Last night (October 16, 2003), I drew the 36" and 27" radii on one sheet of homasote, temporarily nailed down 6' of Atlas code 83 on each curve — and held my breath!
Happy (and relieved) to say, the 4-8-4 went around the 36" curve so I'm going ahead to install DCC and sound in that one. The radii on my three curves (dbl-track main) is 36 and 39. I'm going to try to fudge that out closer to 37 and 40 if I can, but that is the biggest I can make it.
Currently, what is a 36" on curves 1 and 3 is a 39" curve on #2. And the 39 on curves 1 and 3 is a 36 on curve 2. Life is a compromise.
The second test last night showed me that the new Walthers passenger cars will go around the interior 27" curve OK now that I have a long shank coupler on the vestibule end of each of the cars.
These two tests were critical for (1) investing in DCC/sound for #841 and (2) installing #8 turnouts coming off the UP main leading onto the KBH main heading for Rapid City. The latter involves the addition of three #8s to my total order for turnouts. The passenger cars will look much better going through #8s as they wind their way 'up' off the UP main.
I've attached a photo showing the two tracks on the homasote - you'll see the line for both the 39" and 40" radii that I had prepared in case the 36" did not work.
THEN, for even more of an update, I can report that the construction materials have been delivered this morning so Art and I have what we need to begin the project Saturday morning. Here we go...