Which Make of Track to Use on New HO Guage Layout

[Anonymous]

G'evening all. Please will experienced Model Railroaders advise me which make of Rail Track to use for an HO Guage layout i intend to build shortly.

I live in Durban South Africa, and unfortunately there are no Model Train stores of consequence out here, so i will be purchasing all my supplies per internet from USA.

I have no experience in modelling , but have followed YOUR hobby with interest over the past years, and now retirement has arrived.

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated. Pretty daunting task i am setting out on when I don't know if one make of track is more suitable than another.!! Atlas, Peco, Unitrack ,EZ track, 83/100;with roadbed / without ?

[Medina1128]

I'm pretty impressed with the Peco turnouts. They have an overcenter spring built in so that it keeps its points closed against the stock rails. As for the rest of my layout, I'm using good old Atlas code 83 flex track. I solder a short length of 22 gauge wire to it near the middle of the section. This will be soldered to the buss. I also paint and weather the track on my workbench. When I'm ready to install it, I install a rail joiner to the ends. I leave the rail joiners unsoldered to allow for expansion and contraction of the rails. I ballast ALL of my track by hand. It looks more realistic, IMHO...

[Medina1128]

PS. I have had nothing but good luck buying track on eBay. It's cheaper, and once you've established a relationship with a seller, you can buy more and not worry about getting scammed (oops, sorry. American vernacular for ripped off, er, conned, hoodwinked, bamboozled, er, cheated.

[selector]

Welcome!

How skilled are you with your hands? Do you want to get trains running early, and then build skill with hand-laying Atlas-type flex-track? If so, Bachmann and Atlas, even Kato, make track pieces that snap together easily with affixed plastic bases that sort of look like ballast. Great for quick set-up, not so great for realism, and not so great for flexibility in a track plan.

As time goes on, and skills and confidence build, many modelers will gravitate to flex-track, and Atlas makes that, as does Micro-Engineering...I think. There are others, but I have covered the more popular ones. As for size, the general agreement amongst senior modelers, especially those who are sticklers for adhering closely to realism and prototype, they favour the smaller profile, such as 70, even 55, in some cases.

I use Bachmann EZ-Track because that is what I had in quantity after receiving a Christmas gift of one of the Bradford Exchange On30 theme train sets.

Personally, I would not use it again now that I have incorporated some flex-track into the layout and can see how much more I can do with it. Now, if I could just learn to solder better.....[:I][V]

[simon1966]

Price V Reaslism is really the decision you have to make.

For a simple track plan from a book such as the Atlas track plan books, the sectional track systems would be fine. For a more custom desgn of your own, then I think most would agree tha flextrack is the way to go.

For a more budget price, but in my opinon well made flextrack Atlas is hard to beat. Microengineering, shinohara from Walthers, or the new Peco code 83 track would be more realistic but also quite a bit more expensive.

For turnouts, I also like the Peco line in preference to the Atlas ones.

You can't really go wrong with any of these makers. Choose one that best fits your budget.

As mentioned above by others, the smaller the code, the more prototypical. Since this would be your first layout, I would not go smaller than code 83. Code 100 is a bit heavy for most. I use it, but I have some old trains with large wheel flanges that need it.

[ARTHILL]

I use Atlas Fex track Code 83 with Walthers turnouts on Woodland scenic foam bed laid over 3/4 inch plywood subase on open grid table. I have used all the track systems and I love this. I glued it all down with cheap latex caulk. It has been fast and looks good enough for me. John Allen I ain't. Good luck Its a great hobby no matter how you do it.