A thick slab of Kato Unitram track

I've been spending most of my modelling time working on the E. L. Moore book. When I've needed a mental break, actual model making didn't appeal, but futzing with layout building did.

I sort of scared myself when I saw the last time I posted on this little layout was December third, and here we are in the second half of January. All I can say is that working on the book is sucking back a lot of time, but in between figuring out where to put commas, and usually failing, I have been breathing in styrofoam dust - hmm, which might account for the comma problem.

The next layout job I had to do was drill some holes to snake the wiring through the slab. There were two pairs of holes to drill: one pair for the power leads for each track, and a second pair for the switch machine toggle switches on the inner loop. 

I used a 1" diameter bit held in a brace for this task. I think that brace is quite ancient as I believe it came across to Canada with my grandfather. It's a fine piece of English engineering and I greatly enjoy using it whenever I can, even on a piddly little task like boring holes in foam. 

Ok, there are the four holes, bored all the way through to the bottom of the slab. 

The next thing was to bore four holes in the slab's sides to intersect with those I drilled down from the top. The power feeds are going to pop out the sides for connecting to a power pack, and the switch machine wires are going to connect with side mounted toggle switches.

I used the same 1" diameter bit to bore out these holes.

At this point all the holes are bored out, and I've flipped over the track to test that I can snake the wiring through the holes and run some cars to make sure the track is still functioning. 

At this point the slab's sides are still quite rough. Smoothing them a bit before the track was attached was the next job.

This meant using another ancient tool: my grandfather's wood rasp. It's the same vintage as the brace, and this is a rather trivial job for it. So, with rasp and sanding block I smoothed down the foam sides and got it to more-or-less conform with the track's perimeter. Over there you can see the result. Later, when the track was stuck down, I came back and did some more smoothing to finish it off.

So, I flipped the track upside down again and did the final preparation for sticking it in place.

First was to glue scraps of styrene over the holes that run down the centre of the track for the overhead wiring poles. Since this is an HO-9 layout, those holes won't be used for anything. They'll be filled with putty, and the styrene helps prevent putty from squirting out the bottom.

The next thing was to change the setting on the two switches that are on the street end from their factory setting of 'power routing' to 'non power routing'. I did this to prevent any odd power problems originating from that end of the layout if a visitor absentmindedly started fiddling with the switches, and to allow for layout expansion - a rather unlikely development I admit. Well, if you were going to add a stub loop like this one on a large layout, you'd need to have these switches on non power routing to prevent disruption of movements in the loop. Anyway, if you're going to make such a change, follow the instructions on the card that comes with the switch.

I then used a black Sharpie pen to outline the track on the foam. This was to give me a guide for placing the transfer tape that was used to stick down the track.

Ah, transfer tape, it's a miracle tape as far as I'm concerned. 

To hold the track in place I stuck down transfer tape along the inner and outer edges of the track plan. In the photo its been placed, and all that needs to be done is to peel off the paper backing from the exposed side and place the track on top. This is easier said than done. Flipping the track on the tape and getting it aligned is a tricky maneuver. Sorry, I have no photos or videos of the action, as my hands were occupied getting the track in place.

In the end though I did get the track properly positioned and stuck down.

At this point there was some more work with the rasp and sanding block to finish the slab side smoothing to get a nice edge with the track sides. 

Also, some thin foam - some leftover packing from a desk that was delivered over the Christmas holidays - was stuck down between the tracks to level off the surface. Transfer tape was also used to hold that in place.

Here's what the curved end looks like after rasping and sanding. It's not too bad. Although, here's a tip: don't wear a woolly sweater while smoothing no matter how cold the basement is :-)

There was one more thing to do before painting the slab's sides black. I added a trim strip of 0.020" styrene to cover the gaps between the track and foam. It was attached with transfer tape, and the strip's upper edge was glued to the track's edge with styrene glue. 

Once the glue was dry I primed the sides with gesso, and then painted on two coats of black acrylic paint. 

I'm quite happy with how this is turning out, but I think it's time to get back to the book.