Hi everbody
I was just reading the noisy athearn article, which brought me to another thought. We all know the problems with sectional track, namely fixed sections, unrealistic, etc… I was curious though, do people cut up flextrack, into say, maybe 9 in sections to get that clickity-clack.
I personally love that noise, even more than engine rumble.
Thoughts?
Siddharth Agrawal
I have one gap in my flex track just before my trestle. I haven’t got around to fixing it yet, but it makes a perfect clack. I may just leave it. It has not caused a problem yet. It is about 1/8 inch wide.
I am not ready to cut any more, though I love the sound.
Art
Actually, you can get that clickety-clack sound without having to cut the flex track–all you need to do is swipe the railhead a couple of times with a very fine needle file. Just enough to put a slight nick in the railhead (make sure there are no burrs left to derail the equipment) every scale rail-length, and if you’ve got metal wheelsets, you’ll get all the clickety-clack you want (maybe even MORE than you want, LOL!). I’ve tried it on a section of track, and it works really well. I’m not sure if I want to do the ENTIRE mainline, though, it’s pretty long.
Tom [:D]
Siddharth,
Couldn’t agree with you more. I LOVE that clickity-clack sound! [^] I posted a similar message a number of months ago making that same observation.
If I ever switch to flex track, I’ll either do what Tom White suggested or use a dremel tool and cutting wheel to partially cut a notch in the rail. I think I figured it up one time that, if you want the clickity-clack to be prototypical, you’d have a notch your track about every 5-3/4" or so. Hmmm. Maybe every 6" (or 9") would be “good enough”…[:)]
Tom
The one book I own on layout building mentions that if the track ends come within that 1/8th inch of each other occasionally, its fine and won’t hurt anything.
Being a complete novice on it all, I took that to heart. I have a LOT of clickity clacks, just like the real thing.
Jarrell
Several years ago, I used a cutoff wheel in a Dremel motor tool to cut notches in flex track every 39 scale feet, which was the length of jointed rail, in an attempt to get the clickety-clack sound. We discovered that the sound board and cork roadbed under the track kept us from hearing any difference, even though we were using metal wheelsets on everything.
I have to go with cacole on this one. I have sand ballast that is partially glued, and it is sectional track. So, I get a lot of running noise, including the clacks. If only the clacks were all I got, plus QSI sounds, I’d be much happier.
I also kind of like that clickety clack sound, But. IMHO, this one of those things where more means less. Quality, that is. Think about this. If you notch your rail every scale 39 ft, you will here that clickety clack of every wheel on your train on everyone of those “joints”. You’ll loose that magic sound in the proccess. Now if you could scale yourself down to stand by one of those joints when a train rolls over it you coud be in seventh heaven. Myself, I’m content to listen to a train cross a diamond, a switch frog or an ocassional rail joint thats too wide once in a while. Just my thoughts here, Ken
The more cuts, the harder to clean. I asked the same question last year.
What I am looking for is electronic clickety-clack. Like a DCC sound device in a boxcar so the sound travels with the train.
Wouldn’t it be great if almost every car could have a cheap decoder and speaker making brake squeels, etc?
Brake sounds vs. clickety-clack? Hmmmmm…I’d have to pick clickity-clack on that one. Brake “screaches” might get pretty annoying after awhile.
Tom
im agreeing with tstage on both of his contributions to this thread
i wouldnt do it 39 scale feet apart, id just go with 9 inch increments
its loud enough at 9 inches when the train is going over a long open underside bridge!!!
Sound decoders, installed in lets, say every few cars in a train programmed with just clickety-clack, flat wheel (I heard LOTS of these up on the mountain sub last week) brake squeel when the train slows down, slack releasing sounds…
C’mon Soundtraxx a 10 dollar sound decoder with these sounds!