Some months, maybe even a year or so back I was laying flex-track as it approached a lift out section across my entrance way. To protect the lift-out from disaster when not in place I decided to isolate about a 2’ section either side. This section would be unpowered when the lift out was removed. This in itself is a good idea. Unfortunately there were some issues with the implementation. First of all this approach is on a curve. As I normally do I joined my flex-track on the bench, but in this case use Atlas plastic isolating track joiners to create the join. What I discovered was that these were not strong enough to maintain the curve in the flex-track. There was a tendency to straighten out into the join.
The result was a very poor joint that can be seen in the middle of this shot.
First lesson: It is almost impossible to lay a perfect curve in flex track with a plastic rail joiner in the track.
Second lesson: If a section of track is bad, it won’t get better on its own.
Third lesson: Fix the darned thing before you lay ballast.
As you can see I had painted, weathered and ballasted the section, thinking it was OK. Well it was not. While most of my trains would run through it, almost all 3 axle locos and my Con Cor Pioneer Zephyr would not. I lived with this for months, daunted by the prospect of having to rip it out.
Last night I did it. In less than 2 hours an 8" section surrounding the problem was cut out, replaced with a soldered section (Later to be cut with rotary tool for the isolated section), painted, weathered and ballasted.
So the biggest single lesson learned is that no matter how daunting a repair project is, Don’t procrastinate, get on and fix the darned thing!
(Sigh) I feel your pain. Actually maintaining a curve with any kind of flex track joint is where a lot of layouts go wrong, even without using insulated rail joiners which I agree have no structural strength at all. Particularly when you remove the last few ties from each end to facilitate soldering the rail joints.
In my tool box I found a batch of old insulated rail joiners out of black plastic that were much stronger than the rubbery things Atlas sells now. I no longer recall what make they are or were. I have not experimented with other makes of insulated rail joiners but Atlas ones are almost squishy soft (and they often bend when being applied to makes of rail other than Atlas such as Peco turnouts).
I have come to prefer flex track that is hard to bend – but which holds its radius once it is bent – such as Shinohara, Micro Engineering, etc over the very floppy Atlas, which I think has a built in tendency to straighten itself. Like you I have taken to soldering two pieces of flex track together at the bench BEFORE I lay the track-- rlentless use of Ribbon Rail track curving gaugers helps make the curve even through the joint. Trying to solder more than two pieces makes it too unwieldy to handle and lay in my experience.
Also even though I primarily use bonded ballast to hold my track down, I focus on the ends of the flex track sections with nails in the ties. Sometimes after the track is laid and ballasted I even use very long finishing nails leaning against both rails and more or less nudge the track into the correct curve, while I use small nails or spikes in the ties themselves – and when the ballast is fully hardened I can remove the big nails. I use adhesive caulk to lay my track and apply the initial ballast and I find that it does “give” a littl
Before you whip out that rotary tool and cut the gaps in the rails (hopefully you haven’t done this already), you might want to find a straight section of track to cut. Otherwise, you’re probably going to end up right back at square one if you cut the gaps on a curve. The ballast and everything may be able to hold the shape for a while, but eventually you will most likely develop problems.
If it absolutely, positively has to be on a curve, then you might want to try inserting a piece of curved snap track, and cutting the gaps in that. The snap track rails are pre-bent and will stay that shape forever.
You only need to cut one rail to kill the juice. Cut the non-sliding/fixed one, as this fixed one has more and firmer “spikes” holding the rail in place. I also put a dab of epoxy at the base of the rail on both sides of my isolating gap, before I cut it. If you ever need to cut both rails on a curve, try to stagger the cuts a little, and use two spots of epoxy on both sides of both gaps. You will have a nice smooth trouble-free curve.
I have not cut the rail yet, so 2 very timely bits of advice. The nirvana moment for me here is the blindingly obvious realization that I only need to cut 1 rail.
Thanks to you all for the ideas and encouragement.
I can’t quite get over the fact that something I suffered with for so long has been resolved so quickly and easily.
Good point loathar, however, the MOW dept. had at least 6 months during which they could have taken care of this problem. As far as I can see all they did was purchase an Athearn powered rotary snow plow. There is no evidence that the MOW dept has done a darned thing aside from that!
I don’t think those plastic joiners are worth a pinch of rat poop. I suppose they could be useful on a straight, but I will not use them elsewhere.
I have resorted to a few track nails embedded tightly along the rails. I also use a small bit and drill holes in ties that are not pre-drilled, and then I slide track nails in them, as well. This, plus well-glued ballast have the effect of keeping things lined up.
I still end up with the odd kink, but if my Niagara doesn’t lurch through it, it is good enough.
One should not overlook the utility of soldering a joint, though, even after it has been laid. If you can get it lined up well, and the gap is small, I would solder and find another place to leave a gap. All-in-all, though, nails do a decent job on the outside of curved section ends, particularly if you can get them snug, about two or three close together, and then bury 'em in ballast.
I will go on to add that ballasting with a really light mixture of glue has benefits, because if you ever have to rip stuff up, even to scrape away some ballast to adjust rail height or something, the thinner mixture will break apart more easily. It still does a good job of holding the ballast, too.
Thanks for the additonal advice Selector. Funny thing, I just found out today that I am 99% certain to be coming to BC to do some systems installation work at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria. Is that in your neck-of-the-woods? Any good train stuff I should do? Hobby shops etc?
Wow, yes, that is about 3.5 hours drive south of where I am. If you look at an atlas, find Courtenay, mid-island on the east shore, above Nanaimo. I am just east, at the end of the runway at the Comox Airport and Airforce Base.
I have been to only one hobby shop in Victoria and am afraid that it did not compare favourably with Leisure Time at the Port Place Mall in Nanaimo…at least, for my tastes. It is also tricky to find. Depending on your length of stay, if you have a day or two free, and would not mind driving up to Nanaimo, I can meet you and show you where Leisure Time is…we can do lunch.
Better yet, if you have never been on a Budd RDC, take the Via Dayliner leaving right at the harbour bridge near 0800 hrs and get off in Nanaimo. I’ll meet you, we’ll do our thing, and I’ll have you back at the station by 1530 or so to get you aboard for the return…it goes up to Courtenay and returns to Victoria daily. Your cost would be something like CDN$25, give or take.
I’m yapping alot in this thread, but I forgot to mention something else I’ve learned when you are having trouble with a kink. Lining the ends up well is going to be difficult unless you understand that the last three or four inches are going to want to straighten along that last stretch toward the end. You may think you have a nice curve because the ends seem to all line up, but you don’t. What you must do, therefore, is to buttress the inside of the rails with something around which to force that curve… a fulcrum, in other words. So, in addition to all that I stated above (whew!), give yourself a higher probabillity of success by providing a pivot for the last bit of curvature you want to work nicely. Drive a screw or nail, something, where you want the force applied, and do it at the inner curve side of both rails. Then, line up the end, using more nails inside and out, and then fix them as you wish.
If you are using Atlas flex track, how about soldering short sections of Atlas snap track of the same cross section (Code 100, Code 83) to the ends, and then putting the insulated gap where the two pieces of snap track mate?
The thing with snap track is that you can bend it if you make some selective snips in the webbing underneath between ties – you can bend straight track to easment curves or broad radius curves, you can unbend curved track like 18", 22" or 24" inch to a shallower curve. I cut off those snap-track looking end ties and place wood ties under those portions of the track, but you could also use plastic ties cut from the flex track for the same gap filler purpose.
I like snap track so much, and I have so much success molding it to whatever track plan by this idea of snipping tie webbing that I prefer it to flex track, but if you want to cut down on the number of rail joiners, you could cap the ends of flex track segments by soldering lengths of snap track on the ends. I work on small table top layouts on foamboard sections that I piece together like mega pieces of snap track – the easement sections into either 18 or 22" radius curves make for a good appearance and smooth operation.
But were they given the work orders? Who organised any prioritisation? …or did they have to mess about maintaining “corporate image” while the PR people did a photoshoot of the new plow for the in-house magazine?
Apart from all that… nails around the outside of the curved rails are good. If that really won’t hold the job try printed circuit board ties soldered to the rail in place of the plastic ties. (Nails assume that the board is a wood board of course and not foam… if it’s foam you may need to hack out a section and glue in piece of board (ply) to do the hard work)
How about weathering the replaced ballast as a recent repair job… to show that the MoW do do something…
Selector, that sounds like a great idea for a side trip. It probably won’t be until April or May sometime as the trip is dependent on the delivery schedule of another company over which I have no control (apparently rather like my MOW dapt) I will PM when I know more.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Several of the suggestions came in after I had already soldered in a new section of flex-track, re-ballasted, painted and weathered the track. All I have left to do is to re-make my protected insulated section with a cut. I think I can get this to a straight section with some rearangment of feeder connections under the layout. Clearly I have to learn some better management strategies with my MOW dept. It would appear that the failure in communications was entirely due to management failings. I tell you, this running a RR is harder than it is cracked up to be.
Just to add my kudos to all of the above discussion–I think this is the best discussion I’ve read so far(been on this forum close to a year now) on laying flex track on curves–excellent discussion and trouble shooting review.
I agree, this thread has been very informative. The only thing I want to add is that somebody said you only have to cut one track to “kill the juice”. That is true but I read somewhere that if you ever plan to put signals on the layout, you need to gap BOTH rails. So, just in case I want to add signals some day in the future, I have been gapping both rails. Obviously, gapping both rails creates some of the problems in curves mentioned above so I hope I wasn’t mislead about having to gap both rails for signaling. Maybe someone familiar with signaling can chime in here.
I was thinking about this thread all day in relation to a benchwork “fix” that I had been putting off while happily doing more “interesting” things. The fix involved some under-layout (nasty work) carpentry necessitated by a re-engineered right of way that had resulted in some slight structural weakness. So of course I put it off. This thread got me feeling guilty about knowing it had to be done correctly,(sooner or later) and the fact that I was procrastinating. So off to Home Depot I went, got the wood and supplies necessary for the job and completed the project. Took just a scant 3 hours and now all is done in the proper way. Thanks Simon for the (kick in the bu_ _) motivation!
Well I am glad this has been of use to someone else. Good for you getting on with a task you had been avoiding. It is funny how some threads stick around. I thought this would be a kind of throw-away-thread, but it seems to have resonated with a few folks. How often in life does it happen that things we have been putting off end up resolving so much easier than we feared.
