HI ALL,
NEW TO MODEL RAILROADING BUT HAVE COLLECTED FOR YEARS. MY HOBBY FRIEND SAID I SHOULD USE FLEX SINCE I AM A ROOKIE. HOW DO YOU GET THE RADIOUS YOU WANT OUT OF FLEX AND HOW DO YOU COUPLE PIECES OF FLEX TOGETHER?? I AM USING CODE 83 ATLAS FLEX TRACK. IT DOES NOT HAVE A “BLANK” SPACE FOR THE CONNECTORS TO FIT LIKE MY ATLAS TRACK CODE 83 RE-RAILERS DO. I NEED HELP. I ASSUME YOU LIFT OFF THE RAILS FROM THE TRACK AND PROCEED THAT WAY?
Hi,
There’s a few different ways to find, or I should say create the radius. You can make your own or purchase track templates from companies like Atlas that you photocopy and lay out. You can use the tried and true yardstick method where you drill a hole at the 1 inch mark of the yardstick, then tap a finish nail into the benchwork and slip that hole you’ve drilled over the nail… add 1 inch (25 inch mark creates a 24 inch curve) and use a magic marker to lay out the curve centerline. Or instead of a yardstick, use a piece of measured string w/ a marker.
You need to remove the two last 2-3 ties from each end of the flex track in order to slip the rail joiners on. Flip it over and cut it w/ an exacto knife. Get yourself some SHARP nippers to cut the rails to the desired lengths. I only use those rail nippers for cutting track, it keeps them sharper longer. And inspect the cuts you’ve made for burrs that might create problems with joiners and/or derailment issues once you lay the track.
-Ed
There are videos on youtube showing how to lay flex track. Some are quite good.
Remember to keep the sliding rail innermost when you bend the piece to make your curve.
It is often a best practice to use graph paper to plot out a nice track plan to scale. Later you can use paper templates pinned to the surface of the layout to show where your track elements will lie. Also, you can draw a centerline for your tracks with carpenter’s pencil. Use a trammel or fishing line with a pencil tied to it to make your curves if you want a specific radius.
Note that flex track naturally provides a nice easing into the curve instead of going from tangent to radius right away. Highways and real tracks have easements.
Crandell
Welcome to the forums [#welcome]
First your caps button seems to be stuck.
As far as doing radius on flex track take a nail and put it in the layout. Then take a piece of wire and measure the amount based on the radius you want. After making a loop for the nail and marker you should have a length about 3/4ths inch shorter than your radius. For 30 inches it should be 29 1/4 inch.
Put the wire loop around the nail. Then put the marker on the outer loop. Pull taught and draw a curve for the amount you want to turn. The line will be on the inside of the track when you lay it.
When laying out my last layout I found that it was difficult to use a yard stick to layout the curves. What I used was poster board cut to the radii I wanted. By doing this and making several of them at radii you can use them to draw your track center lines. I just draw my main lines into the curves, then draw in the curves using the poster board templates. And as poster boards are cheaper then building a compass or table to use so your yardstick has something to measure off of when drawing a 44" curve on a 18" wide modular table.
OH BY THE WAY, ALL CAPS IS SCREAMING!! Lol