Okay, ameteur question. Call it a lack of planning or poor trackwork in the first place (I can't stand trackwork) but on my layout, two pieces of flextrack meet right where the curve starts, and both sides form a small kink at the rail joiner. (yes, the joints are soldered) This has rarely been the source of any derailments until a few days ago when I recieved an Athearn AC4400, which dearils the leading truck every time it makes the curve.
My question is: what would be the easiest/simplest way to smooth out this joint?
Thanks in advance,
Acela
The timbers beneath the rails are not the only ties that bind on the railroad. --Robert S. McGonigal
Resolder it probably. If the rail has a kink, and it is soldered, that would mean it is probably "frozen" into the kinked state by the solder, whether before or after it was soldered.
Put a couple heat sinks on it before heating the joint back up with a soldering iron to minimize the chance of melting ties. If you don't have proper heat sinks like those I got at Radio Shack years go, clip on some allegator clips as a substitute. Then melt the solder and resolder while the rails are straight. Then once the joint has cooled with the rail straight across the joint, bend the track back and it should be smooth and flowing.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Eh? Kinky! Well, it is not good practice to put the railjoiners at the beginning of the curve. LION would cut out the entire curve (say about 15") and lay a new piece of track in its place. -- LION has doen this many times.
WHY did the new loco derail? Does it have six wheel trucks where as the older ones had four wheel trucks. Sometimes new locomotives are just stiff, and will eventually flex enough (wearing in imperfections in the plastic moldings) so that it will not derail.
Still, easiest measure is to replace the trackwork.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Acela026 Okay, ameteur question. Call it a lack of planning or poor trackwork in the first place (I can't stand trackwork) but on my layout, two pieces of flextrack meet right where the curve starts, and both sides form a small kink at the rail joiner. (yes, the joints are soldered) This has rarely been the source of any derailments until a few days ago when I recieved an Athearn AC4400, which dearils the leading truck every time it makes the curve. My question is: what would be the easiest/simplest way to smooth out this joint? Thanks in advance, Acela
If you soldered the outside of the rails where they join together, you should not have a kink. That is the whole idea behind soldering on curves.
Did you get solder on the inside of the rails? That is sure to cause derailments, especially if solder ran over the rail joiner. In that case, either re-solder or file the solder away on the inside of the rails, especially over the rail joiners.
If you soldered and there is a kink, then you forced the curved into a too tight radius. That AC4400 is a 6-axle diesel, and it will derail on tight curves where a 4-axle diesel would not.
Rich
Alton Junction
I think I am with Lion (roar) in thinking that once the track is wrong it is likely to stay wrong and instead of dealing with it forever just cut it back and, in essence, do it over.
I suppose there is a chance that the careful and repeated application of a Ribbonrail or similar alignment tool at the joint might resolve the issue enough to allow your large new engine to deal with the curve. I use those tools BEFORE solding the joints, and then repeatedly after the joints are soldered
https://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=170&category=Track&split=30
Dave Nelson
What kind of track are you using, and what radius are you bending it to? If it's relatively tight, have you used a Ribbonrail or other gauge to make sure you didn't inadvertently go a little tighter than you intended?
You might be able to improve the joint by over-bending the offending rails inward with a pair of pliers, so that when they spring back they will be more happy with the proper curve.
Are these rails end hard against each other? You may have a rail which is just a hair too long, and that is forcing the joint to move out so that the rail can fit.
It's worth trying some of the simpler, quick remedies, but always remember that you can just pull up the track and do it again. I've done that a few times, and in the end I always ask myself, "Why didn't I just do that right away?"
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
This is what works for me:
I soften any ballast or slide a knife under the ties to sever the adhesion with any caulk under them. Do this for at least 8" on either side of the affected area.
Next, use a piece of wood or metal with a clean square end and shove the joint with the butt end of the item until the kink disappears. Clamp. Drive two small sheetrock screws down into the rails such that the heads slowly tighten up against the web of the rails, keeping them in place. Don't do this right at the joint, but within about 3/4" on either side...so four screws in total. This is because you must now resolder the joint and allow it to cool.
Do that. Do NOT remove the screws...yet.
Reapply your ballast, groom it, glue it, and let it harden overnight.
Carefully back out the four screws and fix the holes with more ballast. If you did this well, you should now have no kink.
Caution: Make sure the joint does not lift as you deflect it inward along the radius. Otherwise you'll merely trade a vertical kink for a horizontal one. After driving the screws, use a straightedge and back-light to check that the joint is not high OR LOW due to the screws. Once you are sure, solder and redo the ballast.
I also will agree with the Lion, in this case.
Frank
I like to go w/ Crandall's method, very similar to setting out of gauge in handlaying, just don't have the luxury of using spikes instead of screws. "T" pins and other fasteners can help especially on a foam base. Nudging w/ wood block and/ or the "overbend" as Mr B states help for stubborn kinks. And if all else, then go w/ the Lion. Do check that those rail ends have some gap as mentioned and not jammed.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Thank y'all! I'm probably just going to go with the LION's suggestion and just re-work that section of track to move the joint. Not what I wanted to do but it sounds like the best method in the long run.
AND I get to break out the cutting wheel on my Dremel motor tool Hooray for power tools!
Acela, before you rip it out, try to figure out what caused the problem in the first place for future reference. Then, rip it out and re-do it.
Take up both pieces of flex track. Unsolder them. Straighten them out and resolder properly (i.e when they are straight), then reinstall them.
That way, you're bending one big straight piece of flex track into a curved shape rather than trying to solder two smaller curved pieces together.
You may have some binding in the ties when you curve the big piece, but just remove enough ties to allow the one rail to slide.
- Douglas
I have come to the conclusion that even soldered flex track joints will kink slightly, probably because solder is a fairly soft metal. I do use code 100 rail which is much stiffer than code 83 or 70, obviously, so that may be part of the problem. I have some recently laid track that doesn't have derailments but in spite of being very careful the joint appears very slightly kinked now that a few months have gone by. I am thinking it needs a little extra help - maybe some spikes or brads on the sides of the rails to hold the curve better.
George V.
georgev I have some recently laid track that doesn't have derailments but in spite of being very careful the joint appears very slightly kinked now that a few months have gone by. I am thinking it needs a little extra help - maybe some spikes or brads on the sides of the rails to hold the curve better.
A Thing that the LION thunked about in his original post, but forgot to say was "BENCHWORK"
Where is your layout? Are there temperature or humidity flcuations? What is the table built of? How good is the wood? How stable is the wood holding the wood.
LION has foam boards mounted on brackets forming a BACKDROP. Layout of LION is in an old classroom, and rather than removing the blackboard, I just built my trains over the top of it attaching wood frames and uprights directly to the backboard frame rather than into the concrete wall. Even the chalk rack bears the weight of the layout as well as the backdrop.
Now this backdrop has separated vertically one piece of foam from another, almost a half an inch. How is this to be if foam is stable? Clearly something has shifted with the weather. If I had tracks on it they sure as little beans have shifted and kinked.
Does not even have to be heat and humidity. Construction on one part of the layout can put stress on another part of the table frame and thus affect the tracks that you have laid.
Maybe my sloppy trackwork is better than your perfect trackwork since it has room for flexations. Besides, LION builded an automated layout. An Analog DC automated layout: There are gaps all over the place. Tracks can flex without issue. Think about putting expansion joints on your trackwork.
One more tidbit to add, when you install your new track,stagger your joints, don't have them directly across from one another,stagger them before your curve and you won't experience a kink. Even if that means,cutting into your new straight section.
Lion,
Benchwork is 3/4" plywood on L-girder benchwork made from ripped-down 2x4s aged in the layout room for some years (When remodeling your home always buy extra studs - just in case!) L-girders are 1 piece - cut out a 1x3 from the 2x4 using a bench saw and use 1x3 for joists (technique from Orv Dunn article in MR some decades ago). Risers are 1x2. All put together with screws. Legs are 2x2 every six feet on the girders. Joists secured to walls with brackets. Layout room is in my basement - about 600 square feet of heated and air conditioned space, insulated and drywalled. Track is laid over cork roadbed and secured with track nails and spikes. Rail joints every other piece of flex are not soldered to allow expansion. Unsoldered joints are all on straight track.
The kink isn't due to wood moving - the joints in question are attached to a solid piece of plywood which has also been in the train room for a couple of years before use. Again, the kink is really subtle - barely enough to see. Nothing derails, nothing jerks or shows a sudden change in motion - even 8-coupled steam locomotives. And the curve is 28" or greater - not a pretzel bend. And the joints are staggered. But, since the ties need to be removed from the joint area to accomodate rail joiners there isn't anything to hold that small bit of rail on either side of the joint. To me it seems to be just the least little bit of straightening at the joint.