I am installing a Walthers 90' turntable on my HO layout and the instructions recommend using Walthers transition track to go from the code eighty track on the turntable to the code one hundred flex that I am using for my track work. Does anyone have any experience in this area? the pieces are $6.00 each and would be needed for every approach track. Will I have problems if I go directly from the code 100 to the code 80? Thanks in advance.
You might wanna do the whole engine terminal in code 83, then use the transition track where it connects to the main.
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
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steemtrayn You might wanna do the whole engine terminal in code 83, then use the transition track where it connects to the main.
My thoughts exactly. Even if you have some old locos with large flanges, your going slow and only a short distance.
On my layout, the transition from code 100 to code 83 and vice versa is an Atlas universal rail joiner, with a sliver of plastic under the code 83 rail to keep the railheads level. Atlas has done us the service of making the code 83 flex track ties .017" taller than those under the rails of their code 100 flex.
Not using Atlas flex? Then shim the low side of the transition with thin plastic or card stock.
My track is anchored with latex caulk, so a flat-bottomed weight will keep everything aligned vertically until the caulk sets up. My preferred weight is a stack of steel angle iron, about 12 pounds of it.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Making the transition to smaller rail at the first switch (or switches) leading into the engine terminal would make perfect sense, but the lead tracks don't necessarily have to have eactly the same size rails as the turntable bridge. The only alignment that matters is on the guage side of each rail, and that's supposed to be the same no matter what the width of the railhead. If you wanted to avoid a slight step down or up moving on or off the turntable, you could shim the pit to bring the rails level – strips of .020-inch styrene should be just about right in the case described. But on the real thing there's usually a heavy CLUNK every time a pair of wheels moves on or off a turntable, so having the rail heights exactly level isn't as important as you might think.
So long,
Andy
Andy Sperandeo MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
There are many ways to skin the cat. I removed the last two ties on the end of the Code 100 segment that met the turntable bridge rails on my lead, and then I used a thin grinding stone on my Dremel tool to make grooves for the long rail ends on that piece where they would drape over the edge of the pit. It worked very well. The grooves reduced the overall height of the Code 100 to the point where the move onto the bridge is seamless.
-Crandell
Over the last 45 years in joining rails of different heights (codes) on handlaid track, I would open up (widen) the metal rail joiner already attached to the larger rail. Then I would fill the rail joiner with solder. Than I would solder the smaller rail to the rail joiner, paying attention that the rail heights and rail gauges were the same. It worked with codes 70/55 and 55/40, and I have no reason to believe it wouldn't work with 100/83 although I've never worked with those code sizes. Also, I have no reason to believe my experience of handlaid track couldn't apply to prefrabricated track.
Mark