As I embark on the next great journey, I have some tracklaying questions. I’m planning to have handlaid turnouts and micro engineering code 55 flextrack - I’m planning to use the weathered version. (If you hadn’t guessed, it’s N scale)
At the joins with the switches, would it be a good idea to cut the flextrack rail long and to have the switch rails extend onto the ties and have the joins staggered, or just have the turnouts butt up to the flextrack? (Or, if the former is preferable, is it just too much trouble?)
Now, has anyone had any major problems with the weathered rail’s electrical connections?
Another thing I’ve been thinking about is the roadbed - I was originally thinking of using C55 for the mainline and C40 for sidings, but finding out that practically nothing will run on non-handlaid C40 track kind of put a damper on that. So I decided to show the difference between mainlines and sidings through roadbed only. What are some recommendations for that? The only roadbed I know of is cork, what alternatives are there, and what can I use that’s thicker? I don’t want to have HO cork that I have to cut away a side of to maintain the profile…given that my entire mainline is 10 full miles long, I want something that I can put down out of the box or bag or whatever the preferred mode of transportation is!
My preference is to have the rails continuous through the turnout, and as far as possible beyond. That usually means a full 3ft piece of rail for each of the stock rails. This also means hand laying the track adjacent to the turnout. I feel that having the turnout as a separate entity is essentially the same as building your own prefab turnout. Why bother? But again, that is personal preference. Others do differently, and that is their preference.
I have not used weathered rail. I paint my own rail before spiking it. I normally solder a magnet wire feeder to the bottom of each rail piece before painting. I imagine you will have to clean the weathered rail with file or emery paper or Dremel polishing tip before soldering. I don’t think it’s that big a deal - I do similar with the non-weathered rail.
The last sentence with your out-of-the-box requirement limits you to the commercial roadbeds. I don’t know if Homabed is made for N gauge, but that would be my recommendation if it is. I use Homasote roadbed cut from sheets of Homasote. The surrounding scenery base has to be adjusted to the heig
Thanks, Fred! As I’m adverse to handlaid track all-around (just too much effort, I have my limits!) I suppose I’ll try to run the stock rail through into the flextrack at least to some degree.
I appreciate telling me about homabed, my dad told me that nobody used homasote anymore, but they do have N scale roadbed in two heights made for exactly the reasons that I have!
The problem with weathering flex-track before you lay it is that the paint usually gets in under the rail and prevents it from curving smoothly, and of course it’s really hard to paint just that tiny little section of rail! (As my dad found out when he built a coffee table layout!)
I have built for N scale before. I like code 70 for the main and code 55 for the sidings and other tracks. And Homabed is the product to use for roadbed. Turnouts and track was ME and I used the ME rail joiners which hardly showed up at all.
The rails can be painted with an Air Brush and Polly Scale roof brown after the track is in place and wired up. Using an Air Brush for that is not going to blow any paint around. It will put it where you want it.
I leave at least a few ties worth of overlap onto the wood ties. At the very least, it provides a spot for rail joiners that’s off of the plastic ties.
No. I use a file to remove the weathering anywhere I intend to solder. Takes a few seconds per joint. Make sure to clean off the bottom of the rail at joiner locations.
I’m in HO, so I use plain HO cork for mains, and transition to N scale cork for sidings and spurs, using a belt sander to give a smooth ramp between the two. Since you’re in N to start with, you could try a thinner cork product for sidings like the 1/16" sheet that I’ve seen at places like Hobby Lobby. It can be cut into strips for roadbed, and comes with adhesive backing already so it’s easy to install.
Caveat: I model in HOj (1:80) but have laid track to a number of different track gauges and with a number of rail sizes. I wouldn’t hesitate to lay 9mm gauge code 55 - in fact, I will be doing so if I build out either of my two 762mm (prototype) gauge feeders.
My preference is for flex, and I hand-lay all of my specialwork. If a turnout falls in the center of a piece of flex, I simply strip the flex track ties (or slide them off the end) and assemble the turnout (on wood ties in my case) where I want it. The only time I hand-lay ‘plain Jane’ track is where it falls between two closely adjacent pieces of specialwork - a matter of a few inches at most.
IMHO, it’s worth doing almost anything to avoid rail joints. My biggest heartburn with commercial turnouts is the six rail joints, even more so than the usual complaints about inaccurate gauge.
Quick and dirty way to show a difference between main and secondary track is with ballast. Ballast the main line with nice light-colored crushed stone, passing sidings and yard leads with with darker material and yard body tracks (and industrial spurs) with ‘dirt’ liberally sprinkled with green growing stuff. A quick visit to your neighhborhood prototype rail line will give you the general idea.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on flex track with hand-laid specialwork)
Looking at homabed again, I realized it’s quite expensive…a dollar a foot seems like too much. Is it a lot more reliable than cork due to it being harder or anything like that?
If it’s not that much of an advantage, assuming one has good, flat subroadbed (I was planning to use 1/2" ply)
I’m glad to hear that people share my views on tracks joins - it almost seems pointless to handlay turnouts if there’s a chance of a kinky joint coming into them.
And then there are exceptions. Here, the siding (with the ballast leveler/sweeper) is newly reballasted and looking much lighter/cleaner than the main track to the left. The distinguishing feature here is that the main track is higher than the siding.
I also model in Nscale and use “semi handlaid” turnout using jig from Fastrack ( www.handlaidtrack.com)
I use ME code 55 track in their jig whitout problems; I have made a try whith the use of pre weathered rail from ME.
These rail are chemicaly wheatered and this treatement is a real wall between the the rail and the solder.
Soldering them works but it could be a nightmare if you don’t prepare whith care the piece of rail to be soldered.
I use a dremel wire brush to remove the “weathering” of the rail were soldering is necessary.
The rail must shine whithout any trace of wheathering. I wash the piece of rail in denatured alcool and use a non corrosive solder flux, is a must. Solder them is now easy.
Anyway, don’t use a solder iron below a power of 50/60 watt power, use flux and clean the weathering.
You could also build turnout whith non weathered track and wheather them after building, ME sold the product they use to produce weathered track.
Solder the track at the end of each turnout, use the dcc friendly method for electrical continuity even if you use common DC(frog electrified alone - point electrified) use the same method for slip and crossover; you need full electrical continuity in Nscale. More infos on www.wiringfordcc.com
I use cork for roadbed but certainly not the commercial one which in quantities is quite expensive.
I cut my own from roll buy at construction hardware store; they exist in some different thickness.
Because it’s Nscale I glue my track to the cork roadbed whith heavy gel acrylic paste because it’s easy to remove track from it if necessary whithout destroying it
