Laying flex track...got tips?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’m about to start laying flex track for the first time…what suggestions do y’all have? I have used it on long straights before, but never in curves yet. What tricks and tips do y’all have for laying flex track?

Rotor

2

know your brand…surf around this forum and they’ll be alot of info about the negatives and positives of different brands of flextrack. nice rotary engine.

3

Slide one rail 1/2 way to start with. If you look at the real R.R the never have rail joints together. I slide on rail and keep my joints at least 1 foot apart. This helps in turns. It can get a little difficult at times because you a working with 2 pieces at one time. When you come to a switch just cut off the long piece and use it to start on the other side.

4

http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/004/379dcjrm.asp
http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/000/110kfhum.asp

2 links on the MRR site to look at.

5

I just spent the last couple of days putting in all my flex track. I have to say, despite all my reading, you have to do it to get good at it. My leasons are many, here are the obvious ones:

  1. Never work with sections greater than 6 feet. I found that to be long section that is managable by one person. YMMV.
  2. Always dry fit before glueing. In fact, overlap each end while dry fitting the run. Once everything is in place and held down with pins or tacks, cut one end, and glue/pin half of the run down. Then cut the other end and finish gluing/pinning.
  3. Always put rail joiners on BEFORE you glue the track down.
  4. Soldering feeder wires on before dry fitting will only cause a headache. The wires are hard to manage at a time when you need to focus on aligning rails, centering the track, etc… Dry fit everything, then turn the track over, solder the wire, and glue everything. Another opinion is to solder after the track is glued/pinned in place. I don’t like the apparence, but YMMV.
  5. Never lay the glue until you’re absolutely ready to pin the track.
  6. Only drill feeder holes after everything has been dry fit. The feeders will move while you are aligning everything.
  7. Never solder turnouts. They will fail eventually (although it could be many, many, years).
  8. Everything should be soldered to something. I ran feeder wires to every turnout and flex section.
  9. Drill holes for under-the-layout switch machine before gluing turnouts in place
  10. DON’T SWEAT IT. The track is perhaps the most important thing element of a MRR, but it’s not rocket science. You can always redo it. In fact, in about 6 months you’ll probably want to expand or modify the layout, so think of all track work as “temporary” :slight_smile:
6

Its not that hard to fix and replace. Only solder on the outside of the rail. Use lots of flux and a hot iron. They say to remove two ties on each end but I cheat alot and its not so bad. Its fun and you have something when your done. You will have to adjust some no matter how careful you are.