Trackwork

Really? You break in a locomotive, but tracks? – Let me explain. My CNJ Bronx Terminal has  28 turnouts and 7 crossovers. When I built the individual pieces I always tested a single two- or three-way turnout and when an entire section was complete I’d also test the finished section. But those tests were never exhaustive: […]

Finally, by adding the last three-way turnout for tracks 9 and 10, I was able to close the loop. My track work for the CNJ Bronx Terminal is almost complete! The last section fits nicely with tracks already in place, including with the quadruple diamond section. I was worried that somehow the ends wouldn’t meet. With hand-laid track a

One of the hardest parts of the CNJ Bronx Terminal would be to make the quadruple diamond crossover. I delayed its construction as long as I could until, well, I had to build it. The diamond was not created to please the relentless railroad modeler but to cram a maximum amount of stub rails into the yard while still observing

With the inner circular track closed and the outer track progressing towards a full circle, the real fun can now begin. I haven’t given that much thought yet on how to build the track bed and to mount the track work on the bed. I’m not in a hurry – I still need the flexibility to modify the tracks,

There’s little doubt that the outer circular track with its 14 team tracks fanning out is the most challenging part of the CNJ Bronx Terminal. In order to succeed I’d also have to adapt my approach for building the track work. I mentioned earlier that for the more complicated turnouts I produced a design beforehand using a

Eager to get things done, I started the detail design and construction of some of the track work. I figured out that the Northwest section of the freight yard would be the easiest to start with. It had a few simple straight and curved turnouts but it also had the first challenge, a triple diamond where