I always wondered how it would “turnout.” (Sorry).

The switch stand and points on my #10 P:87 turnout.

You may remember the beginnings of this project. I posted about it way back here. It didn’t actually take me 3 years and change to finish it. But it was sitting around waiting for paint for quite awhile. My excuses are that I didn’t have a paint booth until the last year or so and other projects took precedence. It’s done now though. See below for some more views.

It’s a pretty lengthy piece of trackwork…

The entire turnout is 17” in length and is mounted on a 22” long piece of oak that was cut and routed into a pleasing shape by a friend of mine. Stain and polyurethane was applied to the wood after the cork and turnout had been attached, but before ballasting. The turnout isn’t operable as this is just a display model, however had I not accidentally glued the points into place, it could be made functional.

The photo-etched P:87 frog with (somewhat) accurate details.

I’m not entirely happy with the ballast color. I’m trying to match the shade and texture of the rocks used along BNSF’s mainline between Seattle and Portland. This is Woodland Scenics Iron Ore medium grit. The size is ok, but I think it is too red. I need something that’s a little more gray, but not to the extent that the ballast out here on the east coast is. A dark gray with a slightly red hue would be ideal. That was the point of this project though; find out what I like and don’t like before I lock myself into a product or method on a layout. I’m actually not even sure I will continue to build these turnouts, I think Central Valley’s have a bit better relief on the tie plates and are better suited to my modern prototypes. We’ll see though, I did really enjoy assembling this kit. It was ridiculously easy and looks really good.

Chris