Does anybody here machine their own rails? I was thinking of designing some sort of continuous milling machine fed by a coil of brass round stock. You know, a really ugly machine cobbled together from old routers and shimmed to perfection. I doubt there would be much of a cost savings because of the custom end mills required but the benefit would be much longer rails. Longer rails = less joints = better operation. It may well fail but it seems worth putting it through SolidWorks. The real downside I can think of is heat expansion being that I live outside of Chicago and it can get pretty hot. I suppose I should look up some numbers on that.
You are better off with long pieces of bar stock, rather than a coil. It would keep trying to recoil itself.
Why not braze lengths together?
Yes, just like the prototype, “continuous welded rail” needs more designing to keep from sun kinks.
Ties could be more of a pain to thread on, as well as bending rails for curves.
Maybe try to make some 20 foot lengths and experiment?
Greg
John- I thought I could play around with a couple sets of offset rollers to permanently take the curve out. I’m sure there will be plenty of kinks to work out if, and when, I give it a go.
Greg- I was thinking of keeping it to lengths of around that or so. At some point it would just become to difficult to deal with. The longest flex track I’ve seen so far are five feet and that just seems like a ton of joints.
I’m really just brain storming with my fingers. I assume I’m not the first person to have this idea.
I’d say that ten feet would be darn near impossible to move without your own track-laying team.
I have some aristo NS rail that came in 8foot lengths, and it can be a real ***** to maneuver in semi-tight quarters.
I would suggest that you first buy some 6’ rails and a box of tie strips and spend some time threading the rail onto the tie strips. Then figure out how much time you want to spend threading 20’ rail sections onto those tie strips. I have a feeling that once you do that, you may re-think the 20’ lengths or even the 10’ lengths. Plus a 20’ section of brass or any other kind of metal rail is going to be pretty flimsy at that length. It’s going to take more then one person to move it around and keep it from kinking.
Aluminum, brass, stainless steel, all expands and contracts in the heat and cold. Some more so then the others. Direct sunlight will have an even greater effect on it. And rail that’s only 1/3 of in inch high is going to absorb the heat and cold a lot faster then a full size section of rail.
I use 6’ sections of aluminum track from one outfit and Tie strips from another. It can get real tricky at times threading the rail onto those strips. I also have to be real careful when I move that stuff around when laying it.
But that’s just been my experience…
Also remember the less joints you have the less noise you will get when those metal wheels roll over the joints. To me the noise is what makes it.
Here is a web site from a guy who made his own track. Prob not what you want but a neat idea. He didnt make it using the true shape but what he did worked.
Can you re-post that URL, Shawn? Tks.
Shawn Viggiano said:
Also remember the less joints you have the less noise you will get when those metal wheels roll over the joints. To me the noise is what makes it.
Bingo!
Shoot! Did not think about the noise. I was thinking of hand spiking on location and using a few helpers. I saw that one of the gentleman that posts here secured his rails to the ties by nailing through the back and bending the tips over the lip on the rail. That seemed like a good way to do most of the prep work in a car and not in the sun. If I decide to give this a shot I will post some pictures and reports.
Once again all my brass rail is hard soldered with slip on joiners in 15’ to 20’ lengths and it floats in the ties and expands on the curves. I have expansion joints in 2 areas but never see any movement on them only the curves. If you want noise you just leave a gap in the rail when soldering. They can be moved with one person if you pick it up in the middle and let it rainbow down.
John Le Forestier said:
Can you re-post that URL, Shawn? Tks.
Sorry John must have had one of those moments. Haha
David Russell said:
Once again all my brass rail is hard soldered with slip on joiners in 15’ to 20’ lengths and it floats in the ties and expands on the curves. I have expansion joints in 2 areas but never see any movement on them only the curves. If you want noise you just leave a gap in the rail when soldering. They can be moved with one person if you pick it up in the middle and let it rainbow down.
Get to work Rooster.
And you make fun of me for the rainbow thing.
David Russell said:
Once again all my brass rail is hard soldered with slip on joiners in 15’ to 20’ lengths and it floats in the ties and expands on the curves. I have expansion joints in 2 areas but never see any movement on them only the curves. If you want noise you just leave a gap in the rail when soldering. They can be moved with one person if you pick it up in the middle and let it rainbow down.
Or, you could file a 1/32 gap in the top of the rail every scale 39 feet. That would produce the same noise you are after without reducing mechanical strength.
I wonder if the longer the length of rail the harder it is to keep the rail straight from thermal expansion?
In my mind the joints allow the rail to move and flex with expansion. Of course if you use railclamps then I guess my theory is not right.
I found on my own railroad that allowing the joints to move keeps my track from kinking.
Jake, you are right; there’s no doubt that we need to take thermal effects into account.
On the surface of the desert in N. Africa, among other places, there are welded steel pipelines running hundreds of miles with no problems from thermal expansion or contraction.
There are regular S-bends in the pipeline’s otherwise perfectly straight line route. These bends take up the slack and/or pull in the excess. This goes on day and night, year 'round.
If we have a long straight run we’d be wise to put a slight curve in there somewhere. The curve will look better than a long straight anyway.
When I began my own large scale outdoors silliness, I was surprised that on my RR there were no thermal expansion/contraction problems; I had certainly expected some. Rooster sez that on his pike the curved track does the job. There’s our answer!
I think “they” manufacture brass rail by drawing it rather than machining it.
You could always just use bar stock as it is. Google “groovy track.”
I once, like 40 years ago, read a book about building your own railroad from scratch. They cut notches in the ties to accept the rail, then hammered copper bars into it. I don’t remember how bit is was.
My only question is WHY?
The rail that you see from all the manufactures are “Drawn” through dies not machined. Even if you owned a large machine shop the cost of fixturing and specialized cutters would be cost prohibited. Then you still have to factor in the cost of material for the rail and your ties, the time to cut them, and stain them. Oh and don’t forget the cost of spikes. What is your time worth?
Right now I can buy 72 feet (12pcs of 6’ flex) aluminum code 332 track from Aristo Craft for 161.00 plus shipping. If you take into account that they have a sale going on until Monday for an additional 10% off of that price, I can buy 72 feet of track for $144.90 or $2.02 per ft.
Which means I can start laying track as soon as it arrives. Oh did I mention that the ties come already attached so you don’t have to spend any time installing them.
Personnally I would rather have fun running my trains then spending countless hours making my own track. I use to hand lay all my track when I was in HO, NEVER AGAIN. Just my opinion.
Chuck
Go to Discover Live Steam (http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/). Lots of info on bigger trains there. How-to’s etc. And an article or 2 on Groovy Track.
If only I had money…
Chuck- Just to do it I suppose. I thought that I should check out all my alternatives before I started laying track and this seemed like one. Out there I’m sure, but an option none the less. I anticipate a good amount of abuse is going to befall my track. Couple that with my desire to run track power and I don’t think that aluminum is the right choice for me. I do want to spike my own rails so no matter how I go I’m going to be using straight brass rails.