Managing Editor David Popp’s editorial was interesting. First, I read it aloud to my twins and they went right to sleep. See, they love trains but without alot of pictures or sound effects, they faded right out.
Second, my last layout, the Plywood Atlantic, used a ton of sectional track because it had to fit a tight space and was easy to build. My new layout will use the remains of that for a section dedicated to my old HO Lionel set that I got some forty three years ago. My staging yard area will make use of some as well.
Thirdly, I’ve never had railjoiner problems that would cause me to think of having power leads on every section. Sorry David, that isn’t overkill, that would be genocide.(figuratively)
When it comes to sectional track your soldering iron (or gun) is your friend.
Four lengths of sectional, plus three soldered rail joiners per side, equals a yard of ‘rigid’ (can’t call it flex) or 120 - 150 degrees of curve. Laid in the netherworld, or in a run-down industrial area where the ballast and ties have long since vanished in the mud (rails, too, in some places…) who will ever know?
I have bulletproof electrical connections to every millimeter of rail through jumpers around all of my unsoldered joints, but only one drop per electrical section. My longest electrical section is just over six meters long.
My soldering iron and the gun I inherited but never used, have both gone into hiding for now. I do think I’ll practice soldering rail joints this coming week. Six meters is just about the length of each of my planned blocks for DC power and I was going to feed each block at two points on each side. Setting it up for later conversion to DCC with three zones.
When I laid track on my Yuba River Sub about eight years ago, I came to a portion of the track that was about 6 actual feet above the cement garage floor and would be on a relatively sheer track to floor drop. Frankly, I didn’t trust my ‘expertise’ with Flex-Track, and laid the entire large 16-foot ‘meandering’ reverse curve with Bachmann EZ 36" radius sectional track. I soldered the track sections together, ran three sets of feeders every 6’ of track and it’s worked perfectly for the past eight years. And this is in an uninsulated garage that sees a fairly large temperature range between winter and summer.
Although the rest of the layout is flex-track, that section has turned out to be absolutely fool-proof.
So you’ll get no argument from me on the advantages of sectional track. I read Dave Popp’s editorial and I’m with him. I don’t think that it needs feeders to every section, but I agree that it can be a reasonable alternative. And painting the rail (and ballasting) can certainly improve the appearance. Okay, it’s not going to look like hand-laid, but with care, it’s going to work. It certainly has for me.
Here’s a shot on the sheer portion of Yuba Pass. Eight years and not a single derailment.
I have used sectional track on small (1’x6’) ISL without any problems nor did I find the need to solder the joints…I didn’t bother with bus or block wiring either.
Why sectional track?
I didn’t want to cut and fit each piece of track and still end up with the same amount of rail joiners and end up with a lot of waste.
I have used Kato’s N Scale Unitrack and all I can say its bullet proof with no additional wiring required-if used on a small (say) 2x4’ or 4x4’ layout.
I am in the camp that believes sectional track works quite well on small layouts or where needed on larger layouts.
I also firmly believe one can over block a simple layout simply because we been condition by magazine layout “experts” and by layout books to do so…
I don’t want to get killed here … but anyone think that flextrack or hand laid track can look too good? Many of us are not modeling mile long modern welded rail. When I look at old branchline photos, I see lots of rail joints, like every 40 ft or so (someone knows what the stanrd rail lenghts are).
With sectional track, the rails and rail joiners can be painted, and the track ballasted. Now the joiners are too big, but they are there.
Now, best would be handlaid with scale size rail joiners (which are available), but most modelers don’t go that far.
So, shoot me here, but in some cases sectional track may be a more accurate model than flex or hand laid track. I won’t agrue the electrical advantages of flex track with lots of feeders though …
“Too good” is relative. Just take a long, careful look at 1:1 scale rail; mainline, secondary track and little-used (and less maintained) spurs in the weeds. You’ll see lots of things that DON’T get modeled by anyone except for fanatical Proto-87 folks building dioramas for museums.
The ‘standard’ for jointed rail in the United States is an era-dependent moving target - usually about a foot shorter than the flatcars and mill gons available to carry it. By the 1920s, that had become 39 feet. but there was still plenty of 33 foot per length rail on secondary and industrial track. Yards tended to be built with odd lengths, cutoffs (battered rail ends removed and new holes drilled for joint bars) and whatever the MOW people had that was to good to send to the scrap dealer.
If you really want flex to resemble jointed rail, just file a crosswise notch in the railhead every 39 scale feet or less, bearing in mind that the usual practice was to stagger the rail joints.
BUT, unless you’re modeling the UK or Japan, they’re in the wrong places. Note my comment on staggering the joints. With sectional track the joints are ‘squared’ - fine for me, not so good for the look of American prototype.
Note my comment on fanatical Proto-87 modelers abov
To me, it is all relative. The gauntlet for Model Railroaders runs from rivet counters (proto87 fanatics) to " I just want to run trains". We all fit somewhere on the scale individually. I am more interested in making sure that I never have a connection problem especially in hard to reach areas of my layout. Therefore, for me, I will have connectors soldered and I will have feeds wherever I feel the need for excellent DCC operation. I will file the points at turnouts not because they look better but because I don’t want to spend my time fixing shorts and derailments.
For tighter turns, I use snap-track. Way too easy to fudge the turn a little too tight with flextrack. Now that 24" radius turns are available from Atlas, anything bigger gets flextrack. On my home layout, I was forced to use 18" radius turns, so I used snap-track, then soldered all the joints, and added feeders every 3’ or less. Works great, and I have gotten my Skytop around it. Some other time I might work on scenery…
I had the sectional track plywood specials on and off up until I tackled my first serious layout. One where the track would be ballasted and scenery would be a big part of it. On the plywood special it was easy to wiggle the track to reestablish an electrical connection when the joiner came loose. When you have glued down ballasted track it’s not so easy to wiggle the track when a connection fails. Also running around wiggling nearly 300’ of track would make me look like Lucy and the chocolate factory.
As a result when it comes to my track everything is soldered to something be it a feeder or another piece of track. I think it is easier to do it right the first time. If only I could just get my kids to agree with me. Just my[2c]
Brent,That’s sound advice for larger layouts but,when one has small layouts one has to do what one has to do.
I never had a railjoiner to come lose…I sightly pinch 'em together and I spike my track and not glue it.
As I mention earilier on small(10’ and less) ISLs I don’t use blocks or bus wires since I never found the need…Of course ISLs longer then 10’ gets feeders.
Also I only use sectional track on 1’ x 6’ ISLs since that is rather small even for N Scale and will require a lot of cutting to fit…
I think sectional track is a better choice for a small layout. My biggest plywood special was 5’ x 10’ and with two locos running, worked fine without a bus wire. I use to nail it down and it held firm.
Thinking back I think my problems were more to do with dirty contacts than loose ones. Or maybe a combination of both. All I know is things are a lot more complicated now, but also a lot more fun.[C):-)]
