I’m working on a short, low trestle, and I’ve also got an Atlas chord bridge. I’d like to put bridge track with the tighter tie spacing on these. It appears that Micro-Engineering is the only option, and they don’t seem to have a web site that I can find.
My track is Code 100, and from what I’ve been able to find, the ME bridge track comes in code 83, but not code 100. Also, some is pre-weathered and some is not.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed with this? Would I be better off pulling the rails off another piece of regular flex track and cutting up the ties to interleave them with the existing ones?
Hello “Mr. B,” Walthers also offers HO scale bridge track, made by Shinohara, but it doesn’t come in code 100 either, only code 83. Walthers has code 100/code 83 transition track sections too, or you can make your own transitions by flattening rail joiners on the ends of the code 100 track, soldering the code 83 rails on top of the joiners, and filing the joints smooth. Good luck, Andy
Since you are already using Atlas flex, you could turn it over, cut the longitudinal webs between the ties and slide the ties together one at a time. A yard of flex and a little work will yield about 24 inches of bridge track and a couple of lengths of spare rail to use elsewhere.
By the time you add the tie-end timber, guard rails and a walkway down the middle, the origin of the bridge track should be pretty well invisible.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with LOTS of deck girder bridges)
I used them with the last plate girder bridge I built (with Code 83 rails). However, I have some extra ties from a previous kit that I used ME bridge track for. If you send me a PM, I’d be happy to send you the ties I didn’t use.
Also, though it is not distributed under the Walthers banner, Sinohara DOES make code 100 bridge track–I’ve got it on my own MR. It’s not easy to find, but it does have the proper tie spacing and guard rails. Your LHS might be able to order it for you directly from Sinohara. I know my own LHS here in Roseville CA usually carries it in stock.
Hi Mr. B.: Here’s a couple of examples of Walther’s code 83 bridge track attached to Atlas code 100 as described by Andy. And, an example of Atlas code 100 with the ties cut and pushed together, as described by Chuck. Just thought you might be interested in what they look like on some bridges. Hope this helps.
I’ve done this too and it works very well. There are two points that behoove mention though.
The ties will be shorter than “normal” bridge ties. This didn’t bother me because the trestle where I used them is 2 feet from the viewer and just below my eye level.
Make the guardrails from one size smaller rail. It really looks better than the same size. (Unless of course your prototype didn’t shrink them).
Hi, Mr B. I am also faced with this problem, and went with Peco C100 rails and will be pulling some C83 rails off their ties for the guardrails. I intended to use Atlas C100 for the running rails, but ran into difficulty with the 1 rail being solidly attached to all the ties, while the other was more free to move. That meant that even though I’d cut the webs between the ties, I couldn’t slide them along the rails to get them closer together. Peco has both rails free to slide along. The ties are not bridge-spec size, but will do for me. I’ll epoxy the C83 or whatever size I have for guards as I lay the track thru the bridge (Walthers 2-trk, thru-truss kit) when I get done building below it. I looked at the C83 kits, but didn’t like the idea of fiddling with rail height on a 2.2% grade with curves in it. I suppose I could have just added 17thou shims on the bridge approaches, but that’d be too easy. Those nice photos are making me think about it again…
Granted that Atlas flex track (code 100, at least) has one solidly anchored rail, the ties CAN be made to move one (or a few) at a time. Once those pesky webs are cut away, stand the flex on end on a solid surface, then put the two tips of a pair of fine needle-nose pliers between the ties above the one to be moved downward. If gentle downward pressure won’t convince it to break free, a GENTLE! tap with your smallest hammer will do the trick. In creating specialwork I have slid segments of up to six connected ties with little difficulty.
Once the initial breakaway has occurred, Atlas ties are no harder to move than Shinohara ties.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with Atlas code 100 flex in the netherworld)
That’s pretty phenomonal, my friend–I had to look about four times to finally find the transitions between the two rail sizes. Very smooth and REALLY nice!
Thank you Tom, I really appreciate your reply. Chuck, I agree with you, I beleive I moved the ties one at a time. They just fit the Alas bridge, where as, regular bridge ties would have been too wide.
