Is It Dumb to Mix Atlas and Micro Engineering Code 55 Track?

[Baronjutter]

I love ME flex because it holds its shape, the only downside with ME flex is that it holds its shape.

[basementcalling]

There are times the flexibility characteristics of each brand are advantages and disadvantages. I've never not bought either because of the way it holds shape or doesn't.

ME is not hard to work with as long as you don't expect it to behave like Atlas. Maybe it is more bend track than flex track, but it works well even without templates as long as you have a line to follow on the benchwork.

If your fingers are too sensitive, wear gloves.

[mmagliaro]

Nope, not dumb.

But +1 for the Sweepsticks.  And therefore, try that first because although it doesn't bother you,
you won't have any variation in appearance and you will have beautiful track!

In fact, I would recommend using Sweepsticks even for the Atlas track.  You will be surprised at how much more accurate and uniform you can make a curve with those things. 

[glakedylan]

+1 on sweep sticks

[conrail98]

But +1 for the Sweepsticks.  And therefore, try that first because although it doesn't bother you,
you won't have any variation in appearance and you will have beautiful track!

In fact, I would recommend using Sweepsticks even for the Atlas track.  You will be surprised at how much more accurate and uniform you can make a curve with those things.

Not to highjack the thread too much, but I've been looking at purchasing some and was wondering how many *should* one get per radius? 1, 2, 4? Just wondering as it seems a few people here have used them,

Phil

[djconway]

I've used both in the past, with no problems.
I've used both on the same layout, with no problems
 
Both have their pros and cons
ME - hard to get to the shape you want without pre-bending,
Atlas - hard to get straight track STRAIGHT

The answer to both is to make yourself a series of templates at the radius you want -- 0.1" Styrene is easy enough to work with.  I lay it out to the radius of the inside edge of the ties.
Get a few 6" - 12" - 24" straight aluminum rulers to use as a straight edge and you should be able to get the tracks straight.
Parallel tracks require a little effort to get them parallel, again rulers and templates go a long way to getting things "right".  Get one track down right and use a parallel gauge to get the second, third ...

[mmagliaro]

Not to highjack the thread too much, but I've been looking at purchasing some and was wondering how many *should* one get per radius? 1, 2, 4? Just wondering as it seems a few people here have used them,

Phil

It depends on how much you want to spend.   I bought 2 per radius.  I needed 4 different radii.
But if you buy 4 per radius, you can do a whole 180 degree curve in one shot.  In my case, I was content
to save a little money and work a little more slowly (get part of the curve done, wait for the glue to dry,
then move on).

If you don't have a lot of long curves of uniform radius in your track plan, then more than 2 probably aren't
necessary.  If you have a lot of longer curves, it will speed up track laying to have more sticks.

Another tip... I didn't apply any glue under about the last 2-3 inches of any given curve while an
initial sweep stick was on it, so that when I moved the sticks to continue the curve onward,
I could bridge that area between the two sections of curve with a sweep stick.  It means sneaking
a little adhesive under that last couple of inches with a thin putty knife when you continue on, but it's
not so bad.   I didn't want to put down, say, 2 sections of 18" radius, glued all the way to the end,
then move the sweep sticks, and end up with a bizarre kink between the two sections of curve.

[conrail98]

It depends on how much you want to spend.   I bought 2 per radius.  I needed 4 different radii.
But if you buy 4 per radius, you can do a whole 180 degree curve in one shot.  In my case, I was content
to save a little money and work a little more slowly (get part of the curve done, wait for the glue to dry,
then move on).

If you don't have a lot of long curves of uniform radius in your track plan, then more than 2 probably aren't
necessary.  If you have a lot of longer curves, it will speed up track laying to have more sticks.

Another tip... I didn't apply any glue under about the last 2-3 inches of any given curve while an
initial sweep stick was on it, so that when I moved the sticks to continue the curve onward,
I could bridge that area between the two sections of curve with a sweep stick.  It means sneaking
a little adhesive under that last couple of inches with a thin putty knife when you continue on, but it's
not so bad.   I didn't want to put down, say, 2 sections of 18" radius, glued all the way to the end,
then move the sweep sticks, and end up with a bizarre kink between the two sections of curve.

Thanks for the info,

Phil

[Roger Holmes]

The original Atlas Code 80 flex track from the 1970's was super stiff and held its shape but was a pain to work with.  I was happy when the slinky Atlas Code 80 flex came out.

Going back to my rocking chair now

[Cajonpassfan]

I don't know if I'm kicking a dead horse here, but here goes.
I don't think it's necessary to have templates for every radius on your railroad. Just get a couple of most common radii templates or sweepsticks and make yourself a simple "parallel block" out of wood, with multiple track separations cut into it. This can be done easily with a zona saw, see pictures below. The staging yard shown was laid out using an 18" radius template, with larger and smaller radius curves laid out by simply paralleling adjacent tracks using the block. It's all ME code 55, and the ability of the track to hold its shape was helpful (but not required). My overly sensitive thumbs did bleed a little.
Btw, railroads don't do "free flowing" curves, they do constant curvature, in degrees, which translates to a constant radius. The only thing remotely free flowing are the transitions at the beginning and end of each curve. Of course, their radii are much more generous than ours, but such is the plight of the model railroader....
Regards, Otto K.

[nkalanaga]

Cajonpassfan:  My "sweeping curves" are MOSTLY transitions!  The exception is one roughly 210 degree segment of 18 inch radius, and for that I used a cardboard template to lay the spline roadbed.  The ties are the same width as the roadbed, so they automatically matched the radius.   The rest of the curves probably wouldn't be a constant curvature even on the prototype.  It isn't that I TRIED to avoid neat curves, but that's the way things fit best...