Bandit Canyon Railway | Roadbed, Track and Power

BCRy Part II. Work continues on my On18 Bandit Canyon Ry micro-layout! This week, I add risers to raise the plywood sub-roadbed up to the desired height, then it's time for cork roadbed, laying some Peco flextrack, building a simple manual turnout linkage, and hooking up the DC power. Join me as I bring the BCRy to life for the first time and explain a few tips and tricks learned over the years to make all of these tasks a little smoother and easier.
Thanks for watching, amigos!
Dave
Join Thunder Mesa Studio on Patreon for exclusive content, parts and plans from Dave's builds, and merchandise discounts!
patreon.com/thundermesa/
Or become a member on KZbin to get access to perks!
kzbin.info/door/2JtlZ2I6X4o1eFKSdJaMswjoin
Thunder Mesa Studio: thundermesa.studio
Instagram: thunder.mesa
Spreadshirt: shop.spreadshirt.com/thunderm...
Music courtesy KZbin Audio Library, attribution given where available.
"Country Cue 1" and "Mountain Sun" courtesy of Audionautix, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Artist: audionautix.com/
"Catch Up" by Dan Lebowits, KZbin Audio Library
"Cumberland Gap" - KZbin Audio Library, artist unlisted

[@TrainBandit]

This bandit canyon place sounds like a place I would live. Lol

[@samfuller6273]

We were just in Sedona on September 22' and visited Jerome/Cottonwood I lived Colts BBQ in Cottonwood. I loved the late summer

[@mikeregan8894]

Hey Dave love your work

[@michaelschlobohm8877]

Love it when a plan comes together.

[@ronalddwyer6592]

It's really nice when things come together and work the first time. Can't wait to see it with all the scenery and structures in place. I like hand laying my track. I learned from when I belonged to a roving club that traveled between each others layouts. I started hand laying ties and rail when I was 14. We hand-made all of our switches. It took more time, but it cost a lot less and worked better than commercial switches. I was blessed to have a lot of great club members to teach me on the whole process of hand laying track. Luckily, there are still some of us left out there. I enjoy still hand laying, and it was very relaxing to me. I am always still learning new techniques on building layouts, scenery, and structures after 52 years in the hobby. 🎅Merry Christmas🎅 and Happy New Year. Be safe and keep on modeling. Look forward to your videos.👍🚂🚂🚂🚂

[@TheBarry1m]

Nice video.

[@lifeisagift.cherisheverymoment]

Locomotive #5 and consist is looking sweet. Merry Christmas. 🎄

[@raymondrussell500]

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the next video.

[@loispadgett6306]

Makes a great Christmas Eve video to enjoy and learn from. Thank you for sharing. GOD BLESS 🚂💖🚂💖🚂💖🚂💖 MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

[@chrislambert5249]

Merry Christmas ⛄🎄🚂🚃🚃

[@thebear5454]

Nice progress Dave. Looking forward to the next chapter.

[@timbercreeksteamco.3734]

Merry Christmas Dave, love the new Railroad. Have a great Holiday Season!!!

[@johnbusby215]

Hi Dave Look forward to seeing this progress. Always good when you can run trains because then its play time YAY!. Erhm I mean you can thoroughly test things LOL regards John

[@Schmitz3]

When looking at your layout drawing, it looks like there is a hidden Klingon Ship (Too me anyway) 😅

[@allenlandis4504]

Neat & sweet.

[@keithpickering2840]

Many thanks. Great video again looking forward to the stock builds, nice loco no 5. Merry Christmas from the UK. 🎄🎅👍

[@jbponzi1]

Great idea using HON30 track. This will give my DLRR the proper narrow gauge look for tie spacing.

[@randyj6245]

So awesome! Love this!

[@Scobyland]

Great presentation 😊 enjoy your work and videos. I have N scale, but use KATO Unitrak.

[@mr.shadestrains6033]

💥💥subscribed 💥💥😎🚂

[@timothyboles6457]

btw, that Shinorara turnout is the LARGER radius one! There is a smaller one!! That's about a #2 or 1 1/2 frog. I have some from 35 years ago when they were available. they're also code 60 or 65. so the skipping you are seeing probably is the transition between the 2 rail sizes.

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

I think this one is code 70

[@timothyboles6457]

@@ThunderMesaStudio btw dave, you are officially a "bad influence"!! As I went out and bought some On18 kits, and a Bachmann plymouth chassis. LOL

[@pbyfr]

Nice progress. In the past, I used Roco HOe track, which was even more derelict (not sure if they changed it since that time). But the turnout radius is even bigger than the Peco. And for tiny On18, 200mm radius is already a lot (no issue with industrial O-16.5 locomotives on such radius). Kato has smaller N scale radius for turnout, the #20-240, but it is Unitrack, so already with ballast bed, not easy to use with other track.

[@CassidysWorkshop]

Really neat watching you lay track and build the sub-roadbed. I'd have put a couple temporary braces between the uprights below where you cut out the "bridges", but I'm a worrier. 🙃

[@jerryfbarnes5228]

I agree.

[@squidkid2]

It might be easier to drill the pilot holes for the track spikes with a Dremel tool. A full size drill is too clumsy but the Dremel works really well especially if you get a battery powered one.

[@thomasfrench2012]

Four three's huh? Not a bad poker hand.

[@jeffthedccguy]

I love this new layout and all the helpful tips you have for construction over the years, but I almost winced in pain when I heard you talk about the insulated rail joiners for the turnout. For clarification, you don't need to insulate the stock rails of a live frog turnout, or any other turnout for that matter for a simple siding like the one on your layout. Only the frog rail(s) must be insulated, and then one or both of them depending on the desired power routing option. There are instances where this might make sense like a ladder or group turnout setup where power control to the tracks beyond the turnout is wanted, but for a simple siding such as the one you're building, it's a waste of a plastic rail joiner. Maybe you just installed it on the stock rail so that it had a similar look to the frog rail? Either way keep the videos coming, I send a lot of customers your way for ideas and tips!

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Oof, thank you. Of course you are correct. Sometimes I get rolling on a thing and go on automatic pilot, remembering what I did before but not the reason why! Thanks for pointing it out. I want people to get accurate info from my videos so I’ll make a correction in the next one.

[@jeffthedccguy]

@@ThunderMesaStudio No problem. As I watched the video I kept thinking you were going to do something beyond the turnout that required the insulator, either way it's all good. Love your work and commitment to the hobby, keep the videos coming I look forward to every one!

[@turkeytrac1]

Merry Christmas, great start, I'm looking forward to see more. What did you use to build the #5?

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Thanks! I did a video on that one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqvHpGVnh7Joq5o

[@Ritalin3D]

Once again, awesome video! Is the one expansion gap is good for the whole layout? No others needed? I’m in north Texas and we get pretty big swings in temperature and humidity.

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

Thank you. There are actually two. the one I show in the video and another by the turnout.

[@rickdee67]

@ 20:30, what was that about?! Lolz

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

The neighbor's kids in the hall

[@joshuabrown6791]

So what is the shortest possible curve radius you could make in On30 while still being able to run big engine's? Like what if you wanted to run an On30 Mikado for example. Would a curve radius of 10 inches be to sharp for it or would something like 15-20 inch radius curves be more agreeable for those behemoths?

[@ThunderMesaStudio]

10 inches would be way too sharp for just about any engine in On30 except maybe the little Porters. 18" Radius is the recommended minimum for most. Larger is better for operations. The layout in this video is On18 however, and different rules apply.

[@joshuabrown6791]

@@ThunderMesaStudio Thanks Dave. That helps a lot.

[@jerryfbarnes5228]

To build this first i would attach tab 2x6 to top of the risers. Then screw up from the bottem of the tab into the surface plywood. Iwould then cover the plywood with homosote. Then the cork roadbed. This is the best way towards deading the roadbed.

[@jerryfbarnes5228]

By using homosote the track can be attached with out drilling a hole. For the track nails.

[@brendanwalters4011]

I am the 334th like