I have seen various topics mentioning Printed Circuit Board ties and such.
Am I missing something… are we talking about the same PCBs used in
electronic devices? What exactly are the practical uses for PCBs in model
railroading? If I understand a little bit, they are used for handlaying track??
Or, am I way off “track”? Thanks, Dave
These ties were popular 20 years ago for handlaying track. You could cut the pcb into tie shaped pieces and glue it down. You then cut a gap in the silver foil and soldered the rails to it. I never tried it and have not seen much on older layouts. I was not sure of the advantage then and still am not. Someone else may have a better insite than this. I did try to lay a complicated turnout on some and I didn’t have the skill to make it work.
PCB… first appeared in the UK model rail world as Copper Coated Paxolin… then we realised that it was the stuff they use in radios,TVs etc to make printed circuits. I don’t know how much it was used in the US. Before Peco and others really got their act together a huge amount was hand laid in the UK including some very complex pointwork.
Plain track sleepers/ties can be bought by the bag cut to length with the slight cut to provide insulation already made. Long lengths for switches can also be had… cut to the lengths you need and cut the insulation gaps where you need them.
Of course you can buy a whole sheet of the stuuf and have hours of fun cutting it yourself…
Do remember that UK sleepers are a very different size from US ties as well as cut for 4mm=1ft not 3.5mm=1ft.
Marcway of Sheffield - www.marcway.com do both UK and US PCB track and components. The track is rlatively expensive but fantastic looking.
MAKE SURE you order US parts!
If you get into it (and it works for you) it can be a very fast way of laying made-to-measure track. You have to develop the particular soldering skills… not so difficult… I did it![:p] I found it easier than spiking.
One particular feature (pretty sure this applies to marcwy) is that switch blades are filed from one piece almost from the frog… no big joint or pivot. The blade then flexes as in the real thing. This is the main improvement in looks. A dodge is to use a couple of ties near the blade tips as the tie bars for the blades (not soldering these two to the stock rails! [;)] )
Hope this helps.
[:p]
PC Board material is popular for special ties when handlaying track, especially turnout throw rods but anywhere you need a solid mechanical connection between the rails without shorting them electrically. The rails are soldered to the foil layer, and the foil is severed between the rails, leaving the phenolic or fibreglass layer to provide mechanical connection between the rails.
This technique is also used with “regular” ties made from PCB when assembling handlaid turnouts off the layout. Every 5th or 6th tie is made from PCB and installed on the bench, then the completed turnout is installed in its location with wood for the remaining ties and spiked down.
Last but not least - code 40 rail is not easy to spike, so I’ve seen it laid with PCB ties used as for turnouts above but with no spikes at all. This eliminates the problem of wheels bottoming out on spikeheads when running on code 40 rail.
Dave,
The ties that I think of (and have seen used with the Fast Track system) are the copper lined prototyping board material:
http://www.handlaidtrack.com/category.php?id=213&link_str=213
It’s PC board material sandwiched between 2 thin layers of copper sheeting. The copper layer makes it ideal to solder to and the PC board material provides the important rigidity needed in hand-laying turnouts. Usually only a half dozen or so are need to make a turnout. The rest is filled in with regular wood ties.
Dave, here’s a pic of a Fast Track turnout jig. The jig shows how where and how many PC board ties are needed to form a turnout:
Tom
Thanks all,
This has cleared things up for me. I thought the board was used for track laying, but
I couldn’t quite grasp the concept. I can see how it would simplify the process. Thanks
again. Dave
Hi All,
I have used a couple of FASTTRACKS products & am happy to say they are an excellent product. I bought a Double crossover fixture & put it together in about four hours - That’s four turnouts & one crossing all jointed together! It’s very fast to assemble & absolutely accurate. From this fixture you can create turnouts, crossings, crossovers & double crossovers. The doublecrossovers use nearly three lengths of flextrack, which is so cheap. The other great product is the TwistTies - Build a straight or curved turnout [with a curvature of your choice] with extremely high accuracy & virtually no tuning, without the expence of a fixture[jig] - Good for a “one off” turnout. I use flextrack for the rest of the layout but use the PCB soldered unter the joint to create ROCK STEADY perfectly spaced gauge track. This is also a good point to solder your throttle feed wores to, meaning every piece of track has its own connection & does nto rely in inferior ‘fishplate’ connections.
Keep Trainin’
Mark
it all depends how you go after laying the track. I can lay on wooden ties spiking it all.
PC ties allow building off layout then placing. Real custom track isnt good for that unless your very good in your techniques, but I can do it onsite and dont need a rocket scientist to lay track…
I have used a small piece of PCB to make an insulated gap on a curve. The PCB was soldered to the bottom of the rail and then a Dremel gently cut down through the rail and the copper.
I also used some under a turnout frog with small rails to avoid the filling the flangway and filing it out again mess and to keep the electrics going.
PCB long tie material cut to suitable length would also be good for making Gauntlet track…
Thought of this at work today and ended up with a whole new layout idea…
Ok David, now you get to define “Gauntlet track” for me. [:)] Dave
Gauntlet track…hmmmmm. Is that what you lay down when someone crosses the “line”? [:-^]
Tom
It’s like “running the gauntlet”; like a chcane in car racing.
Two lines of track are squeezed down onto one set of ties, but without being connected. Railroads use it to put a double track line across a single track sized bridge, but without turnouts. There are variations where the extra track was used to swing cars closer to or farther from platforms; also a turnout with a long middle section – to move the points from an awkward location like the middle of a road.
(Long thread in the Trains section somewhere)
Ahhh, I see. I have actually seen a picture of this before but didn’t know what it was called.
Here’s a picture I found:
PC board ties are also used to convert shinohara code 100 turnouts to “DCC friendliness”.
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches.htm
The advantage is strength, solderability and the ability to allow electrical conduction only where you need it.