Thank you! If you do grapes, let me know how they turn out! (There's a reason I set the scene in Spring :) There are more photos & description in the Nov. 2013 issue of Model Railroad Hobbyist: forum.mrhmag.com/post/build-a-shoofly-scene-12195017

I'm setting my scene in Washington, State (I model the BNSF in N-scale) and in the Fall post harvest so no grapes. I actually found a winery called the Confluence Winery that is near the tracks in Richland, WA. Also, I discovered JTT Vines to buy ($10 for 24 trees) that will save me the construction of the vines. @@mcfujiwara925

Yes-this is for joints of an interior section of a 3-section module. The endplates of the module are standard Free-moN centered single-track butt joints. Side note: the interior section of this module has the same track spacing on either side, so the curved center piece could be used either direction, thus bending the long yard one way or another 15º.

The PCB ties are there to have a solid foundation for the rails at the joint. (The plastic ties have clips that slide for the flex track) Yes, you need to cut an isolation gap in the PC board tie between the two rails. I use the Dedeco Thin separating disc on my Dremel, but you can use a triangular file as well. It's a good idea to check everything with a multimeter as you go and before you power up the rails ;) American Tie & Timber used to offer pre-made "GapMasters" in multiple scales that are easier to use than the PCB ties, but not sure if he's still in business: americantieandtimber.com/4.html

@@mcfujiwara925 aha - so you use that type of sleepers so you can solder the rails to them to stop the rail from sliding (flex track) - understandable .. and I assume you break the connection across to the other rail, right?

It was a client's layout & they had to move soon & couldn't take it with them. Crazy it took a day to dismantle what took me months to build, but they enjoyed it a lot while they had it, so it's all good.

@Bill Chisholm I hear you on the Bachmann rolling stock! I did the same thing, then gave them all away once i discovered there was way better stuff out there! If you are looking for a factory built turnout I would take a hard look at the Peco products. They do not look as nice as the Atlas code 55 stuff (my opinion) but they seem to work good. If you are any kind of a handyman and comfortable around a soldering iron, i would also seriously consider taking a look at the fasttracks jigs and building your own. More time consuming, but quite easy to build a better product than commercially available, and very rewarding if you enjoy that sort of stuff!

Hi Phil, & thanks! It's been a minute since I've done some model railroading, so I'm not sure which kind of slide switches would work for HO nowadays. Also, each HO turnout has a slightly different travel distance. The Railwire forum or the Model Railroad Hobbiest magazine forum both would be a good place to put that question out there. Caboose Industries does have HO & N scale ground throws with slide switches built in: www.cabooseind.com/product-info I recommend the N scale ones for HO if they'll travel far enough (looks better). The few HO layouts I've done I used PECO turnouts with Electrofrogs--you can throw the points with your finger, a spring keeps the points flush, & the frogs are wired to route power with the points. A little pricey, but "bulletproof" construction & no slide switch necessary. If you do go with slide switches, make sure to get the ones that "snap" at the end of the travel (they have a little notch in bar to "hold" on each side). Otherwise the "normal" slide switches (like the old Radio Shack ones) will lose hold after awhile & the points will just sag in the middle. Hope this helps :)

@@mcfujiwara925 Thanks for the info. I am using Micro Engineering Code 83 turnouts and they can have the points thrown by your fingers too as like the Peco turnouts, the points will snap into place and stay there. I thought I'd try the small switches, (seems like a cool idea) but maybe for simplicity I could just use my fingers. I will check the forum however that you mentioned and see what info I can uncover. Thanks for the very detailed reply. Appreciated. Phil

@@uptownphotography The other option I've used are the Hex Frog Juicers by Tam Valley Depot: www.tamvalleydepot.com/products/dccfrogjuicers.html What's great about them is you wire them up & then forget about them--they reverse polarity based on a train's passing over the frog so you don't have to worry about a slide switch or point blades making contact to power the frog. These are really great for harder-to-reach / mainline turnouts--you can always have the slide switches on near / less-used switching turnouts.

@@mcfujiwara925 I appreciate the link and info and I will check your link. I am basically old school using regular DC, but looking currently to buy a DCC system and materials to wire the command bus, etc. My problem is I have many brass engines my dad sent me over the years (he used to buy and trade at train shows over the years in CA. I am in NJ). I probably will not convert all the steam engines I own to DCC as it will be both expensive and time consuming should I do all the conversions myself. I probably will only convert about 5 of my favorites. It is a big challenge on a large home mountain layout (about 400 feet of mainline) to start this process, but I love the flexibility of DCC and the sound systems really adds a lot of interest. Thanks again.... Phil

I’ve tried slow cut, fast cut, pushing hard on the piece or not pushing at all or even taping the rod to the base and none of it keeps the blade steady as it passes through.

Thats atlas turnouts for ya

Sounds awesome! Would love to see some picts of the final scene!

@@mcfujiwara925 Will do. Thanks for your reply. You are very talented. I'm not on any social media. So not sure how to send. Need about a week.

@@SBKNO1 Feel free to email: [email protected] Looking forward to seeing your work!

@@mcfujiwara925 I sent photos of my completed vineyard to your address. Did you receive them? I can resend. Thanks for sharing your creativity.

Yup. “N” for “Normal”! 🤓👍