I have an overhead track in a small 12 X 30 Hobby Room. The first track I put in using Aristocraft sectional 8 ft dia. curves. I’m adding a second set of tracks. I hand spiked several 6 ft sections of track using code 250 rail and handmade wooden ties. When I try to bend one of these sections using a rail bender I get irregular results. Most of the ties get skewed so they are at angles to the track and do not hold it in gauge. The ties aren’t connected to each other like flex track is. Is there a way to make this work or will I have to bend the two rails separately then spike them onto the ties.

Harold Wilson

bend a little, then realign the ties, and then bend more?

bend a little, then realign the ties, and then bend more?

Worth a try, I’ll try tomorrow.

Welcome to the Forum Harold.

Just my 2 cents but I would pre-bend the rail as close as possible then gauge and spike the ties. The less you move the rail around on the ties after spiking the firmer your spikes will hold.

Especially critical if your using a soft wood for ties.

Rick

You could intersperse “dummy” ties between the spiked ones while bending, that would keep the spacing…

Greg

I made a couple quick tries. Most all of the ties I spiked too tightly to be able to slip them. With “dummy” ties the bending seems to be inconsistent, not giving a smooth curve but still skewing the ties some. I may try to make a few wider “dummy” ties tomorrow to try.

Harold Wilson said:

I made a couple quick tries. Most all of the ties I spiked too tightly to be able to slip them. With “dummy” ties the bending seems to be inconsistent, not giving a smooth curve but still skewing the ties some. I may try to make a few wider “dummy” ties tomorrow to try.

You are not far from me.

If you come to Knoxville or Maryville, might give me a shout.

PM me.

When handlaying, I bend both rails before spiking ties. If you only need one rail, the other rail will fight and cause problems. Get the two rails as close to parallel as possible.

Is there a way to make this work or will I have to bend the two rails separately then spike them onto the ties.

As mentioned, best to bend them first then spike them. I have a single-rail bender which works fine. The other trick was to draw curves on my table/bench top of various radius (on top of each other as you only use them one at once.) Then I could put the rail I was bending on the drawn curve to see how close it was as it bent.

Sounds like the 2 biggest obstacles are the spikes are really tight and your spacer blocks probably need to be wider and/or tapered.

Without the spacers between ties (either the traditional plastic tie strips or thick spacers that take up almost all the room) I don’t think your assembling straights and bending them will give you the desired result, so reverse the order, bend then assemble may be the best you can do.

(remember that you don’t bend both rails identically, the inside one is tighter than the outside one)

Greg

I tried a couple variations on the “dummy” ties this morning but couldn’t make it work. So I bent some rail to fit the curves I need and made some more ties. I dipped the ties in stain and they’re drying now. I also cut several track gauges out of oak scraps to help keep the curve in gauge while I’m spiking. I’ll also draw the curve on the bench top (after covering with rosin paper) just to make sure. I also need to build a turnout at the end of one of these curves.

Thanks for all your suggestions and help.

Harold

You said 250 rail. Is it aluminum rail? It seams to me that the spikes may have indented the foot of the rail slightly, and so the rail will not slide under the spikes, causing issues with bending the rail. I have done very little hand-laying of track, but what I have done, I pre-bent. I drew out the rails with a trammel onto the back of some cheep wrapping paper, then bent each rail to match the curve on the paper. Like Greg said, the inside rail and outside rail are bent to different curves (radii).

Yes, it’s aluminum. Very likely the spikes indented the foot. Some I pushed in by hand, others required a tap with a mallet.

I already had double oak runners installed for support so I just bent the rails to match them. The oak supports were cut with a bandsaw jig to 4’ 7" radius…

Well I spiked ties to the rails I bent to match the curved supports. Installed the curved section yesterday and it fits. Ran a car through it without any problems.

Maybe we were speaking from bending track with slip on ties, and underestimated the friction between the spikes and the rails.

Glad you got a production method down!

Greg