Test Layout

http://DansDepot.railfan.net

Requirements Mountain Loco Restoration

Excuse the photos I was having trouble with my flashgun.

Requirements

Various parts of the system needed debugging on a simple setup. I was able to pick up a pre owned layout which had been sitting dormant in a garage for quite some time. It did require a fair amount of renovation but with sander, hammer and the old trusty Dremel we got to work.

After the initial clean up.
The mountain had to go! The track was in bad shape and needed ripping up and cleaning. The mountain had been built onto the wooden platform(which turned out to be a household door)and took some getting off. I decided during the rebuild, to ensure it was a structural piece in itself so it can be removed for track maintenance.

Inside structure of mountain

with grass on top.

The new layout and siding with uncoupler and 3 sets of points.

The Loco

Before we started chopping into the loco here she is..

Restoration

Lifting the old track wasnt easy. I used pincers to remove the sleeper stakes and even then the plastic had become very brittle over time.Once lifted a good vacume to and dust down to clear the under track area. I used a palm sander with 400-600 grit sandpaper to touch up the top of the rails. I then polished the top with a dremel and its small wire brush attachment. The rail links had to all be removed and again the rail ends and links were wire brushed. This certainly fixed the lack of electrical conduction between the rail pieces.

Post note: I left part of the track unpolished to see what effect the extra wire brushing had. Within 2 week the unpolished track had started to surface rust causing electrical problems. The the polished track was still working fine.