Large Scale Central

Straighten Out That Small Radius R1 Track

Track and Trestles
#1

I have worked out a method for converting that R1 small radius brass trainset track into straights and large radius curves. I’ve done it to Aristo Craft track but not so far to LGB. Still, I expect it’d work.

Essentially,

  1. take several sections of the small radius track completely apart.
  2. straighten or partly straighten the rails.
  3. re-partner them.
  4. snip the connecting bits of plastic between the sleepers/ties on the inside of the curves.
  5. slide the track back together.
  6. Install joiners. Aristo joiners will fit in the middle of your new track pieces. Or you can solder.
  7. reinstall some of those screws thru the tiestrip. They definitely add to the rigidity of your track.
  8. re-install the joiners.

Straights can be assembled into two types of 1 foot or 300mm sections, using the short and long rails, or you can combine four or six of them into longer sections.

Shuffle and recombine partly straightened shorts and longs in a variety of ways to make two-or-three foot sections of wider radius.

The AristoCraft track is drilled and tapped at each end for a 2mm screw for the joiner. By shuffling short and long rail bits together to create longer curves, all now bent to a larger radius, it is possible to avoid any trimming-off of these drilled ends.

I have several wide radius pieces in the 6-10 foot (3-4 metre) range that I have created from old trainset track this way. I have found that I can slip AristoCraft joiners into place in the middle of these curves with little difficulty. You can always solder your rails together as well.

I uploaded five nice pix to go with all this but I can’t access them from my freightshed… (see below)

New edit: I was a rank newbie when I wrote all that. Steve very kindly posted the pix for me (below, this page) and you can see them there. It’s a couple of weeks later now and thanks to Steve’s able tutelage I do know how to post pix for myself, but I’ll leave things as they are for now, OK…?

John Le Forestier,
Littleton and Smallville Railroad, now on Google maps, Toronto
http://tinyurl.com/gardenrailroad

#2
John Le Forestier said:
...You can always solder your rails together as well...
John, have you actually [i]done[/i] this yourself? I'd be very interested in learning how you did it.

I tried soft-soldering rail pieces end-to-end, but the butt joint was quite weak, and soon broke from “ordinary” (mis-)handling. I even tried drilling the rail ends for a reinforcing pin to make a “doweled” joint. Still no joy, though. Maybe silver solder would work, but I don’t have an acetylene torch (yet).

What’s the secret?

Thanks.

Steve

#3

Steve I would think you would need to leave the joiners in place and solder the rail ends and joiner together with one big solder joint.

#4

Thanks, Vic. That would work, but it would make it difficult or impossible to slip the rails back into the tie strips.

I’m looking for a way to make long lengths of rail from short pieces. I’d then bend them to desired radius, and reassemble into long pieces of track.

At today’s brass prices, I hate to waste all those 300 mm straights and R1 curves cluttering up my shed.

Thanks,

Steve

#5

Yes Victor, I did my first one or two joints like this with the joiners in place.

Even silver solder, which I use for such things, wouldn’t be strong enough by itself.

Now I fold a little rectangle of shim brass around the railbase, all nicely tinned, and sweat it in place. A bit of tin can metal would also work, but if your pike is outdoors you’d better tin both sides and its edges too.

Of course, if you have a buddy who can braise the rails together you’re really golden. In reality, though, all this soldering and braising business isn’t really necessary as the original joiners work just fine.

#6

Join the rails by whichever method, then slide the tie strips in from the two ends. The Aristo joiners will fit into the Aristo ties - you can wiggle, twist and stretch the “spikes” a little. Surprised me but it works. As I said, I’ve got pictures of all this, but I’m darned if I know how to get them up here. I’m a relative newbie on this site, but I’m working on it…

Anyways, try the method even without my sacred pictures. Those R1 tracks are wasting space !!!

#7

Yes you have to have the tie strips in place. I was thinking if you used a low temp solder you would only risk the tieplates on the very ends of the strips.

#8

I mean if you’re soldering two lengths of rail end to end, then do that first. Then slide the tiestrips on afterwards. Finally you can put the railjoiners on the ends. If you’re using a railjoiner in the middle because you’re making a longer piece, no sweat. You can slip and wiggle everything into place even after your tiestrips are nearly 100% in place. Then it’s just a matter of spreading those two tieplates in the middle to slip the joiner in.

In either case there’s no risk of damage to the tieplates. If you solder, you do it remotely from the tieplates, completely away from the tie strip. If youre re-using the joiner you just spread and wiggle the tieplates. I use a jeweller’s screwdriver to help spread those tieplates.

#9

I’ve often thought that a guy with a decent railbender could make a little money re-radiusing R-1s into wider stuff for folks. It really isn’t worth the purchase price of a bender just to do 2-3 circles worth.

I suppose shipping might be the deal breaker.

#10

John,
If you’re using Windows, this should help with the pictures.

http://www.largescalecentral.com/articles/view.php?id=96

As for using a railbender to open R1 curves, I’ve done it and it’s not easy.
You have to do one piece at a time. The railbender does not work well over the rail joiners.
And doing one piece at a time leaves an inch or so on each end more or less straight.
If you use the railbender over the joiners, it tears up the guides and still leaves the rail under the joiners straight.
Ralph

#11

I don’t bother with a railbender - I just spread the curves by hand and use a pair of pliers on that last inch. You can protect the rail from nicks with a rag.

Thanks for the pointer to that article, Ralph. No Joy. When I hover over the available files a popup blue rectangle blocks any further action, and doesn’t go away. I also get browse and upload options at the bottom of the window, so I can upload my pics again and again, but that’s as far as I have got with all this. It’s pretty frustrating. I may have to adjust the file extensions, but I’m afraid I’m not optimistic. I thought I saw an option to rename my files somewhere near my profile, but I haven’t been able to nav back to that either. It’s been a long time since I encountered such a frustrating learning curve, reminds me of the early eighties, when computers came with inadequate instructions and you had to figure out everything for yourself!.

Anyway it’ll have to wait 'til tomorrow, or else I just won’t bother with the pictures, after all, this track thing isn’t that complicated, and I’ve spent enough time on all this.

#12
John Le Forestier said:
...or else I just won't bother with the pictures...
Oh, no...never say die, John. Posting the pictures really enhances any post...

Do you have a Freight Shed? If so, here’s the how-to:

  1. Make sure the file name is “legal.” Only letters and numbers, no spaces and no special symbols. I use simple names like “reefer” or even “R1” Store the file locally on your hard drive, preferably as a jpeg (.jpg) file.
  2. Click on the “Freight Sheds” tab. Where it says “browse,” “upload,” “create” at the upper right, press the “upload” button.
  3. Click on any of the “browse” buttons that appear. Navigate to where you stored the picture file on your hard drive and press the “upload” button at the BOTTOM of the page. You’ll get a message that the file has been successfully uploaded.
  4. Click on the “return” option. Find the name of the file and RIGHT-CLICK it. From the context menu, select “copy link location.” This put the link to your photo on the clipboard.
  5. Next choose the “Forums” tab and start a new post. Just paste the contents of the clipboard into the new post wherever you want it.
  6. Preview your post, and you should see your picture just fine…

If that doesn’t work, email me and we’ll figure out what’s going on together.

Steve

#13

I want to take this photo business offlist, too, Steve; it has no place here.
Thanks for your encouragement and your offer!

Good luck to everybody who tries my technique with their track ! It’s easy-peasy!

#14
John Le Forestier said:
..........

Good luck to everybody who tries my technique with their track ! It’s easy-peasy!


But only if for some strange reason you have R1 in the scrap box. :wink: :lol: :lol:

#15

John sent his pictures to me. I cleaned up a couple minor bugs in the filenames, and have reposted here: 1. Disassembly.jpg

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/dawgnabbit/JohnLeF/Disassembly.jpg)

  1. Endjoiner.jpg

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/dawgnabbit/JohnLeF/Endjoiner.jpg)

  1. Joiners.jpg

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/dawgnabbit/JohnLeF/Joiners.jpg)

  1. Snip.jpg

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/dawgnabbit/JohnLeF/Snip.jpg)

  1. Reassembly.jpg

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/dawgnabbit/JohnLeF/Reassembly.jpg)

  1. Finished.jpg

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/dawgnabbit/JohnLeF/Finished.jpg)

Steve

#16

I owe you one, Steve.

#17

John,

just a tip:
when straightening R1s use the inner, shorter rails apart from the outer rails.
for the shorter straights cut the tie webbing at the outside, for the longer straights cut on the inside.

and, yes, it works for LGB R1s too.

http://kormsen.info/tracks/ - scroll down

#18

Good tip, Korm.