Corked

This week saw new visitors to the Train Room, and the start and completion of a rather substantial track project.

My folks visited the house for the first time over the weekend, and my in-laws also visited on Memorial Day. We also had a couple of guest engineers.

My parents took the Amtrak Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle, and later from Seattle to Essex, Essex to Havre, and finally from Havre back to Chicago. They had fun, but it was a lot of Amtrak in a short amount of time. While in Essex, they stayed at the Izaak Walton Inn, which is a must-visit place for any railfan (www.izaakwaltoninn.com). They got me a neat tin sign for the train room too.

Head to Essex, MT and enjoy this place!

Over the weekend I purchased rolls of cork from the hobby supply store. Cork is placed under the track for a few reasons. It softens the ride for the trains, which lessens overall vibration and lengthens the life of locomotives and rolling stock. It decreases the loudness of the trains when running on the table. It is also used when adding ballast to the tracks for scenery purposes.

For this Layout, since it is not being scenic'd, I only require the cork under the already existing metal ties of the track. My wife and my mother both graciously helped cut the 300 pieces of cork required for this project on Saturday. They also cut a special piece of cork for the 45-degree cross-over track. My assistants also carefully removed all of the trains from the track and parked them on the floor for the project to proceed. My bride ran the trains around the track with the ZW to accomplish this.

Amber at the throttle!

On Sunday I installed cork on all of Track 1, and some of Track 2 and 3.

On Memorial Day, the trains were run for our guests (my brother-in-law helped me replace the trains on the track for the demonstration.) My mother, with some instruction from me, operated all four trains with the ZW transformer.

Yesterday I completed the cork installation and ran all trains successfully. Thank you very much to my helpers Amber and Joyce who made it possible to complete 100% of the track work in just a few days!

Joyce sends the trolley around Track 2

Cork installation in process

Also a very happy shout-out to the Steam Department at the Illinois Railway Museum (www.irm.org), for the successful running of the Frisco 2-10-0 locomotive for the first time in 10 years! It has undergone a complete refit. It is wonderful to see the engine running again - we watched it on the webcams on Memorial Day.

So, from the Midwest to the Pacific, and everywhere between, keep your rails shiny ~

Cork complete!