We had over four inches of rain yesterday and another inch or so today, so it’s been impossible to do any work outside. I took advantage of the bad weather to assemble some sections of flex track this weekend using Llagas Creek narrow gauge tie strips and 6-foot lengths of painted code 215 aluminum rail.

Here are 85 new sections (510 feet) ready to install. This should be enough to complete the outer loop. Now if the weather would just cooperate a bit, I might get some real work done. It sure gets boring running trains back and forth on the track that is already down. Can’t wait to get the loop in place so I can be a real roundy-rounder.

Bob

Holy Friholis! That there is a lot of track.

Nice, Bob…

But, ummmm, can you change the track to code 332 then send them my way??? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Just a thought… Shrug

Andy, if you need some code 332 aluminum rail, I’ve got a bunch of it. No ties (they rotted out ages ago), but the rail is in good shape. No kinks or bends. Only been used on weekends by a little old lady from Pasadena!

Bob Hyman said: Can’t wait to get the loop in place so I can be a real roundy-rounder.

Bob

It is nice to have Dreams!!(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Dick Friedman said:

Andy, if you need some code 332 aluminum rail, I’ve got a bunch of it. No ties (they rotted out ages ago), but the rail is in good shape. No kinks or bends. Only been used on weekends by a little old lady from Pasadena!

Dick, I appreciate the thought… I left out the word ““Brass”” after the 332…

Bob,

I have track envy. That’s enough of the exact track I want to use to do my layout twice over with some to spare. I looks good. Now I do have a question. I assume that this is bent using a rail bender with tie strips in place more or less like you do HO flex track?

Devon,

I do not use a bender on the flex track. It is limber enough to easily conform to the curves on my roadbed. My minimum radius is 10 feet (20 foot diameter curves) so the amount of bending required is minimal. On previous layouts I have used code 250 aluminum flex track without a bender on much tighter curves - down to about a 4 foot radius. I do use a bender to pre-curve the rails when I hand-spike turnouts, especially for curved turnouts. This is not due to necessity, but just for convenience when placing the rails on the ties in the jig.

The only downside to not using a bender is occasional difficulty in obtaining a nice continuation of the curve through a rail joint. I overcome this by using aluminum Split-Jaw clamps at each joint. Now, if you are talking about Code 332 rail, or any size brass, stainless or nickel silver rail, then a bender is almost mandatory.

Bob

Thanks Bob,

I will be using 215 aluminum with min radius at 4’. So it sounds like I should be able to do it without a bender.

Alas though that is a ways off. I will have to be content to admire your pile of track. I have the weather, you have the track we make a fine pair.

Dick,

If you don’t mind… how many feet and what do you want for it?

I have a 40 -50’ trestle in my future plans… presently use AC SS

Thanks

John

Devon Sinsley said:

Thanks Bob,

I will be using 215 aluminum with min radius at 4’. So it sounds like I should be able to do it without a bender.

Alas though that is a ways off. I will have to be content to admire your pile of track. I have the weather, you have the track we make a fine pair.

As Bob says, if you don’t pre-bend the rails, you may have problems at the joints. I just helped a friend sort out his layout of mostly code 250 rail and his joints were nasty. (First thing we did is buy a Train-Li railbender!) The rails will try to straighten out, and you will need un-bolted joints to allow for expansion.

If you are assembling the track from rail and tie bases, then there’s no reason not to pre-bend it. I drew curves on my workbench at 10’ and 8’ radius and ran the rails through my bender until they looked like the drawn line.

You can also run the bender over installed track to work out the kinks.

When I was custom bending a curve, using sectional track, I connected two sections together to get a smooth bend through the joint, since no bender can bend right to the end of the track.

Greg

Greg, yes, I used a Train-Li duo rail-bender to fix a few sections on my railroad. Take off the clamps so the track can move back and fourth through the bending process, and just iron out the kinks.

BTW, I used Aristo 332 stainless track.