So, after learning from all your mistakes in building your last layout… What would you do next? Hand build your track or buy pre-made and lay? I’ve always used Peco and I’m considering the new US Code 83, (sorry guys, but the current dollar rate means it’s cheap for me in the UK) but I’ve got this haunting feeling that I should try to hand lay on my next layout.
Does anyone wihey had built their own or does anyone wihey had bought ready made? Which looks the best? Is it worth the hassle?
The problem with handlaid track is that it is not as detailed as most flex track. Not only that, it is also more difficult to lay and do superelevated track and so forth. The major advantage is that you can form turnouts and crossovers to your track design as opposed to designing your trackplan around premade turnouts and crossings.
The number of people that handlay track is going down with time, to easier and usually more realistic flextrack.
I am in the process of designing a new layout. On the last one, I handlayed a turnout and was quite pleased with the results. I am seriously considering handlaying all the turnout so that I can get the flow that I want. I will use flex-track for the rest.
If you want detailed handlaid track, goto www.proto87stores.com. They sell photoetched tie plates and all of the other parts necessary for realisticly detailed handlaid track and turnouts. I am strongly leaning towards this route, mainly because I would like to do finescale trackwork, but it would work for standard trackwork too. I may still use Micro Engineering flex track though.
I guess it depends on what is important to you and how much track you intend to lay. Hand-laying, to me, seems awful labor-intensive, especially for a large layout. If you want to do some for the experience, or to say that you did it, great, do it in a highly visible area of your layout and use ready-made on the rest. Do you prefer to go through the motions of building the layout for an extended period or do you want to run trains? I prefer to run trains, so I’ll go with the best ready-made track I can afford. I learned how to hand-lay turnouts quite a few years back. OK, now I can say that I did it, but I sure would not want to do the whole railroad. Maybe a special switch that I can’t purchase, but it would be the exception.
Although I admire the dedication and skills of those who do handlay their trackwork,I wouldn’t even think about it unless I had a very special layout design problem that absolutely required this solution.Building and detailing a layout is already so time consuming that I’d like to have some spare time left for operations.
I have done some handlaying. While it is fun to do, it takes longer and with today’s track products IMHO I don’t think it looks better. Surprisingly, it costs about the same (more if you use tie plates) than using a quality flex track such as Shinohara. You can shade the cost factor in favor of handlaying if you only spike every 5th or 6th tie (which doesn’t look prototypical), make your own tie plates from thin plastic sheets (or omit them), and/ or glue the rail to the ties and paint the spike heads on the rail.
Turnouts are a different story, here you can save money by making your own even with commercial tieplates.
The real question is how much hobby time do you have and how to you want to spend it?
On my current layout (S scale), I am using Shinohara code 100 track and turnouts. I plan to hand lay some code 83 sidings for the contrast (code 83 is not available in S).
I’d do pre-made on mainline and branchline service. Hand-laid for some branchline, industrial, logging and mining operations as these ties usually had a wider spacing and are sometimes not as uniform. Also it depend on what part of the scene the track plays. The work of hand-laid in a multi-track freight yard would get lost so would be an effort best restricted to the turnouts if used at all. The track would have more of an impact for the logging, industrial and mining layout.