I am thinking about hand laying track for a llogging railroad that interchanges with my N&W layout. Is it worth the time and effort? Laying the mainline would not be too hard but hand laying turnouts maybe another thing. What do you think? [:|]
As a person that has never set one spike I would say go for it. I think hand laid track looks sooooo… much better. If not for Hockey tournements, Swim meets and lots of other things I would be doing it myself. It is one of those things I gave up the thought doing because of time restraints. It isn’t rocket science, it just takes practice and patience, including turnouts. If you have time, go for it, you will get a lot of satisfaction for your efforts.
For a logging railroad, prefab track would be “too perfectly uniform.” My suggestion would be to find videos of logging railroads and look at their very imperfect track and then decide what you want to do. If you make it too decrepit and realistic, you’ll have trouble keeping anything on the rails because our models are nowhere near as forgiving as the prototype geared locomotives and log cars.
A Google search using the phrase “Logging railroads” should turn up lots of examples.
Get a hunk of Homasote and lay a bit of track and a switch or two.
If you like it, handlay the track on your layout.
If you don’t like it, don’t.
Hand laying track is a skill that has to be learned. There are lots of different ways to do it. Some are easier than others, some are more “prototypical” than others, some take different skills, some take longer than others, some are more expensive than others… All take a certain amount of manual dexerity, fine motor skills, attention to detail and patience.
If you decide to try it, understand that it will take several attempts to get good at it and that you might need to redo some switches or track. Expect to have to use an NMRA guage to carefully measure the various dimensions. Sloppy work will result in poor performing track.
I would suggest reading about as many different methods as you can and picking the one that makes the most sense, that you can understand the best. If you have a friend who handlays, ask her or him to demonstrate and possibly even help you build one on their layout.
I have handlaid track and switches on my last three layouts and will do so again on my next one (I’m moving so out with the old, in with the new). I have used a dozen different methods or combinations of methods over the last 35 years. All of them worked. Lately I have been using 4 primary methods:
- I built switch kits on the bench, frogs, points, guardrails, then assemble the switch from the parts in place.
- I lay switches on a template on the bench, then solder strips of shim stock on the rail tops and move the competed switch to the site, spike it down and remove the shim stock.
- I lay the switch in place over a paper template glued to the road bed. The template is a photo copy reduction of a prototype switch shrunk to HO scale.
- I make a custom template using flex track and lay the switch on the custom paper template glued to the road bed.
I would start out with Micro Engineering small spikes (micro spikes bend VERY easily), a good pair of n
Is it worth it? Would it be “worth it” in the same way we get some personal satisfaction after scaling a medium high local mountain and getting to enjoy the view of the valley from which we started, say after three hours of fairly stiff scrambling? Would it be ‘worth it’ to have packed a light lunch and some soda to enjoy that as well? You may decide never to repeat that feat, but I guarantee you will never forget it.
The answer to these types of questions can’t be anything more than anecdotal, including for the person asking the question, and then only after the fact. My best guess would be that, even if it doesn’t turn out quite as good or as happy as you’d have liked, you are unlikely to regret having tried. You’d probably be able to relate your experiences to those who are thinking of it, and perhaps offer some tips or caveats based on your results.
I have not laid track per se, but I have made several #8 turnouts and at least three customized ones that would not fit in my grand scheme unless I went to the trouble to craft them from scratch with no template. The upshot was that I am now reliably enjoying my double main, and even though it isn’t the prettiest layout I have ever crafted, the latest one, a wye-type #6 with a quirkly geometry, doesn’t impede my BLI Niagara and a good sized consist of heavyweights slamming through it in either direction at a scale speed of 90 mph. Did it just four months ago, and I didn’t even squint as it went through the frog. Yes, I do definitely think it was worth it.
-Crandell
For a logging RR and for “the heck of it”, I say do it! I’m not too keen on building turnouts, but laying track for a logging road sounds like a really neat thing to do.
Go for it!
It is not unheard of to encounter Tru Scale milled roadbed at swap meets – it has not been manufactured in years. Tru Scale offered plain wood roadbed but also a version with ties and “tie plates” milled into the wood, and in that latter ty.pe you would hand lay your track using spikes.
It was a great way to ease into the skill of hand laying track and after getting comfortable with it (it was hard but not impossible to botch it up), it was a fairly short step to putting down your own ties, sanding them smooth and uniform, and spiking in the rail using the various track gauges and tools that have been developed over the years.
I was never real happy with my results but I was a teenager and I was never real happy with most of my modeling back then. The guys who are good at it can spike rail and chat at the same time!
Dave Nelson
With a Logging Railroad - It would be more to what the real Logging companies did! Nothing very uniform!
BUT! There is always a but in these Questions/Answers!
If one was doing the mainline and not putting a minimum of 2 spikes per tie in EVERY TIE - not every seventh tie as some do isn’t very prototype
IS IT?
How can this then be more prototypical is there are not spikes in all of the ties!
Or are we allowed to alter the relm of Realism since it is Hand laid?
BOB H - Clarion, PA
I hand laid some HOn3 code 55 and a couple turnouts years ago when I was building a narrow gauge layout. It was fun for about 30 minutes. Then once I got to the point where I could say “ok, I can do it” I scrapped the project.
It’s far too much work for me. I also don’t it looks as good as flextrack either. Unless you are a real masochist you only put spikes (with heads that are WAY too large) in every 10th tie or so and it just doesn’t look as realistic as good quality flextrack, but for some reason it will still impress your friends.
If you want some non-uniformity, that can be done with flex by removing a tie every now and then, cut the plastic that holds the ties together and slide them around until you like the look.
My handlaid track portfolio is pretty limited. One piece of special work and a few BK HOn3 turnout kits. My track was pretty much in place by the time Fast Tracks came on the scene. If I was to start over, I’d use the FastTracks turnout jigs and keep using the ME weathered flex track for in between. I have a buddy who uses the FastTracks jigs to build standard gauge turnouts and they look great and function reliably.
I believe that hand laying track was developed because of the poor quality of the fiber tie HO track of the past. Today’s flextrack has more detail, is of excellent quality, and easy to use with good results. I suspect what you are looking for is to make a good quality track that looks as if it belongs in the woods. I would look at the Central Valley tie strips. These are details plastic strips that you can lay your own rail in. They come in different types or styles. Main line and Branch line. The branch line strips represent smaller and wider spaced ties and would look if they belonged in the woods. The CVT 2002.
They’re not too difficult, especially now that you can download printable templates for just about any size and type of turnout. Back in the '90s I experimented with scratchbuilding them. My first one was a little rough, but it quickly became old hat. I started tested my abilities by building a three-way turnout, a dual-guage turnout, and a double slip switch, and this was all done without templates. A Dremel with a grinding wheel is helpful but not necessary.
Steve S
When I get to the point that my substandard gauge feeders can be built, they WILL be handlaid.
One is a logger. I have detailed photos and my own field notes to work from. There were four spikes in every tie, but no tie plates and the tie alignment and spacing fell a good way short of perfection. Also, the branches to logging shows were ‘laid’ on rough trestlework, not the ground. No ‘store-boughten’ 9mm gauge track will ever be able to duplicate that.
The other is a heavy-duty line originally built to provide logistic support to a major hydroelectric development (two dams, several power plants.) Now it also carries tourists to otherwise-inaccessible hot spring resorts. The track is a little more precise, but has some really odd features (ties strapped together with steel strips down the track centerline. Too bad I don’t run 9mm gauge three-rail…)
As for mainline/standard gauge (1067mm) track, I lay that with flex, much of it on concrete ties. OTOH, ALL of my specialwork has been, is now and will continue to be hand laid.
Hand-laying simple turnouts (or puzzle palaces of slip switches and three-way turnouts on curves) isn’t that difficult if the brain is kept in gear while working. I lay out the geometry by bending flex track, cut ties out of medium-hard sheet balsa and shape things that need shaping with a large fine-tooth file. No fancy jigs or machine tools, just two three point gauges and the trusty old NMRA flat gauge. Raw rail, fine spikes and solder are less expensive than anything bought in a box or bubble pack, and the result will be what YOU want, not how some manufacturer (mis)interpreted NMRA standards.
My methods, and those of others, can be found by inserting hand-laid turnouts in the Search block in the right column. Be prepared for a lot of reading.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on hand-laid rails where neces
Crandell,
II think that I would enjoy the experience of handling the track. I guess what I would be looking for would be helped in handling turn out. Is there any place in particular to learn the skill or any particular kits help me with this project?[tup]
I am getting ready to hand lay track on Homesote. I find some good advise on an old post on this board. Additionally I would recommend watching the Fast Tracks videos on line for a good starting place on laying turnouts. (www.handlaidtrack.com). There are several other good web sites dealing with hand laying track. Good luck and have fun.
The Fast Tracks site has printable templates that you can use as a guide.
Steve S
Craig, apart from my own experience [ordering the rail stock, and the jigs and PCB ties in bulk, and then starting to build them…], everything I needed to get to building the first one came from Tim Warris’ site at Fast Tracks.
Halfway down the main page, notice the smallish video icon with clapper atop the screen? Look in the video library and watch Tim as he takes just over an hour to build a turnout. He is deliberate and talks while he builds it. I watched it exactly once and ‘got’ it right away. Three weeks later I had the jigs (one for filling the points sharp and the same block is used for filing frog points prior to soldering them into a point, the other is flat and you lay your PCB ties into them in slots, and the rails as well). My first one wasn’t what you would call pretty, but it worked and I still use it.
I should tell you that it will cost you what a BLI steamer costs these days, maybe more. So, once you ‘get’ how to build them, you may wish to print off his downloadable and printable templates and just lay your rails over the printed lines and solder everything using a couple of three-point gauges as Chuck does. The templates are free. They are great for laying out track geometry instead of guessing when you are laying out centerlines prior to laying tracks.
-Crandell
If you enjoy the process of handlaying, it can be a hobby unto itself. But as for looks, it depends. I’ve seen some hand laid track that looked pretty sparse, less detail than good quality flex track. If you weather flex track well, it can look very very good. Another thing you have to consider is the time investment. Building a layout can be time consuming; a large layout especially so. If you hand laid track, thats a lot more time added. How much time do you have? Would you like to be able to have a more or less completed layout in a matter of months, years or decades?
In the end, its a personal decision. Time is something very limited for a lot of folks unless you are retired, even then time is precious but it all boils down to what you enjoy in the hobby. If you really love hand laying track, thats a major factor. If you are just after good looking track, good quality commerical track can be made to look very good, even better than hand laid depending on the job done in either case.
In my case, I doubt I will every hand lay track - there are so many things on my list toward modeling my RR between finishing kits I have, learning how to weather them, adding decoders to a large fleet of engines, finishing the benchwork, laying the rest of the track, buildings, scenery and a long list of things - hand laying would only dely the more essential things for me. This is why I appreciate having quality RTR models, it keeps my to-do list from getting even longer! But, if those other things are less pressing for you, and you want to just hand lay track - more power to you. Thats my opnion anyway.
Cheers, Jim
This is something I’ve always wondered; how can handlaid track be so prototypical with spikes every 4th. tie, especially when they’re often oversized? If you enjoy handlaying track, that’s fine; if you think operational reliabilty is improved, that fine; after all its your railroad. But more prototypical? I’m skeptical about that.
Ray