Crossing the standard gauge

Track is now installed on the new section, including the broad 21" radius curve in the corner. I use yardsticks with holes drilled at 1" intervals to lay out my curves.  Here one yardstick is clamped to the benchwork to find the center of the curve in the aisle, and another is being used to mark the track centerline.  The shelf to the right is for the staging yard:

Since the Thomaston station is now located within the town itself, instead of outside of town as I originally planned, the railroad would have had to cross the Maine Central Rockport branch east of town. This could make for a neat scene, with a ball signal to control the crossing, so I decided to include it.

For the sake of reliability, I first glued down the narrow gauge track and then built the crossing in place using code 83 standard gauge track and rail. After laying ties made from styrene strip, the track sections were cut to fit and soldered to the narrow gauge track, and then short pieces of rail were cut, bent, and filed to form the guard rails and soldered inside the standard gauge rails. 

Next the flangeways for the standard gauge were cut into the narrow gauge track using a cut-off disc in a motor tool. Only the head and web of the rail were cut, leaving the base intact to conduct current across the diamond. After cleaning everything up with files and a track cleaner, I got out the rail bus to make sure everything still ran smoothly.   

The final step was installing guard rails on the narrow gauge. To avoid creating a short between the two rails (not an issue with the non-operating standard gauge track) I made these with plastic rail salvaged from the Walthers traveling crane kit that I turned into a stationary crane for the transfer track (see previous post here). After the track is painted and ballasted everything should blend together nicely. 

The ball signal and a maintenance shack are almost finished so I will post a mock-up of the entire scene soon.