Taking the leap...handlaid track begins!

I decided to take the leap and get the ball rolling on handlaying the track. The ties were already in place on the masonite roadbed, so I began by soldering lengths of Code 55 rail together two at a time. These double lengths of rail are easier to bend smoothly through long sections of curve.

Straight sections are fairly easy to lay, though it can be challenging to keep them truly "straight." Luckily I'm modeling a more rural, backwoods operation :-)

Using my combine as a test car:

In the above shot, you can see we will soon be needing some bridges. I love scratch-building with scale lumber; perhaps it's a hold-over from my 1:1 world interest in woodworking. I decided I would draw out a quick template and construct the deck of the bridge out of stained scale basswood. The stain I used was Minwax "Special Walnut," which came out a bit too yellow-y. I'm probably going to end up toning things down with an india ink wash, or some chalks/pastels.

Here's the ties on the template, stuck down using double-sided tape. I am building the deck face-down, and the stringers will hold everything together. You can see the two PC board ties in there; I realized too late I made the error of not gapping them before installing! Whoops!

Found several bags of these mini-clamps at the 99 cent store; they are perfect for applications like this.

As I progress on the track laying and bridge building I will post more. Hopefully a video of the first run will be up soon! Huzzah!