I managed to get the last turnout and assembled the interchange that connects to the railway station platform. Anselm had picked up two left R4-15 degree turnouts from Germany for me. I just couldn't wait until November. That's when Minitrix is starting up their production run. Since Marklin went into receivership, parts are in short supply in North America.
I used the XtrackCad software to figure out the necessary pieces without having to cut any track. Unfortunately the dimensions of the Minitrix track pieces in the software weren't correct so I had to measure it with a ruler and figure out the pieces manually. As a consequence, I'm going to also measure the full length of the interchange before I construct the table. Speaking of the table, I think I'm slowly converging on the overall design of the tables. It's a little complicated involving single pass and sliding dovetail joins. Since the train layout has an architectural theme, I thought the construction of the table should be like a nice piece of furniture to complement the layout. Right now, I'm checking out various dovetail jigs. I like the Leigh jig, but it's very expensive. Unfortunately, there aren't many hardware stores in town that sell dovetail jigs so my choices are limited.
I used the XtrackCad software to figure out the necessary pieces without having to cut any track. Unfortunately the dimensions of the Minitrix track pieces in the software weren't correct so I had to measure it with a ruler and figure out the pieces manually. As a consequence, I'm going to also measure the full length of the interchange before I construct the table. Speaking of the table, I think I'm slowly converging on the overall design of the tables. It's a little complicated involving single pass and sliding dovetail joins. Since the train layout has an architectural theme, I thought the construction of the table should be like a nice piece of furniture to complement the layout. Right now, I'm checking out various dovetail jigs. I like the Leigh jig, but it's very expensive. Unfortunately, there aren't many hardware stores in town that sell dovetail jigs so my choices are limited.
