No......I don't think you're thinking on the right side of the totem pole here.
If you install your flex track shorter than it's sold and in time gaps appear.
The new flex is longer then what you installed and you dont have a problem replacing and tightening up the gap with a new full piece of flex track.....ya see?
The rails usually shrink somewhere. Somewhere on the layout overtime they shrink. (contract) leaving too wide of a gap between rails somewhere.
I've read this over and over again TF, and I must be missing something.
So, your going to cut a small section off the track, so you have short pieces left over for anticipated wide gaps in the rail?
I gotta be missing something here.
Mike.
EDIT: OK Henry, maybe that's what he's saying?
My You Tube
Track fiddlerI'm going to cut the new flex track shorter than it comes before I install it...... do any of you concur.
I think you are asking if you should cut it a little longer than you need.
I make a mark with a Sharpie. A Sharpie is wider that what you need and it's impossible avoid some judgement as to where to mark the track. I go for the far edge of the Sharpie mark. Rarely am I off far enough to use the rail nippers. A file or a dremel with a round stone takes care of it.
It is easy to take off another millimeter or two. You can't ever add a couple of millimeters.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I ordered my ME code 55 flex track N scale and turnouts a few days ago, .... only #6 of course, because ME can't get their customer demand priorities straight and provide a variety of turnouts in their line for reasons unbeknownst to me.
For that reason, I'm going to order Atlas code 55 turnouts that are smaller and larger than #6 tomorrow and mix the two on my layout.
I am very excited. I am like a little kid waiting for a Christmas present to open. I am finally going to start laying my track so I can see my trains run.
Well in the meantime, I am thinking like a carpenter anticipating my track just because that's who I am and what I do.
It seems to me my whole life when I cut a board too long it was okay, I just cut it again a little shorter and everything worked out okay. When I cut a board too short.... (oops game over).
I'm getting a little anal here but I'm thinking the same way about my track opposed to a board. The track is not cheap.
I have seen guys in my Model Railroad Club when some of them had problems where the joints got two big, gaps between rail joints. They fixed it with two rail spans but I see that as a problem in my world.
I'm going to cut the new flex track shorter than it comes before I install it...... do any of you concur?
Track Fiddler