I am fairly new to the hobby and have been learning a lot from all of you on the forum. Thank you, your knowledge and insight has been invaluable !!!
I have a general plan for a layout, have almost finished the room in my basement and have started building the benchwork. I am planning on using Atlas flextrack with both PECO and Walthers Shinohara switches, all code 83. Will this cause me problems with different track height? Need for excessive filing or shimming?
Your advise and experience as always is greatly appreciated.
I have used Atlas flextrack with Pecot turnouts in N scale with not problems. The only challenge is that the Atlas rail joiners are a little harder to slide onto the Peco turnouts, but with needle nose pliars they can be persuaded.
The other difficulty you may run in to is that the ties on the Atlas flex track are thicker than the ties on the Shinohara switches. The Atlas track has the thicker ties so that it can easily be joined to the Atlas code 100 track. I can’t speak for the Peco switches. I’ve never used them.
My oversight, I was referring to HO. The “thickness” of the rails and ties where these two different types of rail join was exactly my concern. And will I need to do a fair amount of filing or shimming??? as a newbie, not sure that
working extensively around the placement of turnouts to get rails to match is going to give me “bullet-proof” track in the end …
Appreciate your thoughts and others insights as well.
To use Atlas code 83 flex with any other manufacturer’s code 83 turnouts, you will need to put .017" of shim under the turnouts. You can get some .015" thick plastic stock, cut it into tie size bits, and bond to every third or fourth tie with CA. You will end up with about .002" of adhesive, making .017" total.
I use atlas code 83 with shinohara TO’s on my mtn line. To make the heights match, I glue down 1/64" x 1" walnut verneer strips (I got a case for free from a retired cabinet maker) under the TO’s, above the roadbed with adhesive caulk. The height match is so close that I rarely have to file rails at the joints. A roll of verneer will do several turnouts.
Don’t worry about cutting it to tie size, your ballast will cover it anyway making it completely invisible.
I am looking at a code 83 peco, code 83 atlas and code 83 walthers (shinohara) in front of me. The peco rail is just slightly HIGHER than the atlas the walthers is slightly lower than the atlas. The peco is really close to the atlas. I don’t think and shimming is necessary. I have used a couple strips of 1/4" masking tape (for autobody masking) to ship up walthers switches. I use the tape to ship up for superelevated curves too.
The peco code 83 switch seems very high quality. I have an electro frog. I have an insulfrog code 100 peco and I wouldn’t recommend an isulfrog because of shorting issues at the frog with metal wheels.
Walthers are less expensive but can be unavailable at times. The only thing I really don’t like about the pecos is the sheet metal points, similar to atlas where the walthers has points made from rail. The peco is the best switch I have seen for being in gauge. Walthers, especially their curved ones, can be really wide. I haven’t seen one that didn’t work with rp25 wheels yet but if you gauge them they are way off sometimes.
Peco is supposed to come out with a #8 this summer.