Tips on laying flex track in turns and straights?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
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I have been having some good MRR days lately. Worst thing that has happen is 2 decouplings and that took 50 hours to happen.[:)]

So today I pushed my luck and added a by pass to the warehouse’s (not sure what the term is but can pull off a train so another can pass it). It is the best section I have laied yet and that is not saying much!

I know a little, but I want to get better.

Main question’s

1 In turns how do you make the flex track joints stay in alinement when the joints are in the turn?

2 I know about leaving a small gap for expansion, about the tickness of a businees card, also butting up the rail that moves aginst the one that does not move. But, how do you make the track fit perect? I have the rail cutter thing and that is all I have for cutting rails.

3 What to do if the rail joiner does not make te rail height percect?

4 How much spike height should I leave over the ties?

5 How often should I use spikes per inch? Just the holes in the flex track?

If you want to call it Bench work, it is plywood, thin out door carpet with no backing (looks pretty good) and no track bed yet. I predrill the spike holes and if I don’t hit a know hole I can drive in the spikes.

Any and all tips are wecome.

Cuda Ken, still a knuckel dragger in the MRR world but geitting better, well that is what the Doctor keeps telling me.

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Ken,

  1. Solder the joints in the turn together. This assures a smooth curve. Do this BEFORE you lay down the track… I then leave (or cut) a gap after large turns so there is room for expansion.

  2. I cut my gaps with a dremel tool or hand saw. I then fill them with styrene shaved and filed even… paint and you can’t even notice…

  3. I file off the square ends to make a slight 45 degree angle on the top edge of all connecting rails. This smooths the bump if the rails aren’t perfect… I also smooth with a dremel tool if I can feel a bump. This is rarely a big problem unless you are using different types of flex track, where the TIES are different thicknesses OR different codes. In the case of different types, well, I place styrene shims under the narrower ties and get them to match… as for the other… it is called transition track (homemade or purchased)

  4. Spike height…oh, I guess you mean nails… can’t answer this. I use latex caulk…

  5. Again, no answer. Caulk/Latex is better, in my humble opinion.

Ken, I would laydown some sort of roadbed, it will help with noise and cushion, probably enhancing the performance of your trains. You can get inexpensive cork and cut to size, if cost is of concern. Just my 2 cents…

Brian

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I think that Brian answered you quite comprehensively.

Take two pieces of flex, three if you can lay them end-to-end and that number is needed for your curve(s), and solder them together, neatly. When you flex them to form the curve, make sure the sliding rail is on the inside. However, that means the soldered joint, if it is sloppy, will bind on the little plastic tie spikes as it tries to move through them. (place a mark on the side of one of the sliding rails of a piece of flextrack, and bend it to see how this can happen…the mark will slide through the spikes, as ill a knobby soldering joint). Take your time and practice this…seriously, or you will get frustrated again!

Use latex caulking, the cheapest tube you can buy, and spread it thinly where your will then press the flextrack sections into it. Use tins of food, magazine stacks, light bricks, or something sitting on the rails to keep the track in place for about four hours. Avoid using the nails…although I must confess to using them at stubborn rail joins occasionally.

Chuck (TomikawaTT) urges us to bevel each end of the rails, both on the tops and on the inner flange surface. Use a jeweller’s file to run over those surfaces a few times at about a 30 degree angle. By doing this, you avoid wheel flanges picking sharp rail ends if they aren’t nicely aligned, but especially on curves.

I have a fine jeweller’s saw to cut gaps because that is what Tim Warris recommends for gapping the frogs in his Fast Tracks turnouts. It cost me a fortune, with duty and shipping, but holy smoke does it make nice, super-thin gaps. I have not been pleased with my Dremel cuts…way too wide and rough, even with a good diamond cut-off disk.

Roadbed. By all means, go to a carpet outlet and get some roll-end underlay or sub-lino layer to cut up and lay for roadbed. Flex-track on plywood will not be a pleasant experience

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Yes, Selector, you reminded me… I cut them by hand… haven’t done it in a few months, so I forgot. The dremel too makes too wide of cuts (which take longer to fill perfectly)…

Brian

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Flextrack won’t make an 18’ radius, which is what Ken is probably trying to do.

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When I’m laying flextrack in curves, I lay most of the first piece of flextrack, leaving only an inch or two unfastened (using the nail holes in Atlas track, I just leave the last nail hole un-fastened - this gets you a 2-3 inch straight piece at the end of the section of track). Then I trim the sliding rail - which should always be on the inside of the curve - slightly shorter than the other rail (because I’ll be bending the end of the section, the inner rail will still slide past the outer one a bit when it’s bent into the final curve). I just trim it by a eye 1/16th of an inch or so shorter than the outer rail. It isn’t too critical, as any mismatch is taken care of at the NEXT joint. I take the next piece of flextrack and solder it onto the end of the just-laid section before bending it, then go back and nail the track along the curve from where I left a short straight section on the piece before. The result is a very smooth, unbroken curve.

The ends of my rail joints line up - not a problem at all.

I trim the rail using a Xuron rail nipper, then touch it up using a Dremel cutoff wheel. I actually use the side of the wheel, touching it to the bottom of the rail (to eliminate any burrs that might catch the rail hoiner as it slides into place), the top of the rail and the inner edge of the rail head (removes burrs and puts a tiny chamfer on the contact surfaces of the rail, ensuring that there is nothing in the way of smooth wheel travel. If you’re careful, you won’t break the wheel. I broke several before I got the right touch - I haven’t broken one in ages now.

Here’s a photo showing how the track looks before the end is trimmed and the next section soldered in place (look at the right-hand track):

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Wheels, no more 18" turns for ME![:D] Last main line turns I have done are 22" and 24". On the siding I just laied it was in a odd spot and not really for running. 1 end is tight, maybe 15" (flex will make a 18" as well). But other end is around 28". I hope to back the cars up to the Moore Warehouse and use the Kadee un couplers magents. Yes, wheels I am making the jump to a real MRR not the junk I have been moaning about.

Now, about the only thing I did not understand, what is “styrene” and or its shavings?[8D]

Brunton, thanks for the PIC, have any with better details or would you take them in step by step? Seems you are in the middle of where I am going next.

On soldering say 3 sections together. How many ties do you cut out for a joint? I am worred a little about the joiners on the 3 section thing.

OK, just backed up a 25 cars up the big end of the new spur and dropped off 7 cars.

OH, I did finaly have a nasty derail last night. Doubled headed Erie Built was hauling 35 cars on main line 2 and F7-A was hauling 8 passanger cars and where side by side. Passanger car lost a wheel and you can fill in the blanks.

Next, getting ready to start real bench work.

Thanks for all the help, and looking forward to 32 " turns.

Cuda Ken, Happy again!

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Hi Ken,

What sort of flexible trak are you laying? Several guys assumed Atlas, and I guess odds are that is what you have. They wrote about a fixed rail. The stuff I use slides both rails - Peco Code 83.

Nevertheless what the guys before this posted seems pretty good advice to me.

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Ken -

My helix has 36, 38, 40 and 42 inch radius curves (it’s four tracks total). To make a 180-degree turn (half a circle) requires 3+ sections of 36" long flextrack.

I don’t lay a curve starting from a flextrack joint in the curve and working both ways. What I do is lay track from one end to the other, and the joints fall wherever they fall, and are soldered together as I go.

For example, when I started laying into the helix, where the lead-ins are straight track:

  • I cut one tie off each end of a new section of flextrack.
  • If the section of track will end up in the curve, I clean three rail ends - both on the end that will attach to the old section of track, and the fixed rail (the one that doesn’t slide through the ties) on the other end. I know which end to clean both rails on because the sliding rail always goes to the inside of the curve. I clean the track using a cutoff disk at low speed in my motor tool moving the edge of the cutoff tool lightly over the base of the rail at the end, and also along the base of the rail and the web on each side of the rail. This removes any tiny lip at the rail end and removes the tarnished surface material on the rail itself. That provides excellent electrical contact with the rail joiner.
  • If the section of track will be completely straight its entire length, I clean all four rail ends.
  • A section of flextrack is attached to the end of track already on the lead-in to the helix using standard old Atlas rail joiners. Since the track alignment through the joint is straight, I don’t solder this one.
  • Starting at the joint, on hidden track I install track nails at each hole through the center of the tie, working down to the free end of the section. I just follow the track centerline as I go, and when I get to the curve I just pull the track over to follow the curve. Where there are two holes near each other, I just pick one or the other - I don’t nail both (you can if you want, but it doesn’t h
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Do you run full-length passenger cars and long locomotives such as 4-8-8-4s? The reason I ask is I was wondering if you find your 2" track centers on those curves to give sufficient clearance for all your equipment.

Mark

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Mark, how did you find time to answer my questions? I just looked at your web page, I am kneeling as I miss spell this posting! I was wrong, we are no where close to each other in the track laying stage.

Best track till I saw yours is K-10 trains. Is is bigger put no where as complex. I did get some idea’s (last thing I need with the lack of funds I will add) on the small helex (did I spell that right) I thinking about doing. Like the idea of metal rods to support the track.

How tall will the moutain be when done, 7, 8 foot. Man I am humbled. Got to tell the wive to sell the living room and dinning room stuff. There is a wall coming down.[:)]

When will you be on the cover of the MRR Mag? 3 years and how long have you been buliding it.

Humbled Ken, amazed again

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Ken,

I am hoping to put down a bit of track this weekend. Just a test layout for learning a bit about DCC and running in some trains while I do major surgery on the house to fit a layout in.

One thing that occured to me when re-reading your initial post, I try to avoid having rails joining directly opposite. This comes back to what sort of flex track you are using. The brand I am familiar with from old layouts is Peco. When you bend it the rail ends are no longer opposite each other. With this type of track you can push the rail through the “pins” moulded onto the ties. Trim about two to fit the joiner. Arrange it so the two joins are not directly opposite. I think that will overcome the problem that you allude to.

However, I have never used Atlas, which seems to be quite different from what the guys are posting about one rail being fixed.

Must get back to the construction. Just up to the benckwork so far. Get back to work before my dear wife thinks of something she want me to do.

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The main thing is to stagger the joints so one rail is holding the curve against the other one trying to kink it.

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If you are laying track in a maximum temperature time, there should be no gap.

I have a set of jewlers files for making tiny adjustments to make them fit perfect.

Then there is some other problem. Perhaps there is dust & debris under the ties on one side, or the roadbed is not even. Is the track the same brand? You can file the bottom side of the ties on one side to adjust.

As others have said, I no longer use nails or spikes, but adhesive. Personally I use matt medium.

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In a word - no.

In more words: The largest locomotives I have are Mikados (2-8-2’s). I may get a few Northerns and perhaps an articulated or two, but as far as I can find out the Q never ran articulated through the Wyoming area I model. I don’t think they had anything as large as a Big Boy in any case.

I WILL run some passenger trains with full-length cars, but since these will be infrequent (Only a few each operating session), I’ll simply schedule them so they don’t meet on adjacent helix tracks. They’ll do fine meeting freights. One of the advantages of the 30’s and 40’s is that there were few freight cars over 40’ in length, so side-swiping on curves isn’t much of a problem except for the longer locos, and I won’t be running many of those.

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Thanks, Ken, but don’t be humbled - at all. The most impressive layout I’ve ever seen in any MR layout feature, was in an article titled “The Last Days of the Duquesne” in the 1980s. Incredible realism. The layout was HO, 5’ X 9’.

A big layout is not an end in itself - it’s just the means to the end. I’ve planned such a large layout because I want to model what I grew up around, and in order to get the sense of wide-open spaces that defines Wyoming, plus the towns I want to model, I need real estate. The plan gives many areas of the layout (Glenrock, Powder River, Wind River Canyon) a single-track-in-the-vastness appearance. If I could get the “middle-of’nowhere” sense on a 12 X 8 foot layout, I would. There is a serious downside to a layout as large as mine - the time needed to “complete” it. I’ve been working on the layout in its current location for three years, and I’m still probably two years away from starting any scenery! I got a start on parts of the layout in my previous house, so the layout i

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Also, MR just released my video PDF article on laying flex track. If you have a Windows PC and $5.95, you can download it here.