I can figure that the "asphalt" runs right up to the edges of the outside rail. But how do you make a nice even gap for the wheels on the inside of the track?
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
I've never done it before but I assme you run a freight car throuhg it or use a X-acto knife to keep it away from the rail.
-dekruif
A couple of choices here. One, you can put another piece of rail to the inside with the proper gap to clear the wheel flanges. You fill in the middle of this guardrail with asphalt. The second way is to put something like plastic strips or cardstock just inside of the rail and then spread ashpalt in between. Remove the plastic or cardstock after your "asphalt" hardens and you should have a large enough gap to clear the wheels.
Rick
RedGrey62 wrote:A couple of choices here. One, you can put another piece of rail to the inside with the proper gap to clear the wheel flanges. You fill in the middle of this guardrail with asphalt. The second way is to put something like plastic strips or cardstock just inside of the rail and then spread ashpalt in between. Remove the plastic or cardstock after your "asphalt" hardens and you should have a large enough gap to clear the wheels.Rick
Another choice is to purchase some "street track", for lack of the proper term. This track has the flang guard already built into it. I don't know where to get it, but I've seen it here on the forum where someone had some but didn't know what it was. Ive seen the full scale rail on the docks and the streets. Street car systems or trolly systems used the type of rail. Ken
Eriediamond wrote: RedGrey62 wrote: A couple of choices here. One, you can put another piece of rail to the inside with the proper gap to clear the wheel flanges. You fill in the middle of this guardrail with asphalt. The second way is to put something like plastic strips or cardstock just inside of the rail and then spread ashpalt in between. Remove the plastic or cardstock after your "asphalt" hardens and you should have a large enough gap to clear the wheels.RickAnother choice is to purchase some "street track", for lack of the proper term. This track has the flang guard already built into it. I don't know where to get it, but I've seen it here on the forum where someone had some but didn't know what it was. Ive seen the full scale rail on the docks and the streets. Street car systems or trolly systems used the type of rail. Ken
RedGrey62 wrote: A couple of choices here. One, you can put another piece of rail to the inside with the proper gap to clear the wheel flanges. You fill in the middle of this guardrail with asphalt. The second way is to put something like plastic strips or cardstock just inside of the rail and then spread ashpalt in between. Remove the plastic or cardstock after your "asphalt" hardens and you should have a large enough gap to clear the wheels.Rick
I believe you are referring to girder rail. I think the best applications for that are street cars and such.
Forget the live overhead, but see the street trackage techniques from the traction folks...
Trolleyville Schoolhouse - Paving Streets (Part One) ...http://www.trolleyville.com/tv/school/lesson6_3/Trolleyville Schoolhouse - Paving Streets (Part Two) ...http://www.trolleyville.com/tv/school/lesson6_4Interurban`s - "how I do in the street trackage" ...http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=12348&page=1&pp=15
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
csmith9474 wrote: Eriediamond wrote: RedGrey62 wrote: A couple of choices here. One, you can put another piece of rail to the inside with the proper gap to clear the wheel flanges. You fill in the middle of this guardrail with asphalt. The second way is to put something like plastic strips or cardstock just inside of the rail and then spread ashpalt in between. Remove the plastic or cardstock after your "asphalt" hardens and you should have a large enough gap to clear the wheels.RickAnother choice is to purchase some "street track", for lack of the proper term. This track has the flang guard already built into it. I don't know where to get it, but I've seen it here on the forum where someone had some but didn't know what it was. Ive seen the full scale rail on the docks and the streets. Street car systems or trolly systems used the type of rail. Ken I believe you are referring to girder rail. I think the best applications for that are street cars and such.
Thats it Smitty. Your right about street cars. However I do a lot of loading at the sea ports in NJ and Md. and most of the rail in the pavement is this type. Of course in the real world, a paveing company would pave the inside rirht up to the rail and the weight of a passing train would create it's own flaneway. Ken
Eriediamond wrote: csmith9474 wrote: Eriediamond wrote: RedGrey62 wrote: A couple of choices here. One, you can put another piece of rail to the inside with the proper gap to clear the wheel flanges. You fill in the middle of this guardrail with asphalt. The second way is to put something like plastic strips or cardstock just inside of the rail and then spread ashpalt in between. Remove the plastic or cardstock after your "asphalt" hardens and you should have a large enough gap to clear the wheels.RickAnother choice is to purchase some "street track", for lack of the proper term. This track has the flang guard already built into it. I don't know where to get it, but I've seen it here on the forum where someone had some but didn't know what it was. Ive seen the full scale rail on the docks and the streets. Street car systems or trolly systems used the type of rail. Ken I believe you are referring to girder rail. I think the best applications for that are street cars and such. Thats it Smitty. Your right about street cars. However I do a lot of loading at the sea ports in NJ and Md. and most of the rail in the pavement is this type. Of course in the real world, a paveing company would pave the inside rirht up to the rail and the weight of a passing train would create it's own flaneway. Ken
I apologize if I inferred that girder rail was only used with street car systems. I have been told that is where that type of rail is best used. Now that I think about it, I have seen photos of dockside rail in pavement, and it was indeed girder rail. I believe that most girder rail is pretty light.
Here's some street trackage from the next town over.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/aah.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Captured2007-7-2100003.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Captured2007-7-2100002.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/NKP%20No%20587/587.jpg
These tracks are fairily well maintained and used pretty regular. The gaps are on both sides of the rail and they have a design to them that is similar to the top of a castle wall. I haven't seen this elsewhere, but if you're modeling current practices this may be the latest development in street trackage.
csmith9474 wrote: Eriediamond wrote: csmith9474 wrote: Eriediamond wrote: RedGrey62 wrote: A couple of choices here. One, you can put another piece of rail to the inside with the proper gap to clear the wheel flanges. You fill in the middle of this guardrail with asphalt. The second way is to put something like plastic strips or cardstock just inside of the rail and then spread ashpalt in between. Remove the plastic or cardstock after your "asphalt" hardens and you should have a large enough gap to clear the wheels.RickAnother choice is to purchase some "street track", for lack of the proper term. This track has the flang guard already built into it. I don't know where to get it, but I've seen it here on the forum where someone had some but didn't know what it was. Ive seen the full scale rail on the docks and the streets. Street car systems or trolly systems used the type of rail. Ken I believe you are referring to girder rail. I think the best applications for that are street cars and such. Thats it Smitty. Your right about street cars. However I do a lot of loading at the sea ports in NJ and Md. and most of the rail in the pavement is this type. Of course in the real world, a paveing company would pave the inside rirht up to the rail and the weight of a passing train would create it's own flaneway. Ken I apologize if I inferred that girder rail was only used with street car systems. I have been told that is where that type of rail is best used. Now that I think about it, I have seen photos of dockside rail in pavement, and it was indeed girder rail. I believe that most girder rail is pretty light.
Smitty, no appologies needed. I may have miss led you and others by my comment " thats it smitty". I meant that your reply is what I was thinkinking about, not the meaning of thats it as meant as being mad> Ken
I love the photos of the street tracks. I guess it is a good idea to yield when turning left. I've wanted to include a scene with tracks running down the middle of the street and this has convinced me it is something I must do. I couldn't work it into the two main towns on my mainline but when I build the branch line, the track will travel right down main st before terminating.
Getting back to the question of how to build the tracks imbedded into the asphalt, I saw a technique many years ago on a PBS show with the late Linn Westcott. He was showing one way to build a grade crossing but I don't see why it couldn't be don for street tracks as well. He just paved the wet plaster right over the tracks and then leveled it to railtop height. Before the plaster set, he took the truck from an old freight car and just ran it back and forth, making sure to press down so the grooves were created to the proper depth. Then all he had to do was sand it down after it dried and paint it. I tried it on a grade crossing on my old layout and it worked out well.
On my current layout, on some industrial spurs, I am imbedding the track in concrete alleys using a technique demonstrated in the book Building City Scenery for Your Model Railroad By John Pryke.
It is a fairly simple technique and worked out well for a first effort.
SpaceMouse wrote:I can figure that the "asphalt" runs right up to the edges of the outside rail. But how do you make a nice even gap for the wheels on the inside of the track?
If you're in N scale, then that's where Pizza Cutter wheels really excel!
Walthers offers a Street Track Insert Set, 933-3140. It fits Code 83 track and is designed to work with various other paving materials that Walthers offers. Check page 478 of the 2007 catalog for more on this system.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Quick and dirty ways to make ersatz girder rail:
Glue a strip of styrene along the inside of each rail to form flangeways. Use your NMRA gauge to assure the proper spacing, and keep the top edge of the strip at railhead height. (The prototype is actually about 1/2 inch higher, but why look for problems?)
Same-but with angle stock. If metal angle stock is used, the horizontal side can be drilled and track-nailed.
Instead of gluing to the track, glue the strips to a between-the-rails shape of styrene that will serve as a base for the future asphalt surface.
Instead of asphalt, consider using larger-scale styrene brick sheet to simulate Belgian block. Up until recently, the street trackage out to the end of ties would have easily-removable block, rather than asphalt, to facilitate maintenance.
If you are really feeling adventurous, you can use single point turnouts in your street trackage. For mainline-standard rolling stock you'll probably have to roll your own - components made for streetcar applications are way short of the radii required! (One club I belonged to had street trackage, including single point turnouts, in a street surfaced with Portland cement - the real stuff, not just a cosmetic representation.)
Have fun!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I've tried the plaster and freight car truck method mentioned above, but I wasn't at all happy with the results. Neither the depth or width of the flangeway was consistent, so both the running and appearance were poor
So I started again, but this time I made the flangeways by carving them with a tool made from a broken hack saw blade once the plaster had cured. I ground the end of the blade to a scrawker-shaped point, and soldered a stop onto the side to make the depth of the cut slightly deeper than my flanges. The width of the flangeway is determined by the width of the blade.
I used this method on the crossings on my first Japanese module, and will be using it again on the next module, which will be almost all street trackage.
All the best,
Mark.