? About flex track

[tford]

I have several ? about connecting flex track. Do you have to remove one of the ties to get the rail joiners to fit? When curving the track does it matter which side of the track you put on the inside of the radius?

[jonathan]

tford,

1.  Yes, you need to remove one or two ties to join the track.  I use a hobby knife to cut the plastic under the rails, then slide the ties off the rails.  SAVE the ties, you will need to put them back under the track when it's time to ballast.  Wish I'd learned that lesson earlier.

2.  Honestly, I don't know which side is correct, if any.  However,  when I laid my track, on the curves, I put the slidy rail side on the inside of the curve.  It worked out fine.  So I did no damage.  Never saw a definitive rule on flex track and curves.  I do know it is recommended to solder the flex track before securing to the road bed. 

Enjoy.

Regards,

Jonathan

[pdlethbridge]

You solder the joints when they are straight then curve them. This prevents kinks which can be a major derailment problem. Use rail nippers for a clean cut and remove a couple of ties at the joint on each piece of flex track. After the joint is made and the track is laid take those ties you cut off and sand down the spike heads and slide them under the rail, making sure to sand enough so the rail doesn't lift up. If you sand too much off, they will never see that.

[tford]

I soldered three pieces together and two curved great and the last piece in the run would not curve in the same direction. So I assume there must be one rail that curves and one that does not.

[pdlethbridge]

On flex track, one rail is held fast by the ties, the other rail slides.

[jward]

one thing that was not mentioned, but that you found out the hard way, is that you cannot solder more than 2 sections together at a time and expect to bend them into a curve. why? the soldered joint is larger than the rail and won't slip through the ties.

there is a solution i have found that works well, but i've never seen any of the "experts" in the magazines do it. rather than remove the ties under the joint, youuse a hobby knife to carve the spike heads away. also, carve a slight bit off the tops of the ties under the rail, just enough to slip the rail joiners on. you can then solder the joint. this method works very well on curves which require more than s ections of flex track. you lay your first two sections down, carve the ties on the fixed rail side of the 2nd and t3rd pieces of track. thread the sliding rail into the tie strip of the 3rd section, and join the two sections together and solder the fixed rails together.
now, bend the 3rd section into the curve you want and fasten it down. the sliding rail of the second section, slid into the ties of the 3rd section, should push the sliding rail partway out of that section. trim the spike heads off and carve the tops of the ties where the sliding rail ends. add the rail joiner, slide the rail from the 3rd section into the joiner and solder. repeat for as many sections as you need.


this method has one huge advantage. when you are soldering the rails together, they are staggered from each other, and the opposite rail and the flex track itself willminimize any kinks in the joint

[rogertra]

one thing that was not mentioned, but that you found out the hard way, is that you cannot solder more than 2 sections together at a time and expect to bend them into a curve. why? the soldered joint is larger than the rail and won't slip through the ties.

Then simply remove the ties that are in the way.

Lay the curve. take the ties you removed and carve off all the tieplate and spike detail so that the tie not slides under the rails where you have gaps in tie strip.  This is just standard flex track laying proceedure and has been covered numerous times in MR, RMC and other magazines and numerious books on track laying.

Try Googling "laying flex track" and see what you get.   Google is your friend and can probably answer any questions, about any subject.

[jward]

it isn't as simple as that. if you remove the ties, as per what the books say, you will end up with rail joints that are across from each other as you will have to cut the inner rail. having the rail joints across from each othe makes kinking of the track more likely. by doing it the way i suggested, you keep the joints on both rails offset from each other, and the tie stip and opposite rail tend to hold the joint in place without kinking. it makes for a much stronger joint whether you solder to joint or not.

[rogertra]

it isn't as simple as that. if you remove the ties, as per what the books say, you will end up with rail joints that are across from each other as you will have to cut the inner rail. having the rail joints across from each other makes kinking of the track more likely. by doing it the way i suggested, you keep the joints on both rails offset from each other, and the tie strip and opposite rail tend to hold the joint in place without kinking. it makes for a much stronger joint whether you solder to joint or not.

You do NOT cut the rail, you do NOT have to have the rail joints opposite one another, at least not on the curve.

Please do not try to reinvent the wheel.  The soldering together of two or three 36" lengths of flex track and removing two or three ties is the tried and true method used by thousands of modellers around the world since the invention of flex track, back in the early 1960s.

[jward]

who's trying to reinvent the wheel?

depending on your curve radius, the displacement of the sliding rail can be up to 3 or 4 inches. you'd have to do one of 3 things. either you cut the rail flush with the end of the track section, and solder the joints directly across from each other. or you remove the spike heads on enough ties on the next section to slide the rail joint that 3 or 4 inches because the joiners won't slip through the spike heads, then spike the rail back into guage because there is nothing to hold it in place....or you can do what i suggested above. that method has been used by myself and others since atlas came out with superflex track back in the 1970s. which yoiu choose is up to you.

[CNE Runner]

As much as I enjoy a good 'discussion' I have to admit I have learned a valuable, useable method of dealing with flextrack and curves. Having been in the hobby for over 40 years I have [apparently] remained ignorant in the ways of flextrack. I knew, from experience (don't go there) that it is far easier to solder rail before bending then after. One rail slides easier than the other? Nonsense! I just went out and tried it - Holy Tie Plate Batman...it works!!! The rest of the advice given?..revelation! Thanks go out to all of your for the informative thread. I will rank this with the proper direction to turn a shish-ka-bob stick to uncouple cars.

Ray

[rogertra]

who's trying to reinvent the wheel?

depending on your curve radius, the displacement of the sliding rail can be up to 3 or 4 inches.

"3 TO 4 INCHES"!!!!!!!!   Good grief, how sharp are your curves.?  :-)

Actually, the inner rail displacement is about an inch.  An inch in each yard of the track being used for the curve.  Remember, the first yard is soldered to the existing straight track that is already fixed to your roadbed.  Then you solder the next yard of flex track, after removing three or so ties from each end, to the end of that piece of track which should be long enough to get you round most HO  or N scale curves. 

Only then do you bend the curve.  The rail attached to the previously laid track will not move and the rails at the free end will now slide through the ties.  If you use reasonable radius curves, say 24" and up, the ends of the track at the end of the 6 foot section of flex track will now be out of line by one to two inches.  That's where you square up the ends.  You can go back over the curve and with your fingers to tidy up the ties in the curve and, if you wish, clean up the ties you had to remove, to let the rail joiners slide, and slide them under the rails to fill in the gaps.

This is a tried and true method, it's been used since the invention of flex track and DOES work.  I don't see why you have a problem with it.  Have you ever tried it?

One note.  This method of sliding the rails through the ties will NOT work with Micro-Engineering flex track as their rail is difficult to slide through the ties and the length of flex track must be pre-curved before laying,

[jward]

you know, i am old enough to remember fiber tie track. you HAD to lay that track by the book. i am also old enough to remember when this hobby was completely diy, i am a third generation railfan/modeller. when in doubt about something, we always looked to the prototype to see how they overcame the problems we encountered. what we observed id that the real railroads in the usa and canada almost never have their rail joints across from each other. with modern flex track, and handlaid track, it is easy to stagger the joints just like the real lines do.....

yes, i have laid track by the book. i've found that staggered joints, properly laid, look and work better. tried and true is just a matter of semantics, i know of places where flex track laid with staggered joints has performed flawlessly for well over 30 years. doesn't sound radical, unproven, or like reinventing the wheel to me......

[rogertra]

Jeffery.

Are you for or against pre-soldering flex track before bending into a curve?

Your answers are confusing to say the least.  What, exactly, do non-opposed or opposed rail joints have to do with curving flex track?   

[Jim Banner]

I love helices and I usually use flex track to build them.  That means soldering together many lengths, which cannot all be done at once.  My finding is that as long as the track ends are straight and in line when I solder them, it makes no difference if the joints are opposite one another or not.

So how do I set the ends straight on what will be a curved track?  I just bend that last foot or so in an ess shape with the end 4 or 5 inches parallel to what would be the tangent at the end of the track if it was curved all the way to the end.  After soldering, I check with a straight edge to make sure I have not introduced any kinking at the joints, then I go on laying the curve.  This is based on the principle that the difference in the lengths of the rails depends only on the angular difference between the tangents to the two ends and not on the various curves in between the ends.

Jim