If you have some extra money go ahead . You will smoke them "I know" . walk around companion !!!!!! or upgrade

I didn't mean to make the second part of this thread sound crazy . I bought the HO graduated trestle set awhile back . And was toying around with it .But at the begginning of the incline the EZ track is not to friendly , where it starts the incline . No way to get a gradual bend of the track and rails into the rise .

but I'd like some suggestions on laying a proper grade

also would it be possible to pull the rails from the grey roadbed on a 9" ez track straight and replace them with the flex track rails . without damaging the rail tie holder spikes on the grey road bed . I was going to make a jig for the deflection . I have access to a small  autoclave so i could get even heat on the plastic to hold the deflection. after it cools .to maintain the % of the start of the grade incline . If it works reverce it for the top of the incline "peak". And then try to install the flex track rail onto the ez track road bed.

I have a HO 5x9ft layout , and use EZ TRACK . I am  thinking of doing away with my upper 18" rad oval 36"x60" . I'm just not satisfied with the way it looks , and the way i constructed it . And also due to scenery problems . I don't want just the 18" and 22" inner and outter half dog bone loop flat track layout . have good industry started etc.

I know on grades the max at the least is 2 to 4 % . How can you make the transition of a piece of flex track , "somebody told me to use code 100" . from the EZ track at the start of the incline and then at the top  look good. I heard use cork road bed and paint it grey . but , does it look the same .      I was thinking of attempting to heat a 9" straight in the middle to what equals 2 or 3 % . I tried just using the ez track ,but at the rail joiners  , the start of the incline is a somewhat angle .and a 6 wheel truck ,as on the sd40-2  loses pickup from the rails and stops .  any suggestions will help. I have just been experimenting

my #5 EZ TRACK switch was also at the end of the 18" radius . I also could not run the sd40-2 in either direction . would derail coming from the curve into the switch and would run fine coming from the straight mainline over the switch, then into the curve . I changed and remove the switch down one 9" straight from the curve . I have 4 sets in my layout so I can go in either direction . on the 18" and 22" radius parts of the layout .

it was recommended I gauge my couplers check my trucks . get an nmra gauge . flanges wheel sets etc etc but I just had a track problem .   

my 4-8-4 sante fa also would jump and derail in the same place .

joe i think you were one of the ones who helped me and pointed it out to me about the marx layout  html. you were talking about so many s curve's.  and giving me some idea changes . and made them to good use . thats when my sd40-2 was derailing so much

I finally got my HO mdt plymoth sante fa #32 back . ok here i go i hope i post this right .

no mods to the chassis . the engine was not dcc ready so the motor had to be insulated . the decoder that was installed was a 1006 tcs m1 decoder .a new wire harness "plug and play . if the decoder goes bad just unplug and put in the new one like the dcc ready locomotives .it is installed inside the body and not the cab like was talked about in the previous thread . this guy does these all the time , like clock work put a sound decoder in a thomas ,more than once , also he put a rotary beacon  in the mdt as well . I was so excited . I got it home and was pushing and pulling 2 40' flats around the layout no problem . he did say they are tuff but it can be done . total cost was $38.00 ,but was well worth it to me . I will use him along with the 70 tonner in the yard moving pulp wood cars and coal cars .

his name is jason at larry's hobbys in houston texas . I also just took a gp 40 I'm having a decoder installed # 5 of the gp 40's now plus a dummy gp-40 #6 so 6 total sante fa's gp-40's                peace to all 

you know i use to get so mad . i would show somebody my layout and how cool it was and bingo      "gomez" derail recks the whole 9 yards. then i would get, an un huh sure . lol but i would be running 5 trains at once . and my sloopy track work would bite me in the ying yang . but hey i learned  . jim banner yampa bob , kinda like my old sponcers them yets ain't happened yet

You didn't really say which turnout it was . I had problems with a bachmann #5 turnout . The turnout had positive camber "a hump" the highest part of the hump was right before the metal frog , and the switch rivets were loose .this made my ho sd-40-2 derail many times . I also had 2 3" straights and a 2" straight together before the turnout which resulted in bad track alignment IE humps and valleys . I also found that my sd-40-2 does not like 18" radius curves . If it is not laid perfect its gonna jump . Also I took a NMRA guage and checked my wheel truck ,flange, guage, and track guage. What really helped was removing the short pcs from the layout , and getting or replacing the turnout , also I just remembered that one of the rail's was loose from the tie's on the grey EZ TRACK road bed .

sd-40-2's don't like crooked or hump or bumpy track ...... just my 3 cents

marx is the one who designed them .I built this layout . If you remember when I 1st came here . yampa bob and a few others helped me out.