We came home from 5 days in Philly to find that the weather had changed drastically and that heat had failed in the house. Not to big a problem, no pipes burst , no huge repair bill thanks to taking a second year on our Home Warranty from when we bought the house but last night when I got a chance to run the train I noticed the cars were swaying badly exiting the cut in the hill. I found the ballasted track had buckled. The inner rail is loose for about 6 inches and the outer for about half of that.
There will be no repairs until after the Thanksgiving holiday so I thought it might be a good idea to ask for the best strategy to tackle this. The damage is a little hard to see, about the middle of the picture. Any ideas?
Bookworm,
I don’t do N but if it was on mine I think tearingout that section and scaping the balast away, then start over in that section. If this is 3’ section then you might just cut back to good and re-rail joint a new section, depending on your roadbed maybe move the rail and spike and regauge the section. LOL
I was afraid you were going to say that. Time to call out the tiny bulldozers and and the work gang. The end of that section of flex is only about 3 inch’s to the right soldered to a feeder. I am hoping I can cut the track with a Dremel about where the fence posts zig zag and scrape back to bedrock or homosote, whichever I get to first and start over. At least I can still run trains over the holiday.
It a ppears yoiu will need to cut out the section & relay the teack. The only alternative would be to use a piece of sectional trak (if it fits the radius of the curve) You need a flatcar large enough for a piece of panel track.
Unfortunately the radii is not one found in sectional track. This will give me something to keep me busy after until Christmas.
What I can’t understand is is that even though this area is twisted like a roller coaster I have not had any derailments in the area and I am still pulling every car I own through it. Up to 16 cars now. The engine looses a little power in the area, I guess one or more of the pick ups loose contact momentarily.
I am assuming it was the temperature change that caused it and not moisture warping the homosote base. Everything underneath and all the rest of the track is fine. Most of it is still not ballasted. I did have another buckling problem after one of my Granddaughters rolled her chair into one of the modules and the track came up near where two modules joined. That was on a different module but one that connects to this one.