I spent another 5 hours working on Park Junction today, at least 2 of which were spent cleaning old ballast off a pair of Curtis #8's. I finally bit the bullet and just ran them under hot water for a minute, which softened the glue. Then I scraped, and scraped, and scraped with a crappy screwdriver, poking the ballast from every little crevice. I repeated the wetting process a few times. In the end, they looked almost like new. It's amazing what a little patience and persistence will do.
Those newly cleaned turnouts are bottom center in this pic.
I see a slight kink between the diamond and the curved turnout. I don't think it will cause any trouble, it just isn't pretty. I didn't have much choice when I crammed in the diamond.
The whole junction is now screwed down except the switch in the upper right. I'm going to leave that loose until I'm ready to connect up from the other side. It also looks like the hole in the backdrop is just a little off. Easy enough to move.
I tried running some cars through the diamond. A couple of Weaver PS-2 hoppers were hitting on something and nearly derailed. A couple of other cars went through just fine. Those Weavers have caused trouble on other parts of the layout. I'm beginning to wonder if I don't have some bad wheel sets.
