The Valley Track

I finished the buildings shortly before Christmas Break 2008. However, the kids were in for the holiday and I decided to spend the time with them instead of the layout. I did some thinking about what I was going to do, but didn't actually get anything done. After school started again in January I decided it was time to start work in the Valley.

I soldered the power leads to the track and to the phone jack for the Valley loop. I ran the Marklin Track Cleaner Car around the track for a while and then tried the Tanque Verde Line engine. In both instances I had a bit of trouble.

First, the valley walls were too close to the track. At a variety of places the engines would bump the valley walls and tended to stop. So I got out my hot wire foam cutter and removed foam so that the engines would clear. At the moment, each can run unhindered around the track. However, I'll need to put the tender and cars behind the steam engine before I can be sure enough about the clearance to feel safe gluing the track down.

The second problem was that I could see the engines "jiggle" a bit at several joints as they went round the track. Running my fingers over those joints, I could feel that one track was a bit higher than the other. The tracks had not been joined properly. After rejoining the tracks, the Tanque Verde engine runs around quite well. Again, I'll have to wait to try the entire train to see that I haven't missed anything.

I got back to the layout again on 24 January and hooked the tender to the engine. I like to try a little at a time, so I got the train running. I put the engine and tender onto the track at the straight section at the back of the valley and started it up. As soon as they got to the first curve, they stopped. I tried nudging them on and only succeeded in pushing one or the other off of the track. So I got them both back on the straightaway track and tried again. The engine kept stopping at the curve and I kept bumping them off the track. If I managed to nudge them forward through the curve, they would run fine across the next straight away and stop at the curve. I decided to think about it for a while.

The next day, on a hunch, I got out my Denver and Rio Grande Western engine and tender and tried them. No problem! So I swapped the Tanque Verde tender for the D&RGW tender. Again, no problem. So I put the four Tanque Verde passenger cars behind the tender. Around and around it went. No problem - although I did notice a jiggle at one point and found a spot where the tracks weren't joined properly.

So what is the problem? The D&RGW engine is 2-6-0 and the Tanque Verde engine is 4-6-0. In addition, the three pairs of drive wheels of the Tanque Verde engine extend over a slightly greater length than those of the D&RGW. So the Tanque Verde engine is a bit longer. Although it goes around the track fine by itself, the extra length of the longer engine coupled with the tender may not fit the curved track well and the extra friction may bring the combination to a halt. Unfortunately, the Tucson & El Dorado engine is identical in configuration to the Tanque Verde. So I may have the same problem when I get to the upper track. Looks like I'll probably have to find a couple more Denver & Rio Grande Western engines if I want trains running on my Old West Layout.

With the train problem "solved" and the valley walls cut away a bit more, I redrew the line around the inside of the track loop with a ball point pen (to differentiate the line from the original pencil line). I then removed the phone jack from the suitcase wall and set the track loop out. Next I placed a bead of

Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement around the track bed and set the track back down on top of it.

Be careful with that bead of glue! I put too much down here and there, which resulted in the glue coming up to about the top of the cross ties. I removed some of it with a plastic dropper and wiped away some of the mess with a cue tip. Then I weighted the track down with bottles of paint overnight while it dried.

The next day I found that a bit of the glue had been smeared onto the track while removing the excess glue. So I ran the Marklin Schienenrienigungswagen Track Cleaner and Gondola Track Cleaner (with the pad dry) cars around the track for a while. I removed a little of the glue with my fingernail where these had some trouble.

I tried the D&RGW engine and it ran fine. Then, for no good reason, I tried the engine and tender for the Tucson & El Dorado train. They ran fine! So I retried the the Tanque Verde engine and tender. They ran like the wind on the straight away, but needed prodding on the curves, as before, even after cleaning the