A friend of mine gave me an old piece of Atlas 2 rail, code 148 track. I was impressed with that particular size of rail and went online to place an order, b/c I’m handlaying my tracks.
I discovered that Right O Way has code 148 rail that is less expensive than some other brands so i ordered 300 feet of rail.
When the shipment arrived on Friday, lo and behold, the Right O Way code 148 rail was shorter (rail height) than was the Atlas.
I don’t know why 2 brands of code 148 rail would have different heights as I always assumed code 148 means 148/1,000 of an inch.
I don’t have enough “time in” to adress your observation knowledgeably, David, but I would be just as surprised as you. HOwever (sorry, couldn’t resist…[:D] … I’ll punish myself later.), those who encounter this problem in HO use either adapter rails or shim the shorter ones with something like a flattened rail joiner, and then solder the two ends together for connectivity anyway. Sinc you are handlaying, you can solder and spike as you need to, so you can anchor the mismatched rails where they join quite easily. Much like in your scale, we tend to use Code 100 or 83 on the mains and 70 or even 55 in yards and on industrial tracks.
I wasn’t going to mention this b/c toy trains is not this forum and those on toy trains don’t usually handlay their track so I was hoping to get a discussion on this here.
The height actually IS critical b/c of the deep flanges of toy trains. I know that you know that I know about shiming.
The Right O Way Code 148 works but just barely. If any of the spikes work themselves loose, they will hit the wheels.
To compound the working loose problem, I’m building my layout in the backyard and I live in Virginia where the weather gets hot and cold, but that’s a different topic for discussion.
If you have a caliper or micrometer you can measure the height of both types of rail. That way, you’ll know which one is off. They should measure 0.148 inches in height, as you’ve assumed.
I would suspect that the Atlas rail might be the one in error, since Right O Way tends to make a fuss about scale fidelity. But you never know.
Okay, I see what you mean. Assuming that you can live with it, is there a glue (Gorilla, e.g.) that you could use to assist in keeping the spikes embedded? I know that humidity imparts a great deal of force, but maybe the glue will just counter it.
Also, at the place where you have to mate the two types, you could always use small brass screws and paint them afterwards to be innocuous.
Outdoor enthusiasts suggest that spikes (or homemade spikes from heavy-duty staples cut to order) will probably do the trick, since they rust and the rust helps to “set” them in place. Originally, I was going to use nickel-silver staples but will likely use the steel kind, as well as normal spikes. I may try all of the above to see which works best. Garden RRers are notorious (famous?) for trial and error techniques.
The other, more difficult option would be to replace all of the trucks with scale flange trucks, or grind the flanges down.
One other possibility, if you don’t mind the odd, if creative, suggestion, is to actually dimple the feet of the rails at each spike so that the spike can be set further into the wood. I would do that way further up the list than grinding down flanges.
Once you have the track and spikes nicely ‘weathered’, it would be hard to see the dimples unless you were looking for them.
Whatever you do, I will try to keep up next door as you post pix. Good luck, Dave.
if you did get code 148, your flanges should clear with room to spare.
i have thought of using the atlas two rail sectional track, and then spiking in the center rail. that would narrow down your problems to switches and lack of money.
I didn’t realize they sold 145 and 135 as well. Now I really need a set of calipers.
I did spike down a section of track and the flanges clear if the spike is set all the way in; but these things have a way of working loose; esp when used outdoors. I set some in partway and the train will still run, doesn’t bump or anything; just makes a gentle clicking sound.
FYI I’m cutting cedar ties and soaking them in honey-color Thompson’s water sealer.
Not many O scalers take their trains outdoors (although in the UK, it’s a tradition, just never caught on here, I guess), much less handlay their own tracks.
While there are some disadvantages to running O outdoors, the main advantage is that you can put a lot more train in the yard than you can with G.
Anyway, I’ll definitely get some calipers before I begin cutting the rails, now that you mention those other sizes they have. I wi***hey’d mark the size on the bottoms of the rails or something.