I use alot flex track and I have alot bad joints. I tried Soldering some and that seams to work on straight away’s but not on the curves. I have a radius 20" on my curves on my layout.[:(!]
What scale? To tight in flex will give you a bad case of the kinks and bends. You MUST solder ALL curve joints or you are asking for a case of the kinks. On the straight alternate which rail to allow for expansion.
Take Care
HO
The railroad club I go to, when they get a bad joint like that they solder a pc tie to the rails, and then they put a nail in beside the pc tie to straighten out the track. Hope this helps
As in the railhead does not line up? Use a fine file on the higher piece.
I’m not sure what the problem is.
Tom,
Short Answer:
On the curves, you need to solder the joints before you bend the rails into position around the curve. That is, you need to solder as you go. If you lay it all first and then go back to solder the joints later, you will have a hard time fixing the inevitable kinks in the joints on curves.
Some other forum members have posted some pretty well written detailed discussion on this very subject in recent months. You might be able to find the thread(s) through the search engine or perhaps someone else amongst us may have it bookmarked and would be so kind as to post a link to it.
Good luck!
-Dave
Your supposed to solder before bending. Since yours is already down, try having someone hold the joint in place with two pair of pliers while you resolder them. A little filing afterward helps too.
I think I now understand.
Try one of these to allow perfect alignment and soldering at the same time.
Smooth comes in two dimensions on railroads. Up and down, and side-to-side. No matter, kinks in any direction will tend to bind axles, or lift axles, that try to go past or over them. Steamers are the worst. You need to re-do any curves that you did not solder when they were straight and properly aligned on a flat surface. Place the sliding rail innermost on the curve, and a useful hint is to stagger the solder of the sliding inner rail hal-way along the section of track by sliding one section’s sliding rail into the tie plates and half-way down the next section. Makes for stronger joins when you flex the tracks for a curve.
Also, most track needs to be tuned with shims to keep it from dipping when a loco goes over it if you have pieces of foam abutted together. Or, you will have to use a file and spend some time cleaning up the solder so that the flanges rubbing on the outside rail don’t run into gobs of solder.