Using these techniques, I continued laying rail southward from
Noel, Missouri. This eventually brought me down to the lower
end of the layout, and the time to lay the complex track work
for the south throat of the Deremus freight yard. On model
railroads, complex track work such as this allows us to selec-
tively compress a lot of operating into a small space. In addi-
tion, the switch work enhances the prototypical appearance
and impresses visitors!
It’s been over 10 years since I constructed track like this for the
Kansas City Terminal Railway, so was a matter of refreshing my
skills. The first step was to lay the switches in position over the
tracks’ centerlines. This gave me a general idea of what kind of
cutting and fitting would be required [17]. Given the cost of a
double-slip switch or three-way switch, cutting the switches to fit
must go right the first time! To ensure this, I photo-
copied the switches and then cut and fit the paper
17. The switches temporarily laid in place.
17
templates. This allowed me to know exactly where the actual
switches should be cut. This junction required one double-slip
turnout, one double-crossover and one three-way turnout [18].
MRH-May 2014
