Thanks all - the plastic under the track at certain points is a good idea.
I would NEVER leave the trains running unattended or the transformer on and care too much about them to have them going with guests milling about. I figure I would remove the track crossing doorways and other places where people could trip when I had people over.
So, part of the layout would be permanent and others temporary. I don’t think I could ever settle on a truly permanent layout. I recall that once I laid out a track and played with it, I soon wanted to tear it down and rebuild. Now I can do the same on a much larger scale as a grown-up with 7 rooms…
Someday I will be able to afford my own place and will cut holes through walls as passageways to avoid trains cutting across high-traffic areas.
Being 13, ive done this so mayny times! Esspecially with my grandfather’s post war tracks I have it running through my whole upstairs! it sadly only lasted a day though cause my parents got mad lol[#dots]
When my wife heads out to Seattle to visit family I set up my Standard Gauge stuff all through the house. Kind of neat watching those big ole electric trains rumbling through out the house.
The best way I have found to keep track sections together and to make a good electrical connection is as follows:
Grab the center rail where the pin is, and bend it to the right slightly. Similarly, bend the left rail to the left. The bends should move the end of the pin about half its diameter. Now when you insert the pins into the next section, there is force on the pins, not only in the mating track section, but also in the track section where the pins are installed. When you take the track apart, you do not have to do anything to connect the track sections again. After all the track sections are bent, you can put your pliers away. Back in the '50s, AF recommended this for their 2 rail track.
Now I am trying to figure out why it took me almost 60 years to discover this technique.
BTW, the recommended Lionel method of squeezing the openings in each track section doesn’t work very well by comparison.
