I am planning to use a rail bender with LGB rail and LGB switches. I’m planning to clamp the track together and continue a bend a curve over the joint. Are there any pitfalls I need to be aware?
I’m also going into a 3% grade. Do I need to consider bending in a vertical direction as well in the transition from the flat?
I’ve never bent any rail before and I don’t intend to in the future. I would think from what I have seen is there is no need to bend rail for a grade. Grades with long end runs should be long enough to handle the track rise and fall through the rail jointers. Your track should flow through the grades and not have sudden ups and downs, that’s what I see on well-built railroads.
You clamp your track AFTER it is bent. Reason is the track changes length on the rails as it is bent. The outside becomes longer. This is if you want rail clamps to be directly across from each other. You will need a cutter of some kind to square the ends up again. and a file to smooth the burrs after cutting.
use two 6 inch (150mm)straights with LGB-style connectors instead.
install the first at 1% grade, the second at 2% and then your 3% ramp.
or shorter - depends on, with what you start.
if you change a small radius curve to a curve of larger radius, the outer side is too long.
if you bend a straight into a curve, the outer side is too short.
or you can do it the parsimonius way, like i do. stagger the rail joints. (only one cut needed for the entire curve/loop)
Well, Bill, what sort of bender will you use? A single-rail thingy, or dual-rail, a la TrainLi? I’d very much recommend the latter, even their knock-off’s. The dual-rail bender lets you, practically, “iron” things out as you roll it though your joints.
To that point, I recommend staggering your joints where possible, as it allows the dual-rail bender to even things out across the joint in a superb manner.
As for the vertical component, I wouldn’t worry about it. Unless you’re abruptly changing the grade right at a track joint. Then I’d worry about it.
Thanks Cliff,
I’ll make sure to stagger my joints. I jump into a 3% grade but I’m going to take Korms advice and slowly ballast up the grade.
Having started with sectional track, which was quite handy considering the number of moves we’ve made over the years, I thought I had missed the boat with getting a train-li as they never came up on eBay.
So I decided to use google.de and found the Swiss manufacturer, translated their website, got in touch, and got one ultimately shipped to Oz after we both went through the “how are we going to do this?” phase.
On arrival I immediately I thought wow! I wonder what I’m going to do with all this short track?
Their web page is https://www.train.li/ and they manufacture and sell quite a bit of garden railway equipment.
Bill,
I’m glad you’re considering their bender. Their main US site also has them. But wow have prices gone up! Rail Benders
All my track & switches are from TrainLi, because I love their nickel-plated brass rail. But, again, I bought when prices were much lower.
FWIW, here’s some further comments…
It seems like you’ll be using sectional track as flex track, which works if:
– You remove any screws from the ties to the rails
– Snip a few of the connecting plastic tabs between ties to let them go around curves (make the snips alternate to keep the tie strips together)
A big advantage of flex track is its longer length, e.g., 5’ or 6’
– This reduces the number of joints that may fail (if you’re running rail power)
– You may want to pre-solder rails together into workable lengths (e.g., 1 or 2 meters), which I think will make them behave with the bender better, let you worry less frequently about joint staggering, and help electrical conductivity (if you care about that)
Just 2 more cents…
Cliff
Thanks Cliff,
Never thought about soldering the short bits together. But I’m keeping the sectional track for Christmas tree purposes. I am using new 10 foot 332 brass rail with my new train-li. It could have been 20ft as that’s how it is imported, but couldn’t fit it in the car to drive it back across the continent. I do wonder if I’ll miss the clickity-clack of sectional track.
Peco nickel-silver 250 rail was here for a very short time, (My Dad thought Peco was the only rail worth buying). For better or worse, I decided, while I could afford to buy some PECO track, for the same investment I could get some LGB TRACK, and have some money left over for an engine, a couple of cars, and a track cleaner. 
I’ve got a mix of rail clamps to play with and I’ve run some low voltage from the house to splice in to the rail as needed.
BTW, I learned the hard way that I didn’t need to use google-translate for deciphering train.li website. There’s an “aA” symbol on my iPad that translates each page into English.
Just from my experience…(using sectional track with screws removed as Cliff stated)
1…Yes
2…No, as I hard solder my rail in 15’ to 20’ lengths then use rail clamps. If you are going to solder/splice anything solder the rail. It essentially becomes about 6or8 gauge wire on a continuous circuit that can run yards not feet with no voltage drop.
3…It is recommended that switches be clamped into place for easier removal.
The soldering method I used was 60/40 rosin core with micro torch. I do like to slide the ties back and wrap with a wet towel before soldering. I used slide on rail joiners and push the solder through the ends of the joiners which flows upward and fills the rail gap. Then while cooling I squeeze the joiner with linemans pliers and wipe up excess solder with a wet towel.
It’s rather simple to un-solder as well…just heat and pull apart.
You might consider using your Dremel tool with a cutting disk to make shallow grooves at a couple of spots in each rail of each 10 foot section. Just for the clickity-clack.
i normaly give the track a feeder every 10 joints, or so. for finding failures easier. the track itself is the best and thickest “wire” you’ll find/want to pay.
yes, that’s easier for replacement or repair. i like the massoth - clamps, because i can screw them from above, instead of sideways.
about the method - do your switches have these joiners?
The only web help I found was this video…
I’m worried about damaging the frog or the plastic spikes.
It sounds like you bought LGB flex track? Wow, 20’ sections, I had no idea. I imagine it ships with rails separate from the pack of ties? That’s how I received my TrainLi flex track.
Re re-bending: I agree with Rooster.
Re jumpers: I agree with Rooster, for soldered rail. You’ll have 10’ lengths, and you may or may not want to solder the joints together, or jumper them.
An alternative is a clamp method where the contact is guaranteed. I’ve never jumpered joints since I use the TrainLi rail clamp which has good contact area, non-oxidizing surfaces (SS clamps on Ni plated brass rail), and screws that slightly dig into the rail.
Re switch joiners, yeah, what Rooster (Roo for short?) and Korm said. Especially with rail power, you’ll be removing your switches once in a while to maintain them… For example, internal jumpering to frog and points, only accessible from the underside. Or tightening a screw to a frog or jumper tab.
Re clickity-clack… In addition to having been a top techie Google poobah, being an amazing modeler and model railroader, an up and coming popular author, and an all-round good guy, Jim could be a stand-up comedian if he felt like it. It was he who came up with “[name] will be here all week. Try the Veal,” which I stole, and then you. Isn’t this forum wonderful?! 
So… I suspect that Jim had his tongue firmly inserted in his cheek on this one… But if not, yeah, it’s an intriguing idea!
here we go:
take a flat pliers, insert one half into the slot of the joiner. bend that side wide to the outer side. - repeat on the other side of the joiner.
with a needlenose pliers you bend the joiner downwards untill it slips free from the slot in the tie.
DONE!
if you want to reuse the joiner:
first flatten the bump in the floor of the joiner
reshape it
posiion it
fix the joiner with pincers - squeeze plus some light taps with a hammer from above on the pincer’s grips
also DONE!
(the block i’m working on is an axle bearing from an 1852 fabricated freightcar of the paraguayan railroad)
Thanks Korm,
I thought I might be required to cut off the locking tab.
nope. that is not necessary.
