Track Planning

I Have begun cutting sheets of 900mmx 700mm sheets of 3mm thick cork to the shape of the roadbed for the station yard and am measuring the track to fit. I started by positioning the points in their approximate positions so I can measure the lengths of flex track needed to fill the gaps. All up there are 17 points in the yard the entrances to the yard are all Peco code 75 large radius turnouts and the crossovers along the length of the yard are medium radius. Each point is powered by a PL10 point motor and will have an accessory switch to switch the frog polarity to enable good dcc running on the layout. The points are buried in holes cut through the foam, the underlying baseboard is drilled through to feed the cables. When the wiring is complete I will cover the holes with either card or more cork so they can be ballasted. On the cork i have roughly measured the path of the flex track to assist in laying straight lengths. I have also marked the position of the uncouplers which are yet to arrive in the mail. I will be using Kadee electromagnetic uncouplers there will be two in each road through the yard at each end of the yard as well as ones positioned at the entrance to the cattle siding, in front of the goods shed and at the end of the grain handling siding. Below shows the current progress. The first picture is the point motor attached to a peco turnout and the hole in the foam, the second photo shows the points positioned onto the cork and the track markings, the round black marks represent the position of the uncouplers at this end of the yard. The final photo shows the long straight section of planned track that runs between the goods shed and railway station building.