Building a 4x8 layout, mostly curves. Was planning on using flex track, how can I avoid joints on the curves?
Solder
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
arp22, Welcome to the forums!
I used flex track, and I found the best thing to do was to use rail joiners that I then soldered in place.
On curves, I fastened and soldered the track before I bent it into a curve.
It involves removing several ties where the joints are. As you bend the track, the rail joiners have problems with the ties.
After you solder the joints, bend the track, and get it in place, you can slide some loose ties under the sections where you removed them. Once you ballast the track, you won't be able to tell where those ties are.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
York1 John
I do believe flex track is best looking if the ''sliding on the ties rail'' is on the inside of the curve. As noted in the above replys, with the track laying straight and flat, solder the rail joiners to the track before bending for the curve. Remove the ties at the soldered rails as you bend the track to fit in place. If at all possible, stagger the soldered joints so that they are not across from each other. One inch is a good number.
I have even soldered three 36'' pieces together at one time to make flowing "S" curves.
Always save the ties you remove. You can throw out 50 of them when you have collected 150 of them.
arp22Building a 4x8 layout, mostly curves. Was planning on using flex track, how can I avoid joints on the curves?
Texas Zephyr I put the first piece in (slidy rail to the inside). At the end of the section I just slide the next rail into place and solder in place. One has to cut a notch for the rail joiner but that is pretty easy to do with an x-acto type knife. I loose zero ties. I don't have to put fake ties under the gap. This also prevents the two joints from being directly across from each other so the one rail helps revent the opposite rail from kinking.
I put the first piece in (slidy rail to the inside). At the end of the section I just slide the next rail into place and solder in place. One has to cut a notch for the rail joiner but that is pretty easy to do with an x-acto type knife. I loose zero ties.
I don't have to put fake ties under the gap. This also prevents the two joints from being directly across from each other so the one rail helps revent the opposite rail from kinking.
I'm not really seeing the advantage of that over parallel joints. If you keep the joints even, you don't loose ties either. Your going to have to shave off spikes etc. for jointers to fit over ties in places whether you stagger joints or have them even.
Here are some curves with soldered joints - this is in staging so I am not bothering with adding ties back in.
Visible areas, of course, will have ties filled in and after weathering and ballasting, it's all going to look the same.
For a less experienced track layer, staggered joints can end up looking a lot worse than in your photo - I've seen it.
Another issue for less experienced would be soldering those joints over plastic ties - a good chance of melting ties. If you do parallel joints, and remove a tie from each end while connecting and soldering, there is far less chance of melting ties when soldering.
Then you snip off the spike detail and slide ties in place with a bit of glue to hold them and your done.
Either way there are going to the same number of spots where spikes have been snipped off for rail joiners.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
You pretty much can't - on a 4x8 the curves come too frequently, on a larger layout with much wider radius curves, the length of the track going through the curve is more than the typical 3' length of a piece of flex (unless it's only a partial curve, not a full 90 degree corner).
SO, as mentioned, the trick is to solder two pieces of flex together before forming the curve. Connect two pieces with rail joiners and solder the rail joint. Under normal bending to form a curve, the soldered joint won't kink. Even 30" radius curves are less than 6 linear feet, but if you ever find yourself building an even larger layout with even larger radius curves - solder 3 pieces together to form the curve. It gets a little unwieldy after that, but 3 peices is enough for a 90 degree curve of 60" radius with some bit of it straight at the end to anchor it.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Flex track does look better, and if you are clumsy like me, using track nails does make the job easier. I must admit that I used sectional track for most of my curves. Once balasted, it does not show that much. Another advantage of sectional track is that you have better control over the resulting radius - it's pretty easy to go tighter than desired using flex track. I went to the minimum that most equipment could handle, that is, 22", and I wanted to make sure that my curves were no less than that.
Keep in mind that kinks are only one of the reasons for derailments. I find that uneven track (sideways, not the slope) is a much more common source of derailments than joints.
Simon
These are all good comments from everyone. I wish that when I started laying my N Scale flex track I had read comments like these. I learned from doing it the wrong way first. I would have saved some money, time, and anger if I had read what you all are saying.
arp22, I hope you get good results as you start your layout. I hope you can post on this forum some comments (and maybe some pictures) of your progress.
Assuming HO scale - yes solder the rail joints on the curve, but there is a tendency for the ends of the flex track to be straight so I use Ribbonrail (brand) track templates that fit between the rails and are milled to a precise radius curve. You run it through the curve where the joint is again and again until the flex track "takes" the curve, then solder. Then run it through again. I have a set of them with various radius but here for example is a link to the Walthers catalog for the 22" radius template.
https://www.walthers.com/5-quot-track-alignment-gauge-curved-22-quot-radius
Dave Nelson
riogrande5761I'm not really seeing the advantage of that over parallel joints.
Lastspikemike Two methods: soldered flex track sections before you bend the rails into a curve. Or, second method: reinforce the fastening of the track at the joint(s) in the curve with spikes set through holes drilled in ends of the ties outside of the gaug and to the outside of the bend.
Two methods: soldered flex track sections before you bend the rails into a curve.
Or, second method: reinforce the fastening of the track at the joint(s) in the curve with spikes set through holes drilled in ends of the ties outside of the gaug and to the outside of the bend.
I've done both but tend to solder on curves.
Walthers flex track has these holes already pre moulded into the outside ends of the ties. Peco's video shows drilling and nailing their flextrack outside the gauge.
I use ME spike in the above case and have some track like that.
Standard Atlas flex track has nail holes down the center of the ties which really only works for straights.
It works fine on curves too. I've done that on 3 previous layouts and got smooth curves. The curve below was laid with track nails on the center of the ties.
I stagger the sliding rails. I have even cut joiners in half to reduce the numbers of spikeheads that get obviated when removing ties or slicing off the spikehead details.
I use track nails all the time, especially to hold the curved rails in positions while my thin spread of caulking adhesive cures under the ties, after which I pull them. Between the caulk and the glued ballast thereafter, the tracks don't move.
I solder on the curves, and solder every other joiner on the tangents to allow the surface substrate on which the caulk and ties rest to move a bit without pulling closed the joint gaps between the rails and buckling the rails.