Got Some Micro Engineering Code 55 Flex Track.

[GaryHinshaw]

Searches don't cross sub-forums.  If you were in Engineering Reports for example, and decided to do your search, it won't come up.

Jason

If you select 'Advanced search' and have the box 'Check all' ticked, then the search should check all sub-fora.  (It does for me.)

[bill pearce]

1. Soldering weathered rail shouldn't be any more difficult if you prepare it properly. Get a wire wheel for your Dremel tool and clean the ends right before soldering, works every time. Sure you have to paint the joints, but isn't that better than painting the whole length?

B. Gluing down. There are a thousand ideas from a thousand guys on this, but only one good way for me. Use a thin layer of yellow carpenter's glue, and I mean thin, and weight the rail down for about 30 minutes. Bingo, it's stuck for good and ready for ballast. And not so expensive as other ways.

[davefoxx]

B. Gluing down. There are a thousand ideas from a thousand guys on this, but only one good way for me. Use a thin layer of yellow carpenter's glue, and I mean thin, and weight the rail down for about 30 minutes. Bingo, it's stuck for good and ready for ballast. And not so expensive as other ways.

Yes, yes, yes.  I also use Yellow Carpenter's Glue.  I use it to glue the cork roadbed to the 2" foam substrate and to glue the track (I use Atlas Code 55) to the cork roadbed.  It will hold well, release easily by getting under the cork or track with a putty knife, and not come loose when wetting the roadbed during ballasting or other adjacent scenery work.  Oh, I hold my track down with pushpins, which conveniently fit between the rails almost perfectly, until the glue tacks up.  I find that I don't have to wait thirty minutes, though.  If you keep the layer of glue thin, it will usually tack up in just ten or fifteen minutes.  When you can't wiggle the track anymore, then you can pull the pins.  And no unsightly holes or nails in your track!

DFF

[Kisatchie]

...Oh, I hold my track down with pushpins, which conveniently fit between the rails almost perfectly, until the glue tacks up...

Thanks for the great tip. I was wondering where I'd get enough dictionaries to hold the track down (if I ever get around to laying it).


Hmm... better than Kiz
having me sit on the
track...

[peteski]

If you select 'Advanced search' and have the box 'Check all' ticked, then the search should check all sub-fora.  (It does for me.)

That is exactly what I did and the search still failed me (at that time). But after I tired the same search criteria again later, it worked and I was able to find that thread.

[OldEastRR]

Use #65 drill bit to make holes in the ties. I use Walthers HO track spikes for nails. If you put them in just right, the head of the spike will cover up and partly sink into the hole, making it invisible.
To make weathered ME track easier to work, first go down the strip gently wiggling the ties against the rails every inch or so - to break the seal between the plastic and the weathering solution on the metal. It's not much of a seal but enough to make flexing tough. After you loosen up all the plastic along the bottom of the rail and at the spike heads, you should find it much easier to shape into a curve.
One thing I've found is I can "snap whip" loosened ME track that has bends and wiggles in it into a perfect straight section again. I hold the flex track on edge and slap it -- with some speed but not too hard -- against a flat surface like a table. You want to whack it hard enough that the ties all move to align the struck edge equally against the surface but not so hard you damage the track. It might take a few tries but I can get even a s-curvey flex section to be as straight as factory made this way.

[robert3985]

1. Soldering weathered rail shouldn't be any more difficult if you prepare it properly. Get a wire wheel for your Dremel tool and clean the ends right before soldering, works every time. Sure you have to paint the joints, but isn't that better than painting the whole length?

B. Gluing down. There are a thousand ideas from a thousand guys on this, but only one good way for me. Use a thin layer of yellow carpenter's glue, and I mean thin, and weight the rail down for about 30 minutes. Bingo, it's stuck for good and ready for ballast. And not so expensive as other ways.

Bill, it's the preparing-it-properly that takes longer with weathered rail.  With unweathered rail, there's no weathering to remove so it's just flux and solder, as opposed to remove weathering, flux and solder.

Granted, the solder joints are just as strong...it just take longer because of that extra step for weathered rail.

Because of all the little silver spots that appear when weathered rail is curved, which are normally under the spikeheads, the whole length's gotta be painted anyway...which I do with cans of Krylon....psssst...done.  It ain't the painting, it's the solder prep that takes the extra time for me.