New type of track

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

I invented my own style of track.

Best part of all, it was basically free and fun to make, using just 027 tubular.

Dave Vergun

2

Pretty good job on that and the layout. [if I remember correctly, the layout is now gone???]

3

Pictures of Daivid’s new “home built” track.

4

Remeber, click on picture to enlarge.

5

Thanks, Chief!

The 1st photo is a closeup of the frog after I polished off some of the J.B. Weld bodyfiller, shown in the 2nd photo.

Basically, I’ve taken a toy rail 027 track and made a hi-rail track out of it; the center rail, which you cannot see too well in the 2nd photo, is made out of 14 gauge single strand wire, mounted on copper nails.

I’d like to discuss how it was made for those of you who are interested. All materials are from home depot.

For baseboard, I used 1/4" lauan, a type of laminate plywood. It would be better if I had had it, to use a sheet of styrene, as it is even thinner. But, you don’t want something that will be too floppy. The alternative is to construct the whole thing without a base.

Next, I traced with a pencil the switch route. In this case, it is a #7; a radius of turnout that is imposssible to purchase ready-made. BTW, this turnout was built a week ago. This weekend, I built an even longer one, a #8.

Then using a table saw, I cut ties from the same lauan board. Tie width is 5/16. The whole ccutting process took about 2 minutes.

Then, I laid the long strips of ties on the base and using a pencil, marked off the length. Using a pair of lineman’s pliers, i snipped the ties to proper length.

Then, I took a dab of black paint and about 5 parts of water and dumped the ties in a bucket and shook them until I got a nice dark stain. paint is latex.

After the ties dried, I attached them to the base with wood glue.

Then, using some salt & ppepper gravel that I procured from a rock quarry, that appears scale size, I dumped this on and used a paintbru***o work the ballast in.

Then, using a spray bottle of wood glue and water, and some soap, I sprayed & let dry until the ballast set.

Then, using just 1 3 ft section of 027 track, I was ready to lay rails.

I cut the rails to size with a Dremel & cutoff wheel, then using a Dremel an

6

cool