Central Valley track?

[Anonymous]

I wish I had more track work to do, as I would like to try Central Valley's tie strips ands turn-out strips. Has anyone used them, and what do you think?

[Anonymous]

This is amazing, at this time, approximately 24 yours later and 29 views of this topic, there have been no responses to these questions.

I know that Tony Koester is using this track work for his new Nickle Plate Road layout and that is about all I have heard about this track laying method.

It's my understanding that the details of this method are unsurpassed as far as detail and Fidelity to scale are concerned.

What does this lack of interest/knowledge of this system mean to us?

[ericboone]

Other than the cast switch points, the CV turnouts are no more detailed than a Micro Engineering turnout and the ME turnouts are ready-to-run. I think the CV turnouts are useful if you need to make an odd curved turnout or in Tony's case, a AMC turnout, and want to save some time over a full handmade turnout.
For regular track, I fail to see an advantage over flextrack.

[Anonymous]

I agree, Micro Engineering track and switches appear to be as good as Central Valleys. The big difference (to me) is the cost and flexibility of the CV system. In full scale, far fewer turnouts are built with one leg being a tangent track. Switches can be built on curves, the way the prototype does it, this allows much more flowing track work, which is beautiful to look at and see trains worm their way through.

The MSRP can be as low as $1.25 per foot for Code 83 CV flex-track. The switch kits with rail are close to 1/3rd the cost of ME products. I have heard Micro Engineerings stuff can be difficult to find at times, as the company can have production problems. Another selling point (from my point of view) is the fact that the track is built or modeled, something which seems to be taking place less and less in this hobby!

[ClinchValleySD40]

If you enjoy hand laying track, the CV tie strips are great.