I found this last night when I was doing a bit of spring maintenance on the line.
The curve there isnt particularly sharp, but it appears that the track wasn’t allowed to expand/contract/something. I guess I’ll disassemble that bit of track, add some joiners, and make sure the track it eased a bit around it.
Sure glad the track inspector found it before the train came through. Depending on direction of travel it could be a really nasty bump or over the side she goes :o
Plus its about 2’ off the ground. EEK! The LGB switcher, no problem. The K? MEDIC!
Wow, is that ever strange. Do you put spaces in between the sections? Did you pre-bend the track - or just bend it to fit the ladder as you went along?
There’s an advertisement for having free floating track.
-Brian
Just bent it as I went along, since the AMS track is pretty flexy. I generally gap about 1/16 at each joint to avoid kinking, but maybe this one wasn’t enough. The curve here is about 270 degrees of a 15 or so foot diameter circle. Pretty wide.
The issue with free floating track around here is the yearly maintenance. With the deep freeze/thaw heaving that goes on, I lost a month every late spring just getting the track into running condition. This year, this break is the only thing I have to fix.
Maybe some zip ties attached to screws to hold your track down. That would allow a bit of flex.
-Brian
You know Bob, I had the same thing happen to me on a similar kind of curve. Fortunatly the break was between the ties so I slipped a couple of rail joiners over it and haven’t had a problem since.
Could you take closeups of the ends of the rails? It would be interesting to see the metal there. I would be looking for crystallization.
Regards, Greg
Bob, All:
Just a long distance guess, but those fractures look to be classic metal embrittlement failures of the brass. Some factors that can cause this are improper choice of the alloy, inclusions of various contaminants during manufacture, temperature change, and high stress. For general information, see:
Sci-Tech Dictionary: Embrittlement (link)
Usually this type failure is caused by some combination of the above factors. Since this rail is most likely made in China by the lowest bidder, it could easily have specification and / or quality control issues that are not prevalent in western factories. Note that Greg’s “. . . crystallization” suggestion is one failure mode in embrittlement.
Stress, coupled with temperature changes can greatly exacerbate this condition, thus leading to the failure(s) shown above. The fact that the rail straightened out when it broke shows that it was under a significant amount of stress. In this case the stress was most likely provided by just forcing the track into position and screwing it down rather than bending it to shape and installing it in a relaxed condition. Of course, if the rail material all has significant defects, bending it could cause more failures, but they should happen when it is being worked, rather than during temperature changes.
On another front, I’ve found that putting a screw though the middle of a tie often causes failure of the tie. This failure of the plastic is also exacerbated by leaving stress on the rail / tie assembly. In the few cases where I need to fasten track to wood, I bend it close to the desired shape, then use smaller fasteners (screws or nails) at the outer ends of the ties. This also takes force off the simulated spike heads, helping eliminate another possible failure point.
Repairs look to be relatively simple, but I would really suggest you prebend the track.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Hey Bob,
I’d have to agree with Jerry about the pre-bending of your rail. I had the same thing happen to Sunset Valley rail a couple of years back. I had a very large sweeping curve (20’ dia plus). I used hillman type clamps on the joints and screwed the track down about every 6" to 8". After the first winter and all the snow cleared, I had several broken joints and most of my plastic ties were all broken. The tie plate & spike detail could not stop the rail from straighting out.
My fix was to return to code 332 USA style brass track from Aristo Craft (after all I am a dealer) and use a rail bender to pre-bend the curves. I also stopped attaching the track with so many screws on the curved sections. I allow the curved sections to float on top of my ladder system with a screw about every 3 to 4 feet. This lets the track expand and contract without breaking anything.
Now, if this weather will only warm up and stop “SNOWING”, I can get back outside and start working on my layout. I have a lot of track to get laided before I can start running and the “BATTERY MAFIA” group of our club is betting I won’t have anything runnng until late summer. I got news for them, I started digging last night before the rain came.
Chuck
Yah, uhuh, you betcha…
Chuck,
You been sayin’ that for four years, now!
could this be reason the AMS track is so much cheaper right now at the big retailers?
No problem at all with mine. I’ve been anchoring it the same way…except I use a hex driver 
Here’s the only damage I found. Hungry squirrels at work.
Never seen’em eat ties before though I have seen them munch on Tenmille ground throws…
Bruce Chandler said:You sure it wasn't termites ...
Hungry squirrels at work.
