I am building my first N scale layout and I recently purchased a Blair Line curved trestle. I’ve got the trestle built and it looks great.
The problem is, the trestle came with a piece of Micro Engineering bridge track and I can’t seem to get it to hold it’s shape to glue it to the trestle. It’s so stiff, I’m afraid if I tie it to the trestle, I may break it.
I built the bridge on the 11" template. Is there a way to shape the track before gluing it down?
Well I’ve finally gotten the track to stay in shape but it’s not a perfectly smooth curve.
I was wondering if I took all of the ties off of a piece of snap track, would it hold it’s shape or would it try to spring back to a piece of straight track like the flex track does? If it would hold it’s shape, I could possibly pull off the ties on a piece of code 80 snap track and slide on the ties of the bridge track.
Any ideas if this would work?
Ah, Micro Engineering track. I find that I need to “slide the ties” in order to curve this track. You’ll need to fine tune and adjust it for a smooth curve. Try using a piece of sectional track as a guide for the curve. Take your time to do it right. It may take a while, and some patience, but the results are worth it.
As for trying to swap the rail, I wouldn’t even bother. By the time you slide the ties on the precurved rail, it will change geometry to whatever the ties make it. In other words, you’ll still have the same problem.
Ribbonrail makes a curve guide/template for the purpose of laying smooth consistent curves, but I don’t know if they are available in N scale. It lays between the rails.
Brad