ThingX.1

Came home from visiting and went out to clean up the layout in prep for the demo. The recycling crew (ie: Me) gathered up all the pulled up track, ballast strip, track nails, feeder wires and various trash...

EF After Recycling Crew

Llyswen is now a site for spline cutting...

Spline Cutting Central

Which brings us to ThingX.1...

ThingX.1

I had to cut a spline for the experiment in the next paragraph and found I was cutting about 1 5/8" or so. I added a channel as a stop to make sure the splines come out exactly 1 7/8" to match the pink foam.

ThingX.1: Revised Drawing

This should make transitioning from slab to spline very easy.

As for the experiment...I tried to see how tight a curve I could make before the spline snapped. I managed to snap it on the first try. It happens pretty quickly so I wasn't able to see exactly what radius broke it. I tried again and bent it until I got here...

Very Tight Parabolic Curve

I wrote 3" radius as an approximation. I know it is quite a bit smaller because of the parabola the spline formed. It's basically a VERY tight curve with easements. Safe to say that the "normal" curve used on small N scale layouts can be constructed with no problem.

Bedtime.

Regards,
Frank Musick
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

Allegheny Eastern Railroad