# New Freight Yard for the Rio Gracie



## tmejia (Jan 2, 2008)

The Rio Gracie required some track work. I needed to smooth out a couple of my curves. A few months ago I picked up 50 ft of track from Train-Li USA and 200 ft of ties. Using my rail bender I replaced some curved track that had been giving my C19 and body mounted cars problems. Situation fixed
Time for a freight yard. 
I had some LGB R1 switches that I had picked up used many years ago. I had put EZ Air pneumatic throws on them at the time. The problem was that I couldn’t use some of them because the air barb was plastic and with time some had broken off. Knowing this I had picked up some brass barbs from Sunset Valley for future repairs. Now the future was here. I replaced the barbs, added screws and washers to areas where the plastic rail retainers had broken and added my air lines.



























My old air supply was a 7 gallon steel air tank that was heavy and bulky. I replaced that with a 3 ½ gallon aluminum tank. It is a lot lighter and smaller and way better. I fitted it with an air regulator (set at 40 lbs.) and a quick disconnect. My air manifold which controls 10 switches is also fitted with a quick disconnect. The quick disconnect enables me to use the portable air tank for filling tires and airbrush supply. I have a 25 gallon shop compressor for refilling the air tank.


















What I was short of was straight pieces of track. So I took the old curve sections, straightened them with a combination of rail bender, hammer, anvil and elbow grease and added new ties. Since the Rio Gracie runs DC track power and battery power, each rail then had the ends wire wheel brushed. All the clamps (combination of Hillman and Split Jaw) were taken apart, inside wire brushed cleaned and fasteners reattached with anti sieze. Then when assemble to the track a dab of Noalox was applied.
The air lines tend to work themselves to the top of my ballast. I took some coat hangers and made u pieces and push them into the dirt to hold the air lines beneath the ballast.










Here is my freight yard after I spent a couple of hours just moving cars around.


















Tommy
Rio Gracie


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Lookin' good Tommy.


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