Track Advice

[Anonymous]

Looking for advice again. Started in the hobby 2-3 weeks ago and I am hooked..Reading everything I can on it, but also asking a lot of questions.

My question for the day: I am going with N scale becasue I am limited to a 3x7 space and want room to work, and am looking for advice/experiences on track to use. For example, what do you find as best brands? Atlas, Bachmann, etc? .05 or .8, etc? I will probably not go with a track that has roadbed already attached. Also looking to use flextrack.

Any and all thoughts are always welcome.

[Jacktal]

I recommend Peco for both flextrack and their turnouts which are of very good design.However I hate their rail joiners,specially the insulating ones,which are a pain to install.Atlas tracks are fine too but their turnouts are terrible,not counting the unsightly solenoid that comes with very poor wiring.You will indeed save much of your budget with Atlas turnouts but Peco's will save you...grief.On the other hand,Atlas rail joiners are easier to use,specially the insulating ones.They show more(they're yellow) but since I remove them after the track is permanently installed,color is irrelevant to me.

[egmurphy]

Greg,

There's no right answer. Jactal is right that Peco turnouts are generally accepted to be better quality than Atlas. I have Atlas code 80 flex track and Atlas manual turnouts. With my small layout I didn't want electricly operated turnouts. I intend to replace the Atlas manual operators with Caboose Industries manual throws, once I can get my hands on some.

Code 50 is available. Looks better, more realistic rail height. Probably takes more care to install well. Less selection of turnouts, etc.

Just one more opinion to confuse you.

Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

If you want bullet-proof N-Scale track, try the Kato Unitrack.
I have on my small layout I built on a door and it works great.
I only used it on the main and I used Railcraft Code 70 for the passing siding and the industry tracks. I would have used Atlas Code 55, but I already had the other and wanted to use it up.
Stay as far away from anything made by Bachmann as you can and stick to "Quality" and you won't be sorry.
Good luck,
gtirr

[spearo]

buczynski, I was having the same problems about a week ago. I'm setting up my first n-scale RR and wanted to learn about track so I ordered the book "Basic trackwork for model railroaders" produced Kalmbach publishing. GET IT. It asnwered allmost all of my questions on track. Once you figure out what size of track (code 80 vs. 55) and wether or not you want track with attached road bed or not you will see there are only a couple of manufactureres out there for each specific style.

I chose code 55 instead of 80. 55 has many more turn radii to choose from and more turnout sizes (#5,#6,#7) vs. only #6 in code 80.