yeah dude, the ME stuff is great. The only pain is that its stiff as ****. But thats okay, it makes pre-forming curves an option, and you can lay them down without having to tack them in place or anything.
but yeah, their spikehead detail is tiny.
Dude, I don't know what your options are, but you could also consider going with the Central Valley tie strips. They have amazing spikehead/tie-plate detail that rivals or exceeds that of Micro Engineering. The tie-strips are a foot long each, but you can connect them together via the inter-locking tabs on each end to make a strip as long as you want. And then all you have to do is glue or spike the rail in place. The tie-plate detail AUTOMATICALLY guages the rails for you, even though its a good idea to use an NMRA and 3-point guage to double check (which you should do with flextrack anyway). Its like handlaid flextrack, haha.
DeadheadGreg wrote:Micro Engineering has mad small spike-head detail. If needed, you can do what Eric Brooman did in the 2nd-to-most-recent issue of MR and use a hobby knife to cut off most of the 'spike head' like he did with his Atlas code 83 track, even though that would get tedious as all hell for even a 2nd piece of flextrack.
That's exactly what I did do with the Shinohara track and it seems to work, however, my concern is that there is not enough spike detail left that it my not look good when photographing up close. Also the rail stays in place OK, as long as there isn't any great pressure applied toward the inside of the rails. I'll have to experiment with taking photographs. Maybe the ME track will be OK as-is.
Mike
As a longtime user of Rail Craft/Micro Engineering N-Scale Code 55 track I can give you this advice: when you find it BUY IT!!!!!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
tomikawaTT wrote: Shinohara is a Japanese manufacturer which has been in business for better than 50 years. I believe that Walthers has exclusive US distribution rights for their products.If your problem is oversize flanges, the solution is to turn them down, or replace the wheels with some with RP-25 flanges. I have reduced oversize driver flanges by filing them (very gently) while running the motor at moderate speed. The object is to keep the driver tires cool while slowly bringing them down to something closer to the proper size. Unpowered wheels can be filed down while rotating them with a rubber wheel chucked in a power drill.A machinist would check his work with a contour gauge and a micrometer. I have successfully substituted the Mark 1 Mod 0 eyeball.Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with kitbashed locomotives)
Shinohara is a Japanese manufacturer which has been in business for better than 50 years. I believe that Walthers has exclusive US distribution rights for their products.
If your problem is oversize flanges, the solution is to turn them down, or replace the wheels with some with RP-25 flanges. I have reduced oversize driver flanges by filing them (very gently) while running the motor at moderate speed. The object is to keep the driver tires cool while slowly bringing them down to something closer to the proper size. Unpowered wheels can be filed down while rotating them with a rubber wheel chucked in a power drill.
A machinist would check his work with a contour gauge and a micrometer. I have successfully substituted the Mark 1 Mod 0 eyeball.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with kitbashed locomotives)
I believe the flex track was first made by Kurtz-Kraft, and then by Rail Craft, before becoming Micro-Engineering. It would be difficult to say what modifications have been made over the years. The present ME "spike heads" are the smallest on any commercial flex track, and work with RP-25 flanges all the way down to, and including code 40 HO track.
Code 83 has become popular because all except the worst Rivarossi will run on it without striking spike heads, even on makes such as Atlas with much larger "spike heads". As Chuck suggests, the best solution is probably to turn down the flanges on any offending locomotives. It can and has been done on quite a few occasions by the hand technique Chuck suggests. Or, in my case, I have refused to buy locomotives with gross flanges. Luckily, there has been little in the AHM/Rivarossi/IHC lines that I couldn't live without, and that exception was made with RP-25 flanges from the get-go (Heisler).
Shinohara has made/makes HO track in codes 100, 83, and 70. Their code 83 track is distributed exclusively by Walters under the Walters name. The popularity of the Walters track has reduced production of the Shinohara code 70 and code 100, making it more difficult to find in hobby shops (much more critical in HOn3 than in HO). The Shinohara track is not as detailed as ME, but is generally thought of as one of the better-looking brands of track.
Both Shinohara and ME have difficulty producing enough track/turnouts to meet the demand for their products. As a result, hobby shops that turn over their track stock quickly are often out. Other shops with reduced demand or higher stock levels may have it - it just takes some searching.
hope this helps
Fred W
My answer from the other thread you started >>
not sure if they're the same company... but I have some older ('60s era) Mantua locos with pizza-cutter flanges, and they clear the spike head detail by not much more than .005" (assuming of course my math is correct in regard to the height of the rail and the depth of the wheel flange)...
All of my stuff is still in boxes, so I can't give a better answer than that.. but I hope it helps in some way.
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
I currently have several old Rivarossi steam engines that have Pizza cutter flanges. I was able to get these engines to run on some old Railcraft code 70 track that I had on hand, from years past. The wheels JUST cleared the rail spike detail. I believe that Railcraft became ME track. I, in turn, tried Shinohara Code 70, which was available at a local MRR shop, and found that the flanges didn't clear the spike detail. My problem is that I can't seem to find ME track at any hobby or MRR shops in my local area, and I hesitate to order a bunch of ME code 70 to find out if I will have the same problem. In short, does anyone out there know if the Railcraft and ME code 70 is the same, say except for the fact that the Railcraft was brass vs ME is nickle-silver? Any input on this will be appreciated.