For years I’ve seen people talking about hand-laying track for HO layouts-- from an outside perspective, having never done it myself, it seems like one of those noble-eccentric pursuits akin to building a ship-in-a-bottle; a towering sculpture out of broken glass, or pushing a pebble up a mountain with your nose-- what’s the real scoop-- is it a pain in the patootie or is there a trick to it or a secret mantra that makes it quick and painless?
I understand the goal is for smooth-running trains, but I was born with two left thumbs and no patience for the mundane… (okay, only one left thumb and a smidge of patience)-- so how’s it going to work out for me (I know, only I can make that determination, blah blah)…
Who’s tried it and really HATED it? Why? What was (were) the show-stopper(s) ???
Who’s tried it and it went really well?? Why? What did you do that facilitated your success??
This is a serious question for me. I can sort of understand hand-laying track in the larger scales (for example, a G-scale railroad), but doesn’t it get extremely tedious in the smaller scales?
I am handlaying On30 track (which is essentially handlaying HO scale track) on a 10 x 10 foot layout. There’s not a massive amount of track involved here, so it seems reasonable that I’ll get it done relatively quickly. As I improve, it is going faster as well.
It isn’t a pain–if it was, I wouldn’t do it. This is a hobby, not a job.
I’m pretty clumsy, and I’m managing. It looks great–I love the way the real wood ties look after being stained and sanded, and I like seeing the actual spike heads. I’ve had to pull up some of the rail and re-spike it as I’ve made sloppy mistakes and wasn’t satisfied with the results, but, then again, that’s happened with flextrack, too.
The only real reason to handlay is because you want to; ME track may look better and run as well; and unless you’re recycling flextrack rail and using basswood strips or coffee stirrers (cut to size) for ties as I am, it isn’t any cheaper. Well, maybe laying your own turnouts would save some money…
Yes it can be tedious, compared to slapping down EZ track. Its just another facet of building a layout. Some people rebuild old cars and some people buy old cars others have rebuilt. I’m just a DIY guy. I scratchbuild cars, I have virtually no structures that aren’t kitbashed or kit mingled or semi-scratchbuilt or scratchbuilt. The majority of my cars and engines are ones I’ve painted and lettered.
There are the guys who can slap down a switch in 42.7 minutes and can handlay 107 ft of track an hour. I’m not that fast and don’t try to be. I find it relaxing to handlay track.
I’ve hand laid a few sidings and built two turnouts. It’s time consuming so you don’t get that instant gratification but I think its something people should try at least once. Maybe not the whole layout but a few sidings. With the proper tools it is very easy to do.
I’m hand-laying a small layout, just to learn it. The advantage of handlay is that you can do things with your track that you can’t do with commercially available stuff. If you learn to handlay, if you need a double crossover on a curve in your plan, you don’t redesign your entire layout to avoid it.
As with anything else, there are a variety of reasons to hand-lay:
Pride factor - “I did it all myself!”
Appearance factor - it’s a lot easier to hand-lay trackage that has to look like something a logging crew threw on the ground - or on a low trestle built from slash with the bark still on it. Talk about irregular!
Cost factor, applies especially to specialwork - and especially if that specialwork is built without jigs from rail stripped from damaged flex and sectional track found at yard sales.
Can’t get it any other way factor. Does anyone manufacture a three way switch with the right leg straight and both curved routes diverging left? How about one where all 3 routes diverge left? Commercial? Impossible. Hand laid? No problem!
Accuracy factor - if you hand-lay, you can maintain a standard of dimensional accuracy that no factory in China will ever approach.
And some equally valid reasons not to:
Time factor - flex or sectional goes down FAST - much faster than carefully-gauged, properly spiked hand-laid.
Appearance factor, take two - modern, heavily-constructed mainlines have a LOT of track hardware, including anti-creepers that almost nobody models. So does modern, high-quality flex track (except for the anti-creepers!) Also, has anyone ever hand-laid track on concrete ties?
Skill factor. There are some people who honestly can’t lay track that is straight (or properly curved,) in gauge and looks reasonably good.
Interest factor - there are even more people who just don’t want to go there.
So, where do I stand? With one foot firmly in each camp. I hand-lay ALL of my specialwork, but I use appropriate flex in appropriate places. My prototype was in the process of converting to concrete ties in 1964 - and was obsesso about careful alignment and tie spacing. If I ever
Dave, I think your last sentence is the key to the whole thing. When I handlaid track on my HO Colorado Western in the '70s, it was out of necessity, as there wasn’t a hobby shop in town (the nearest was 60+ miles away)–and at the time I couldn’t afford to buy commercial track, anyway. I had the Code 70 rails, Kemtron (remember them?) spikes and rail joiners, and a pair of spiking pliers I made by cutting a “T” in the end of each jaw of an old pair needle-nosed pliers. I also had several #4 turnout kits, the kind with straps soldered here and there to keep them gauged. You spiked them down to the handlaid wood ties (I’d bought several big bags of prestained regular ties and switch ties [I later produced them myself, from stripwood] before leaving the Big City for a job on Long Island, NY), and un-soldered the straps. I later made jigs for making frogs and switch points from measurements taken from those commercial kits.
I didn’t try to break any track-laying records (no “Ten Miles In One Day!”), but could usually spike down a 3-foot section in an hour or so. I found it relaxing, and later, Tony Koester (that’s pronounced “Custer,” if you were wondering)
Before I proceed with my narrative let me specify that I never handlaid HO-Scale MAINLINE trackage - unless you classify laying down Tru-Scale self-gauging roadbed as handlaying track. I did have limited experience in building HO-Scale switches.
I went - or tried to “went” - the handlaid trackage route on my second N-Scale layout. I did not like the appearance of Code 80 N-Scale track so decided to go to Rail Craft Code 55 and, since I was going to need rail to handcraft switches, I would just lay in a case - 99 feet - of Code 55 rail and have at it. I laid down about 35 feet of track and, rather than order a second case of rail, I abandoned the arena and - except for switches, of course - I have gone the flex-trak route ever since.
Did I like the appearance of my handlaid track? You betchum, Red Ryder! Did I find the thing tedious? You betchum, Red Ryder! I have never really done a cost analysis but handlaying is probably somewhat cheaper than flex-trak but on the same token it is time-consuming.
Why did I abandon handlaid trackage? Because, in the vernacular of the '60s, “It just wasn’t my bag!”
Now, let me say this: on this new layout that I am getting ready to build I am giving some serious consideration to using ME Code 55 and ME Code 40.
The KaDee spiker was like a staple gun. You centered it over the rail and pulled the handle and POW, a split staple / spike was driven into the tie on each side of the rail. They are no longer being sold as far as I know. I understand that the refill “staples” are still available. I think they may have come before their time, or they weren’t very reliable. I don’t have any personal experience with one to know for sure. The above is just what I have heard in the model press and from other modelers through the years.
Don’t waste your money on one. You can do a great job using a pair of needle nose pliers. They have almost a cult following and tend to be very expensive, if you can find one. I had every intention of buying one until I was shown how to spike track with a set of pliers.
I guess I’m the Grinch whenever this subject comes up, but I have read all the reasons for handlaying track and not one of them gives me the slightest urge to give this a try. Flex track and commercial turnouts look and work just fine for me. With all the different commercial turnouts available in HO, I can’t imagine not being able to modify a track plan to utilize one of them rather than scratchbuilding some odd sized turnout to fit a specific situation. Lastly, I don’t think I would find hand laying track to be either relaxing or satisfying. It looks like an endeavor that would be one royal pain in the rear, and a totally unnecessary one at that.
Note that in my first post to this thread, I listed (among reasons not to handlay,) “Interest factor - … people who just don’t want to go there.” I hardly consider a lack of interest in hand-laying to be Grinch-like. If Brother Corbett is happy with his results using flex track and commercial specialwork, more power to him.
All of life is choices, and only I can make my choices. Other people’s choices are their problem.
Although I’ve handlaid track in HO and O scales, I would definitely go the ME flextrack route for any of the popular scales. Once ME track is weathered and painted, including the ties, it looks much more realistic than handlaid. I’m currently handlaying track for my Gn15 (G scale on HO track) industrial line because no commercial track (with proper sized ties) is available, however, if it was I’d use it.
I would certainly recommend trying to handlay if you are curious. It really isn’t so bad, but it does take extra time. For my first attempt, I built a turnout using the instructions from Kalmbach’s Trackwork and Lineside Detail. The turnout looked and functioned great. My next attempt was handlaying a module for my modular club in Atlanta. It was just a four foot double track module with a simple rural setting. The module looked fantastic and I’ve never had any trouble with the trackage. After that I built a module with a handlaid turnout just to see how dependable it would be, especially on a portable module, before building my home layout. At this point my plan is this: I’m using Atlas code 83 flextrack for my layout and handlaying all of the turnouts using the rail from the Atlas flextrack. I estimate that I can build a turnout for less than five bucks, which saves a lot of money when you need at least a hundred turnouts. Just try it and see what you think. You might hate it, you might love it. At least you’ll know and you can say you’ve tried it.
All you need to start is the following: a couple pieces of rail (the code 83 Atlas flex lets you easily pull out the rail), rail cutters, needle nose pliers for spiking, a file or two, a bag of spikes, a bag of ties, and an NMRA gauge. One or two of the track laying gauges from ME would help a lot too, but it is not necessary.
I did some handlaying years ago, both gluing and spiking. Gluing is not too bad, but spiking is a little tediious. Unless you use micro spikes and tieplates it doesn’t look as good as the better brands of flex track. And the last time I costed it out, with 4 spikes per tie and no tie plates, it’s more expensive except for turnouts. My plan for my current layout is to use flex track and Fast Track jigs for turnouts - not to save money, but for a better turnout.
PROTO 87: track that is totally in gauge - allowing ‘Scale’ or ‘Fine line’ wheels.
TURNOUTS: in gauge plus high tolerannce frog/wing rails/ flangeways and correctly gauged Gaurdrails cut wheel bounce and derailments to near banishment.
I find hand laid SWITCH KITS allow accurate spiking, with most of the above benefits, and Micro Engineering flextrack excellent for NMRA’s wider-than-prototype wheels. When I replaced my ‘Customline’ switches with hand-laid Kits, my derailments stopped.
The best tool by far for spiking is from Micro-Mark @ $17.95 and will last longer than you will.
I read alot of “how it is nearly impossible to build a bad turnout”, and that “even clumbsy and low tech me can build them and they work great and are so smooth” from the internet savants. And, they are cheaper to build than any other kind of turnout.
I decided to build some, after all I have a lot of technical skills and have been soldering for over 50 years. I built 8, none of them worked perfectly in all directions, some worked well in one, or two, or even three, but none of them worked flawless in all four directions. You did know that a turnout has to work in all 4 directions, right?
Oh, and they all looked, well, like hand laid turnouts do but I’ve grown to appreciate that any turnout that does not derail in all four directions is a thing of beauty. If they derail, they are ugly! Then there were problems with the extra drag a handmade turnout puts on a switch machine. That is something you don’t hear much about anywhere.
Finally, after having repaired a couple of them several times, I replaced all 8 with Atlas & Walthers #8 turnouts. That was a pain in the neck because my handlaid turnouts were different length that the commercial ones. Streching an extra inch or two out of a piece of flex track is impossible. . .
Since I had chosen to use Atlas code 83 flex track, every other brand of turnout that I know about requires some kind of transition work at each joint. After almost two years in turnout hell, I finally settled on Atlas and Atlas and all is good. Frankly I really don’t readily see the difference from Atlas and the much vaunted and twice as expensive ME or Peco. But I don’t count rivets, measure hand rail diameter or knowingly use a #58 coupler either.
I consider the 3 months I spent on making turnouts to be a waste of valuable time with little to show for it. Now in fairness, I did not have a tutor availab