Start Up, Again - Late May 2022

I have done practically nothing with my Old West Layout since I retired in the spring of 2010. My last Old West Layout post was probably in late 2011 or early 2012. Sorry about that. But I’ve been thinking about trying to finish it lately. I’ve been reading my posts about the layout to familiarize myself with what I’ve done so far.

I still have to place some items in the lower level, but would like to make some progress on the upper level first.

I found the turnout that was to give access to a short track to a mine (that’s not installed yet.) I inserted the turnout into the upper track. I’d already installed some track on it to go back to the mine. It’s been so long since I bought the turnout that I’ve forgotten how it functions. It has a couple of wires that suggests that it can be operated electrically, but, since the track to the mine will be for looks only, I’ll eventually remove these wires. The turnout also has a manual control. I’ll eventually have to glue it so the track is permanently set to straight-through. The side-track to the mine will also need to be shortened to fit inside the suitcase.

Examining the track, I saw that the trestle was slightly higher than ground level. I’ll have to provide a grade approaching and departing the trestle before gluing the track down.

The first thing that I did was to solder the electrical leads for the track in place. I then poked the excess wiring down between the foam so that it was out of sight and out of the way.

I hooked up the power supply and plugged it into the suitcase. Unfortunately, after setting exposed for the past 10 years or so, the track was too dirty to supply more than a minimal amount of power to the engine I put on it. The engine’s light would shine, but the engine would not move. I wet a Q-tip with a little Heet and cleaned a little of the track. The engine would move, but not well. I cleaned the rest of the track with some Heet on a paper towel and put the track cleaner car on. I eventually got it to run all the way around at a good speed, but it consistently stopped at the turn off. A little nudge and away it would go again. The engine still barely moves, so more cleaning is probably called for. This might be easier after the track is glued down.

In order to construct the grade approaching and departing the trestle I dug through my supplies and found two 16 oz. cartons of Woodland Scenics Subterrain Foam Putty. One of the Foam Putty cartons was marked “Open” and had about a quarter-container of dried foam.

Before opening the other carton of Foam Putty I decided to try reconstituting the dried foam. I added a little water, began breaking up the solid, and stirred. This did not work, even after letting the carton set overnight, it still looked like cottage cheese. I opened the second carton and found that, although it had not dried completely in 10 years, it was dry enough that it was no longer putty-like. I hoped that Woodland Scenics was still in business.

They are. So I ordered a fresh 16 oz. carton of Foam Putty. Z.Scale.Hobo was also still in business. So I ordered a Peter Post Z Track Cleaning Tool/Kit.

When the Foam Putty came I constructed the grade approaching and departing the trestle. I waited for it to dry.