Not that anyone has asked, but for those of us who follow the advice of soldering sections of track together before curving, there can be a problem when bending a track piece that’s been soldered to a turnout. At least with Micro Engineering turnouts, there are small gaps between the frog and the rails that lead to it (frog rails or closure rails). When you bend your track after soldering it to the turnout, you run the risk of pulling the turnout’s rail(s) even farther away from the frog, since the only thing holding those rails in place are the plastic “spikes.” This can result in leaving a gap at the frog that is no longer small, yet easily overlooked.
Yes. All brands of switches will do that. You will need to settle in the curve before soldering it.
Yes, I usually solder curves before installing the rest of the track to assure a smooth track through the joint, but on the switch, more care must be taken. Before going to the next piece, inspect the switch again, adjust the tracks as necessary.
ROAR
I was taught many years ago by my dad to never ever solder the rails before making a curve off a switch.I heeded his advice and I wait until I spike my track in place then solder if needed.
It has been my understanding that you should make sure trains will operate smoothly over your track work before you start soldering it.
While I solder the rails together on flex track on curves, I never solder flex track to turnouts.
Rich
Ditto, I never solder to turnouts. However, a freely bending flex track like Atlas wouldn;t do this, unless you jammed the free end of the flex track so the rail had no place to slide to. With ME flex you have to ‘walk’ the curve in going along the ties, if you do it carefully you can probably prevent the side soldered to the short rail coming from the frog from pulling.
–Randy
Since most turnouts will eventually develop operational problems, it is best not to solder turnouts to the rest of your track work. That way, it is easier to remove any turnout that requires repair or replacement.
I wouldn’t say it’s a best practice to avoid soldering rail joints at turnouts. To ensure rail alignment stays perfect around critical locations like turnouts, I make sure those joints are ALWAYS soldered. To solder those joints or not is a personal choice, nothing more.
The OP encountered one of the idiosyncrasies of Micro Engineering turnouts - the rails diverging from the frog are not physically connected to any other rails in the assembly. As such, then can be pulled out of the tie strip if too much force is applied. Other DCC friendly HO turnouts have additional connections which retain those rails in place to some extent.
From experience I learned to have at least 2 inches of straight track leaving a turnout except for curved turnouts to avoid kinks and pressure on the turnout rails. I just use rail joiners and have never had a electric circuit problem.
The one time I had to remove a turnout the paint from weathering the tracks made the job difficult enough so I was very glad I didn’t have to also deal with soldered joiners.
The irony was that the problem I was trying to fix was not because of the turnout.
Bob
Bob,I have my own technique I been using for years and it works like a charm.
I gently curve the track in a natural smooth flow.