The Wye at Dolores

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  The OG-AR has been replaced by the PSX-AR.

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. 

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.

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.

 

It takes a lot of clamps to glue the strips together!

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.

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.