Shawn said:You buy suitable track and you won't need a bender. :)
That has always been my thinking $250 for a rail bender or more track. Ill go with the track.
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:Sheeesh, H-J - If only you had told me that somebody makes eight-foot long sections of set-track with 13 foot six and 13 foot radius I would have bought it....Shawn said:You buy suitable track and you won't need a bender. :)
That has always been my thinking $250 for a rail bender or more track. Ill go with the track.
tac
www.ovgrs.org
Terry A de C Foley said:Hans-Joerg Mueller said:Sheeesh, H-J - If only you had told me that somebody makes eight-foot long sections of set-track with 13 foot six and 13 foot radius I would have bought it....Shawn said:You buy suitable track and you won't need a bender. :)
That has always been my thinking $250 for a rail bender or more track. Ill go with the track.tac
www.ovgrs.org
Yeah well tac, I’m not talking about set track, I’m talking flex track with a Code that doesn’t require a bender.
If Randy feels so inclined he’s welcome to have a look at what I put down and I’ll give him a crash course on “how to build turnouts”. The climate in Merritt is just about identical to ours and putting his woodworking machinery to a slightly different use won’t hurt either. 
Hi Randy and welcome to large scale.
I am a little further east of HJ in the West Kootenays and built my railroad entirely of code 250 AMS from Art Knapp. It has been down for two years now and is free floating. My curves are all 10 or 12 foot diameter and I did use a single rail bender. It is easy to bend the Code 250 freehand but it gets a little tricky near the end of the section to keep the curve smooth. My only thought is to make sure that your roadbed is solid. The lighter rail breaks easily if flexed up and down. The look of the lighter rail is very nice when doing narrow guage.
Ron
First of all…thanks for all the info and your individual thoughts!!!
Going to Abbotsford in January and maybe can sneak a side trip into Surrey to Art Knapps. Have a look at the 250 AMS (plus want to see what they carry in their store). Still going to think about ladder roadbed just because I won,t have to use a bender and will have a good base for the lighter rail although with the material in my backyard being what it is…hard as bedrock might not be crucial other than in the fill areas.
Ron if you used a single bender then I take you made your own track from seperate rails and ties?
H J, Yes would like to check out what you’ve done, maybe in the spring when it’s a little warmer (I will bring a few nice dark ales to enjoy in the Okanagan sunshine while we look at trains and such). Not too sure if I am ready to start making my own swithes yet tho, but has me intriqued.
Thanks Randy
Hi Randy,
Sounds like a plan, by Mid-Late April it should get warm enough. Prior to that I’m busy as a beaver at the Olympics/Paralympics in the Callaghan Valley.
Thankyou HJ, Hope you have a great time working/volunteering at the cross country skiing venue. Oops! Maybe a competitor.
By late April our weather is usually pretty good and my daughter goes to OUC in Penticton so when I make a trip to visit her can come home the other way through Vernon.
BTW you haven’t told us what ‘goodies’ are down at the coast you have to pick up. From a shop that mainly sells european stock (Langley)?
Thanks again Randy
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TRROps/TRROps32.jpg)
Definitely go with the code 250 flex track. If you can lay out a garden hose, you can lay flex track. Get yourself a dual-rail railbender. Even if you can bend the track without a bender, the bender takes away the stresses which force the rail back straight. It’s a bit on the expensive side, but you’ll use it every season to level your track, too. It’s not something you use once than it collects dust. Later, K
Nice to see some Western Canadians, getting together for a bit of fun!=
H-J - when I started on my track in 1979 there was no Code 250 aluminium track available from anybody. When I replaced it in 2000 there was no way of getting American-made track, such as Llagas Creek et al, here in UK.
We do what we can with what we can get hold of, within our remit.
My requirement was a substantial code track, suitable for running any and all LS trains, electric or steam, analogue or MTS, raised at least 80cm off the ground at a point with full wheelchair access for our daughter. The heavier the track code, the more chance there is of my severely disabled son-in-law being able to put a car on the track unaided, even using a railer. Like the rest of him, his hands don’t work too well, but he likes to play trains with his daughter, who is, thankfully, totally normal in every way.
Sure, I’d love to have scale-looking track with scale-looking switches and scale looking track accessories, but with MY particular list of requirements to meet, it ain’t ever going to happen.
tac
www.ovgrs.org
Randy McDonald said:Hi Randy,
Thankyou HJ, Hope you have a great time working/volunteering at the cross country skiing venue. Oops! Maybe a competitor.
Volunteer! Too old for that level of competition.
If things work as expected I’ll have a few more video segments to add to these.
Randy,
The rail from AK comes in 8 foot lengths in a metal tube. The ties come in 1 foot strips in a box. You have to assemble the track yourself. With the single rail bender you bend both rails first and then slide them into the tie strips. Not that difficult and even easier if you can recruit someone to help. My wife and I put down 200 feet of track in one afternoon, and then another afternoon for leveling.
Ron