{"id":33,"date":"2004-11-10T12:36:17","date_gmt":"2004-11-10T19:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=33"},"modified":"2004-11-23T18:53:44","modified_gmt":"2004-11-24T01:53:44","slug":"track-laying-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"Track laying progress…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back to the bench….<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found it a bit ironic that finishing the trackwork was holding up production on my layout, so I figured I should get back to it.<\/p>\n

Necessity being the mother of invention (or is it the other way around?) I decided I had had enough of spiking trackwork. Using the fixtures, turnouts can be constructed without any spikes, and this is something I have found really helps me increase accuracy and reliability of my trackwork by eliminating the need to push spikes into the ties, a step that always ended up mis-aligning the rails. Building a double deck layout is hard enough on the back (and front and sides), spiking trackwork from a ladder in a contorted position seems to get more difficult for me every year.<\/p>\n

\"Spikeless_1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Spikeless handlaid track system<\/strong><\/p>\n

Above is a picture of my alternative to building hand laid track with spikes. Building turnouts at my workbench is a serious improvement to building trackwork, much easier to work in comfort and I wanted to extend this method to all my track laying.<\/p>\n

This system has been in development for some time now, and I wanted to give it a thorough test on my own layout first. So far I am very happy with the results!<\/p>\n

The system includes a fixture with two fixed radii of any size, and one section of straight track. Tie pockets are spaced every 6th tie for PC board ties. PC board ties cut to 8.5 scale feet in length, pre-grooved for electrical isolation, on both sides, and placed into the pockets and rail soldered to the ties. Staggering joints between lengths of rail will produce unlimited lengths of straight or curved track sections.<\/p>\n

Flexible hand laid track?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Where this system really shines though is its ability to produce lengths of flexible track for unknown or compound radii, or easements into and out of fixed radii. Using the straight track portion of the fixture, one length of rail is soldered to the PC board ties and removed from the fixture. This length of track will be flexible. Add to this our laser cut flexible lengths of ties (available soon), glued in place with Pliobond Industrial contact adhesive<\/a>,between the PC board ties and you will have a length of flexible trackwork with ties that will “splay” or “contract” with the flexing of the rails.<\/p>\n

This is glued to your roadbed with carpenters glue and held in place with pins until the glue sets up. The second rail is then soldered in place to the PC board ties using Micro Engineering 3 Point track gages<\/a> This will hold the rail in perfect gauge while soldering. This system is quick and very accurate and almost indestructible. You could run a real train over this trackwork! (note: do not run a real train on this trackwork)<\/p>\n

Available soon…<\/strong><\/p>\n

When released, this system will be available for all<\/strong> scales and gauges, with any radii requested. Fixtures with just radii will also be available.<\/p>\n

\"crossing_1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"24_constant_radius_2_1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"Curved_1.jpg\"
\nImage copyright Tim Warris 2004<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back to the bench…. I found it a bit ironic that finishing the trackwork was holding up production on my layout, so I figured I should get back to it. Necessity being the mother of invention (or is it the other way around?) I decided I had had enough of spiking trackwork. Using the fixtures, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.port-kelsey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}