I am purposfully building sub-standard track, what might be some of the effects of this? (the degree of substandard is equilivant to the Mt. Rainer Senic runaround track. The track,S-scale, is bent in a cressent shape and laied on sparcly spaced ties.)
Derailment. There are ways to make track that LOOKS substandard, by widely spacing ties, using lots of weathering, etcetera, but is actually perfectly spaced and solid, so while it looks like a hunk o’ junk, your trains will actually operate without falling off the rails constantly.
In order to have dips and bows I lightly tapped a section of flex track and then placed a 10 mph speed restriction on it…It was fun and I never had a engine or car to derail.Then once on a very small switching layout I used a “snap” switch crossover without any problems with 40 foot cars and a 0-4-0T.
One of the problems with ‘sub standard’ or distressed track in the model world is derailments. Most of our HO equipment does NOT have equalzed trucks. Even the sprung stuff is way too ‘stiff’ to really follow the undulations of poor trackage. I had a friend who hand spiked code 70 rail to wood ties and and made a ‘dent’ every scale 39’ to look like a low joint. It looked real good, but running anything on it was a problem. And he never did get the desired ‘rock & roll’ sway he was looking for!
Jim
I have enough sub-standard track without making it a design element.[D)]
Numerous ideals come to mind!
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Tie spacing - wider on secondary tracks
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Tie size - secondary trackage may use smaller size
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Tie age - ties age to light grey - secondary track will have more older ties
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Tie highth - ties tend to sink into ballest or roadbed if not maintained. On really bad track, they may be buried in the mud
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Rail weight - secondary track may use lighter rail
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Ballest - secondary track will start off with less
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Ballest - unmaintained track will show less ballest, more dirt, maybe even grass between ties
Have fun
Following prototype practices, huh?
Me to… I suppose it would look cool but anytime I have any sort of inperfect track my trains derail so I would not try to make it on purpose… One thing I noticed, I accidently hammered in the rail instead of the nail[#oops] So now trains uncouple when they roll over it… Oh well I guess I’ll have to fix it.
Tim
Jim,If your cars are setup properly-not the so called 3 point suspension- then they will go through flex track like I mention…SPEED plays a role as well…Our equipment is more forgiving then most think.