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[quote user="mlehman"] Based on my experience and as I recall the previous discussion cited, essentially don't solder everything together. <div style="clear:both;"> </div> [/quote]   I smiled when I read the comment about not soldering rail joints. Years ago, I built an HO scale layout using plywood as my table top. Being in a hurry to get trains running, I layed the cork and track for the first mainline. A short time later I noticed the curves and some straight sections were bent out of alignment. It didn't take long to figure out what had happened. The wood had dried out and shrunk. I now had the same length of track on a shorter piece of wood. Fortunately, I hadn't soldered any joints. I pulled a few spikes on each side of the joint, marked how much of each rail overlapped, then cut and filed the rails to fit. Now that the wood had dried out, it was a one-time fix. I'd also agree with the comments on humidity vs temperature. Everything I've read and heard from other modelers would indicate that rails expand and contract slightly due to changes in temperature. However, being that the cross section of the rail is fairly small, it shouldn't cause much of an issue as long as there are a few gaps to accommodate the change in length. The problem with wood is that it expands and contracts with changes in humidity. Doing what you can to minimize changes in both is always good, but it may be that limiting changes in humidity would do the most for you.
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