You just answered your own question.
Cut gaps in the rails to allow for expansion/contraction.
I solder ALL my rail joints, including turnouts. I also cut gaps in the rails, for two reasons. 1, I still use DC blocking, 2, expansion/contraction.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
So if I cut the rails will it still work with dcc. DO I still use rail joints ?
Please give us your definition of warp track. For example, does the rail raise and lower, does the whole track, roadbed and all, go up and down or do they twist like an airplane propeller. Both thing happen in railroads and their solutions are different.
BB
73
Bruce in the Peg
All good advice above, but nobody's asked you why this happened in the first place. Contrary to some popular misconceptions, track itself does not suffer from thermal expansion and contraction problems. The coefficient of expansion of nickel-silver is negligible over the range of values we're using here.
99 times out of a hundred, you've got a moisture problem in your benchwork or roadbed. Plywood, homosote and particle board all suffer from this. Even worse, it's a problem that won't go away, unless it's caused by a leaky pipe or something you can permanently fix. Any of these wood or paper composites will continue to react to changes in humidity, expanding and contracting with the weather. If you gap your track in the rainy season, you may need to fill it back in when the weather gets dry.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
It will be a combination of temperature and humidity changes that does this to your tracks. Humidity will account for something like 75% of what you see, but temperature swings can also affect every material, not just metal rails.
I had 5/8" plywod, but I covered it with 1" foam. My tracks were EZ-Track, but over the place where I noticed lateral deflection (bowing of the tracks sideways) I had a section of flextrack...it was over a bridge deck. It was a couple of days after I had stopped using our nearby wood furnace. One morning, I came downstairs and couldn't believe what had happened to the nice straight across my narrow HO bridge. Luckily, no damage to the bridge.
I purchased a modest dehumidifier, and have never looked back. For one thing, it will control the 75% of the problem attributed to humidity. For another, the dehumidifier will provide a bit of heat which will tend to keep the train room inside a narrower range of temperatures, which will alleviate some...not all...of the rest of the problem.
Some fellows will tell you that you should consider sealing your wood products as you use them to build the bench. A bit late for that now, but $200 will get you a permanent solution.
MisterBeasley wrote:99 times out of a hundred, you've got a moisture problem in your benchwork or roadbed. Plywood, homosote and particle board all suffer from this. Even worse, it's a problem that won't go away, unless it's caused by a leaky pipe or something you can permanently fix. Any of these wood or paper composites will continue to react to changes in humidity, expanding and contracting with the weather. If you gap your track in the rainy season, you may need to fill it back in when the weather gets dry.
MisterBeasley has got it right but backwards. Moisture will make the benchwork swell, pulling track apart. Dryness will make the benchwork shrink causing track to buckle. During the present cold spell, my basement has been bone dry (especially since I have heat down there now). Due to that, I have had one spot that had a buckled track in it. It is an area going through a tunnel and if the track had buckled the other way, I never would have known it happened. It. of course buckled into the foam wall behind it and stopped a train short when the train hit the wall. I had left a 32nd or so of an inch of play in that track, even so it buckled. I was able to to take up the end of the track and shave an eighth of an inch off it to take the buckle out of it. The track was also at the point of a connection of two blocks so it had insulated joiners at the end. I would also point out that this area of track was laid last summer when humidity was at its highest down there (even with a dehumidifier).
For your problem , I would cut a few gaps carefully with a cut off wheel on a dremel tool where you are having problems. The cut should only go through the rail not the plastic ties below. Make sure that each section of track has power going to it! Track should stay in guage if this is only done on the straight of way. Just the width of the cut off disk may be enough to solve your problem. Your track should also be OK when humidity expands the tablework pulling tracks apart next summer. Your real solution is to keep a constant humidity and temperature in the room if possible.
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
I do what the real rail roads do, at the expansion gaps, I bridge the gap with a small U-shape bit of wire, soldered to each side of the gap, you'll have to hone up on your soldering skills though. Once painted it'll blend in with the rest of the track.
In addition to the other suggestions, glueing the track down and even just ballasting the track will minimize the kinking
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
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I was just about to post a new topic on this very subject when I saw this one.
Here are some pic's of what happend on my layout sometime this week its been very cold here in Maine for about 2 weeks now and my basement has no direct heating just residual heat from the furnace and piping.
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/starspiker/IMG_0105.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/starspiker/IMG_0103.jpg
I'm not sure if I will do anything to the track right now, I.m taking a wait and see approach.
bill
Do I cut the track ,put in new rail joint and do not solder? I'm guessing YES.
Do I cut the track ,put in new rail joint and do not solder?
YOU most likely have rail expansion (are the rails sprung out of their plastic tie base?).
If so, you will need to relace all warped track - and don't solder the joints, - leaving slight (biz card) space between track ends, as recommended by Model Railroader.
When rails expand they need a place to go. Not soldering joints leaves a safety space for rails to 'breathe' when held in place by track joiners. cars with metal wheels give a realistic 'click' in return. Too large a space gives a 'clack' instead.
RAIL, being metal, heats from running (arcing) and expands at a different rate than wood or plastic.
Many modelers now don't solder rail joiners, and solder thin feeder wires from an electric buss, instead. I only solder joints on curves now.
Roadrat:
From the looks of you pictures, you are using 'Sectional' track. You may need to only replace the 9" sections where the warps occur. Once the the warp occurs it won't want to bend back, so REPLACE all warped sections, and don't solder the joints.
"Wait and see about what, rr? I don't think that is going to correct itself, if that is what you mean. A horizontal bow may correct itself somewhat if there is very little stickiness or friction below it, but that vertical change is kinda permanent...at least, the joiners are history."
Well before I cut a gap I want to see if heating up the basement won't ease some of the tension first, This bow is were 2 peco turnouts are butted together, and I don't glue down my turnouts but maybe I should spike them.
Blind Bruce wrote: Please give us your definition of warp track.
Please give us your definition of warp track.
I saw the title and thought he was talking about track that could exceed the speed of light.
Guess I've been watching too much Star Trek.
It's nothing more than realization of the annual ("here come the wiggles") differential contraction situation.
Your plywood (or homasote etc.) track bed is shrinking faster than your flextrack's rails are.
Sliding connections only introduce potential conductivity issues.
Just cut the rails (with a high speed cut-off blade) to provide a gap with as many blade widths as necessary and re-solder ASAP -- and hope that this irritation won't return next winter.
In most cases (but not all) heating a cool basement in the winter will make the problem worse. Most of the problem, as has been stated, comes from wood shrinking (and plywood does shrink, too, but to a lesser extent) as the moisture content is reduced. Adding heat in the winter without humidifying will cause the moisture content of wood and wood products to be reduced further, shrinking it even more. Remember, the colder the air before heating, the less moisture it can contain.
Stabilizing moisture content is more critical than stabilizing temperature in preventing wood swelling and shrinkage. Northeastern homes/basements without air conditioning will generally have the biggest swings in moisture content from summer to winter unless a humidifier is used in conjunction with the heating system.
If you don't believe how much wood swells and shrinks, watch a wooden boat launch after it is has been sitting on shore through the winter. For the 1st hour, you can't run enough pumps to cope with all the water that is coming through the seams from sitting in dry winter air for a few months. The water pours in despite the the wood being painted and the seams being caulked. But in just a few hours, the rate of water entry will have been cut in half. In 2-3 days, the boat won't leak a drop. In practice, wood boat seams must not be fully caulked when dry to give the wood some place to expand to as the wood increases its moisture content.
Some notes from working with wood boats:
just my experiences, your choices
Fred Wright
I'm not sure that wood shrinking/expanding is what is making my track bow, As I am using a basic wood frame with foam on top.
Now maybe the cork roadbed could be shrinking/expanding but I don't know, I'll probably cut some gaps when I have time and see if that solves the problem, I just hope the gaps don't become huge Maine pot holes come spring...