Turnout and Curve

With the first track and turnout already in limited operation (due to a lack of fishplates) I have continued track laying and now the first curve I've ever hand laid in 16 mm scale and second turnout are available for traffic at reduced speeds. 

A close up view of the track at Nystrup Gravel facilities outside Nystrup. It does look rather fancy and has perhaps turned out a bit too perfect. On close inspection I think the track team will have to go over some of the spikes again as they are not holding the rail's foot properly.

The curve is built with a slight enlargement of the gauge, but otherwise I have tried to make a faithful representation of a real narrow gauge industrial railway curve. There is of course no superelevation and the rails are shaped roughly by hand to suit the location. Bending the rails by hand isn't recommendable in the smaller scales as it may lead to pronounced kinks in the rails, but this is actually a benefit on a large scale model of a narrow gauge industrial railway. Often rails were reused from other locations and as the locos and rolling stock was designed with tolerances for bad track, a track out of gauge by a few centimetres wasn't a problem. In 16 mm scale it's basically the same, although we are talking milimetres.

To produce a nice curved rail with a rail bender takes a lot of bending and hard work. A very good result can be achieved. It takes care and a lot of bends. Most industrial railways didn't aim for high quality track and were happy if trains didn't derail too often.

From the curve the track connects to the turnout, that takes the track to either lorry loading ramp (left) or to the sorting facility (straight ahead). The turnout is again a Peco Code 200 rebuilt with brass slide plates and wooden sleepers.

Rebuilt Peco turnout partly fitted with new wooden sleepers. A sharp curve will lead to the lorry loading ramp out of the picture to the right.

Further track building in progress. Here I'm aiming for a serious kink in the track.

As the track building is slowly progressing I'm beginning to prepare the basic groundwork and final positioning of brick shed, petrol pump and a recently finished wooden fence.

I'll finish this post with a look at a real 700 mm gauge clay line belonging to the Danish brick works at Lysbro. The Nystrup Gravel track was almost TGV-standard in comparison with this! The standard gauge train is an enthusiasts' special on the Silkeborg-Kjellerup-Rødkjærsbro Railway. Photo: Finn Sørensen, 1968.