Track worries

[unittrain]

I have all my track down and feeders soldered to track and I'm in the process of installing bus wires. However I'm concerned with the effect that cooler weather might have on track see my basement gets rather cool in the winter. During the summer the only concern I have is moisture for which I have a dehumidifier going and the temperature is just right. But the winter is another question. So my question is does cold weather mess up track as far as warping ect?  My basement is not a dungeon but just a plan unfinished basement.

[up1950s]

Dremel rail gaps in both rails every 10' or so , and add more feeders . That easies trouble shooting also .

[MichaelWinicki]

It's not the track... It's what the track is on.

Cork or foam roadbed doesn't cause an issue.

Track on cork or foam roadbed on top of extruded Styrofoam... doesn't cause an issue.

However if you have track & roadbed on plywood or homasote, well there could be issues due to the wood (or wood product) absorbing moisture in the summer and then drying out (shrinking) in the winter.

[up1950s]

Never said it was the track , but gaps in the rails all the way through the ties gives the rails a place to move should the below track roadbed move due to heat/cold and or humid/dry changes .

[mcjaco]

I have a friend that had track severely kink in a unfinished temperature controlled basement.  It was track laid cork roadbed, which was on the pink foam.  He had soldered every joint.  That changed after the first winter.   

[unittrain]

Mine is glued down to the WS foam road bed and under that is styrofoam insulation panels 4 thick (gives me plenty of height to carve out embankments and such where needed), I know most use the pink or blue foam but I chose the 14" x 48" panels because they fit my modules exactly. Under the foam is 1/4" plywood screwed down to 1 x 4's which make up the module frame. I do have gaps obviously at the ends of the modules but also 1 gap in between the tracks where the 2 pieces of track join (it takes 1 36" piece and 1 6" piece of Me code 55 to cross the module to the joiner track). I was just concerned because it is 50' of double track main at risk!

[MichaelWinicki]

Never said it was the track , but gaps in the rails all the way through the ties gives the rails a place to move should the below track roadbed move due to heat/cold and or humid/dry changes .

You are correct.

I support the idea of gaps.

[lock4244]

It's not the track... It's what the track is on.

Cork or foam roadbed doesn't cause an issue.

Track on cork or foam roadbed on top of extruded Styrofoam... doesn't cause an issue.

However if you have track & roadbed on plywood or homasote, well there could be issues due to the wood (or wood product) absorbing moisture in the summer and then drying out (shrinking) in the winter.

Our old unsceniced, unfinished and unplanned was badly affected by warp-age. Track laid directly on homasote, and Peco track would get all squiggly in the summer, IIRC. The crappy old Atlas flextrack was not affected, probably because it the rails were not tight to the ties like the Peco.

[Mark5]

I've never had any problems with track laid on Homasote (properly clamped and glued to a plywood base). Even all my handlaid code 40 in the 1970s - no problemo. This was in an unfinished basement.

[inkaneer]

Cork roadbed and wood products are entirely fine as long as you seal them with paint.  A good primer coat should be sufficient but if humidity is a problem or a potential problem then two coats of primer is a very good idea.  Do not try to go cheap on this the most basic part of any layout.  That should solve any humidity problems.  Next the track.  

Track will contract as well as expand with temperature.  When track contracts on a layout with all soldered joints it will pull away from the ties on curves.  The contraction/expansion of metal rail is a co efficient.  That means it depends on two variables.  One is temperature the other is length.  A 30 inch piece of track will expand/contract 6 times the length as would a 5 inch length of track for every degree change in temperature. For nickle silver rail the coefficient of expansion [COE] is  0.00000104 per degree per inch.  So a section of track 100 inches long will contract .00312 inches if the temperature drops 30 degrees (F).  Not a lot but enough to pull track from the ties on a curve.  Now consider if the entire layout is soldered and the layout has 1,000 inches of track [that's only 83.33 feet].  The track now contracts .0312 inches. That will pull the rail from tjhe ties.  But the kicker is that there is no guarantee that the track, once it contracts, will expand back to where it was when the temperature goes up.  It may contract by pulling to the left yet when the temps go up expand to the left again.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I've never seen that all explained like that. Thanks!

This whole discussion reminds me of an Of Montreal song: Gronlandic Edit at 2:06

/>

[wcfn100]

It's not the solder, it's the space between the rails that soldering nullifies.  Simantics? Maybe.  But you can have the same issues with unsoldered sectional track if no space is left between pieces.

Even with bonded (pliobond which is somewhat flexible) rail will expand enough to come off it's ties if no space is left.  I will say however, my example is from a layout moved from Minnesota to Arizona.
 
Jason

[DKS]

If you've soldered rail joints, it also depends on when you soldered them. If you did it in the wintertime, the rails will be under compression stresses in the summer; if soldered in the summer, the rails will be under tension stresses in the winter (according to local climate and room conditions, of course).

This becomes an increasing problem with the more widespread use of DCC. In the DC era, there would usually be enough gaps on a typical layout to relieve most expansion/contraction problems. But now modelers are starting to think, heck, I can solder everything! Wrong. You still need gaps. And for reasons beyond just expansion/contraction issues.

On my last layout, I didn't solder any rail joints; I attached feeders to each individual piece of rail (the only exception being areas where there were many small bits of rail in a cluster, such as a crossing).

[unittrain]

I only soldered the feeders to the rail I used rail joiners for connections I soldered a feeder to each piece of track in case the joiner does not have good contact. Ed that video is really messing with me after viewing part of it I think my track is moving!! ;D ;D

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lol, aren't they crazy?

And I think I may eschew soldering gaps (excepts on curves) from here on out, just to be safe.