I considered flex track since I am building to the terrain but I had so much LGB sectional track from my indoor layout so I went sectional. My only problem with flex would be expansion of the layout. Right now I have 1 mainline and two branchlines which converge into the mainline but someday I may want to add a couple of more branchlines. If you have long pieces of flex track isn’t it going to be hard to insert a switch for the new branchline? The longest piece of track I have on my layout is 2’ (mainly because of all of the curves) so I know I won’t have a problem inserting a switch if I come up with the money and time to build yet another branch.
Just a thought.
Barbara
This is the track from Iandor’s layout as mentioned in an earlier post.
I went back to the WEB site and read the para. on rail blenders. The first time I saw the topic I thought it said rail bender. Thanks again everyone for the help. Nice pics Ian.
Still would like to hear about anyone building their own bender and how they did it.
Use the flex and when the time comes lay your switch over the spot you wi***o place it and mark the rail beneath it. Then cut it with a cutoff wheel and install the switch with rail clamps.
Iandor’s flextrack pictures.
Thanks for the pics, now at least I can see why there would be a camber aka unintentional super-elevation problem.
OK, I tried my hand at rail bending this weekend. I had some extra 4’ radius track and some 24" straight. I snipped the ties and went to work by hand. It seems to be pretty easy even with the short sections. The real truth will be when I use it. I needed a short section with a slight “S’. The 24” section worked great. I will post a couple of pics soon.
Here are my test pieces by hand. 24" slight S and two 4’ radius to make a larger radius.
Thought others may be interested.