I have completed installation of the wye at Dolores on my version of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad. I made use of spline sub-roadbed to build smooth, eased curves leading into the wye, as well as the curved tracks of the wye itself. I used 3/16" thick lauan plywood to construct the wye. I cut leftover scrap lauan plywood into 1/2" wide by 8 foot long strips. These strips were laminated together to form the sub-roadbed. I am using 2" wide sub-roadbed to support Homasote roadbed made by
Cascade Rail Supply. This roadbed is supplied in two pieces, allowing curves to be made easily. The two-piece construction makes a solid sub-roadbed very desirable. I found that it required 11 strips of the lauan plywood, laminated together, to achieve the desired width.
As with Dolores, I chose to control the turnouts using
Berrett Hill Trains Touch Toggles. I used a
DCC Specialties OG-AR Auto Reverser salvaged from my previous layout to automatically change the polarity of the rails as the train is turned. The OG-AR has been replaced by the PSX-AR.
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| Overall view of the wye at Dolores. The mainline curves from the upper right of the photo to the lower left . It consists of 11 strips of lauan plywood laminated together using Titebond Ultimate III wood glue. |
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| The unfinished end of the laminated roadbed. The varying lengths of the lauan plywood strips is shown. This allows additional strips to be easily added. |
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| THe end of the wye, showing the Cascade Rail Supply two-piece Homasote roadbed. I marked the center strip of lauan plywood to ease installation of the roadbed. |
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| It takes a lot of clamps to glue the strips together! |
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| This is a small, inexpensive level available at local home centers. I used this to ensure the track was level from side-to-side, and that a consistent uphill grade was achieved. |
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| The electronic components required to control the turnouts and polarity of the wye. Top row: Berrett Hill Trains Touch Toggle components; consisting of 12 volt power supply, Tortoise connectors, 4 output Direct Base, and 4 Touch Toggles. Bottom row: DCC Specialties OG-AR automatic reverser. |
