervous. I'll figure something out.
Giveaway, if I win, I want the car decaled foe the White River Line RR.
Oh great, now I need to figure out where I can get custom decals printed. LOL
@@WhiteRiverLine Only if I win. And I am a winner!
Maybe it's an N scale thing, but I only solder the outside of the rail. Do you ever have issues with the wheel flanges hitting the solder on the inside?
I don't use much solder and most of it flows into the joiner at the base of the rail. Some solder does get on the web, but it is well inside the outside edge of the head. My spikes are more likely to interfere with the wheels than the solder. I do suspect that scale makes a difference though.
Great looking track Drew. As I am seriously considering swapping to O scale or On30 because of not so steady hands, you can leave me out of the contest.
Question, I have heard pros and cons on this, is there any benefit to sanding the ties where the rail joiner sits? Story is that the joiner sitting on a tie causes a small bump. In my one experience in hand laying track I did not do this, so maybe this is just a bit of over thinking???
Thanks, Jack. O scale seems like it has a lot of opportunity for great detail and if I had the space (and money I understand the rolling stock is a little expensive), I'd consider it too.
I hadn't really considered the bump in the rail at the joiner. In working with it I haven't really noticed anything but the Micro Engineering joiners I use are considerably thinner than, say, Atlas joiners.
@@WhiteRiverLine Thanks for the reply Drew. I used the wrong name in my initial reply and have fixed it.
O scale is pricy. Fortunately I have 2 On30 locos and a O scale standard gauge also. Cars, well I would prefer to build them and not buy RTR. We'll see. I have been dealing with the shaky hands bit for a few years now. I am going to seek out some alternative medical help and see if the rumors are true that it can be corrected.
Please enter me!
More good stuff! If I win the giveaway just leave the cars as is. I will finish. Thanks
Thanks, Charlie. Good luck.
Hey beautiful work on the layout. Few questions, first what do you use for ties, I heard you cut your own so I was curious and second what would you suggest for switch building if you don’t have a large jig or pcb strips.
Thanks from Sarasota FL, Tyler
I used 3/32" square basswood strips. I've provided a link in the description to the product on Amazon. I cut them down with my chopit from Micromark. You can find more on my process here, ruclips.net/video/WLCBTk8H-ms/видео.html.
You can build switches using paper templates. I do sometime similar, although a bit more complex, here, ruclips.net/video/dB56x0WNXXg/видео.html. However PCBs are key to the process. I don't think I've seen any technique that doesn't require PCBs.
I was just wondering earlier this week if you ever get any help from your kids
I don't get much help from the kids, but occasionally. They all stay pretty busy and often modeling is my alone time for my mental health. My oldest is an excellent artist and has a really great eye for color. I get her advise frequently when I'm painting. I'm looking to get them a little more involved.
@@WhiteRiverLine hey there's nothing wrong with getting some alone time for something your passionate about. My parents have let me use the guest bedroom as a train room. Starting to build my first layout since I was a kid has really helped my mental health.
That's for sure. Taking time to take care of myself makes me a better husband and father, but it's a balance.
Wait, wait, wait! KC Champions shirt, but you live in DENVER? You should be an enemy of the KC Cheifs and you should be rooting for the Broncos instead! Power to you on hand laying track!
Missouri born and bred, and I guess I’m just too loyal.
@@WhiteRiverLine I'm born and raised in Kansas but 1000% Raiders fan!
@@CONTAINERMAN68 I've got a buddy like that from Hayes, die-hard Raider fan. I'm not sure how that happens, LOL.
Nice work Drew. One suggestion: wear some sort of eye protection when you're spiking. Those little things can really cause some serious damage.
Good tip!