Large Scale Central

Wheee! It's here, Aristo's new 20" circle of track!

General Discussion
#1

Pizza Pizza! Just arrived, hot off the delivery truck. :smiley:

At the BTS Lewis Polk told me that Aristocraft was going to sell a 20" dia. circle of track (thats 20 INCHES, not feet :open_mouth: ) for things like Christmas tree layouts or special display layouts to things like the Eggliner, I saw the circle on display at St Aubins booth, but I couldnt pick it up that weekend. When I recently decided to seek it out and having found nothing on St Aubins website I did a search and lo and behold found Wholesaletrains was offering it (and for less than I was quoted at the BTS to boot!) A quick order andā€¦

Yesteray I got home and found to my delight my order arrived early, the track looks great! the tieplates are cast to fit this ubertight curve, and it comes with Aristos new track clamps that are very good. Its not a simple one piece circle, its 4 seperate quarter circle sections that when put together form a circle, but this also means that by adding a few straight sections, or mixing with regular R1 curves and track, some very tight and twisty mining or logging lines can be inserted into existing layouts, -or- COMPLETE layouts may now be built in spaces never before considered possible!!! The Microlayout guys are going to freak! :w00t:

It Aristo part # ART11140 if your interested, Pics to follow as soon as I can :smiley:

#2

Sheesh Vic ā€¦ and here I thought it was going to be the test track for their new Challenger. :lol: :lol:

#3

It is Aristo afterall, not LGB :wink:

#4

Okā€¦Another case of pricing things too high? I went to look and see that these 4 pieces of track (brass or SS?) are priced at WST at $52.19!!! Holy heiffer! I can get a section of 36" SS track from WST for less than ahlf that and bend it myself! Yeah you said special ties strips and it comes with the new clamps. Big deal. I just do NOT see the percieved value here? Especially after last weeks email from big LP.

Sorry had to rant a little.

Chas

#5

Hi Chas, guess Iā€™m getting lazy in my middle ages but after the major headaches I had bending aristo rail for my 36" portable, not so much the actual bending but the correct gauging of the track, Iā€™ll happily chuck in a few extra bucks to get this RTR tight circle of track.

BTW Aristoā€™s MSRP is $80 and St Aubins wanted almost $80 at the show so again Iā€™m not going to worry about itā€¦like I said, guess Iā€™m getting lazyā€¦:smiley:

#6

I got a look at the SELSTS, it was cuteā€¦but $50ā€¦nope! I got a train-li for that!

#7

Hmmmā€¦just noticed this, it wasnā€™t there when I ordered my circle

http://wholesaletrains.com/Detail.asp?ID=200509854

A/C is also offering a 31" circle of track for barrel installation, like the HLW setup. Hmmm yesssā€¦things are looking up in the large scale microlayout world! I now have access to 48", 31" and 21" diameters, Oooh the mind reals from the ideasā€¦now if I can just get Lewis to make matching turnouts in those diameters :smiley:

#8
Victor Smith said:
Hmmm...just noticed this, it wasn't there when I ordered my circle

http://wholesaletrains.com/Detail.asp?ID=200509854

A/C is also offering a 31" circle of track for barrel installation, like the HLW setup. Hmmm yesssā€¦things are looking up in the large scale microlayout world! I now have access to 48", 31" and 21" diameters, Oooh the mind reals from the ideasā€¦now if I can just get Lewis to make matching turnouts in those diameters :smiley:


Sheesh Vic, look at the price! You could have used whatever track and ties, bought a Train-Li bender, done the ā€œRoll Out the Barrelā€ layout (complete with sound). Then rent out the bender for the rest of your life and make money! With all the LSers in your neighbourhood?!?

#9

Like I told Chas, guess Iā€™m just getting lazy, besides bending the little piggy down is one thing, getting the little piggy spiked down and stay in one place in the correct gauge is another thing all together, or worse trying to re-align correctly back into the plastic tiestrips. The smaller the radius, the harder this gets, way harderā€¦ beleive me I know from experience. You have to remember Iā€™ve ā€œbeen there and done thatā€ already with the portable layout. I already have a track bender and already have hand bent rail down to 32" dia. and was using the rail reinserted into the plastic tie strips for the Xmas treel track.

It worked for the Xmas tree train but due to the plastic ties the gauge was all over the place, but when I decided to take the Xmas tree circle and use it for the portable I had to redo it as the plastic tiestrips were unreliable to maintain the correct gauge. Almost everything other than the Xmas train derailed or stalled. The only way to get it to stay fixed in the correct gauge was to hand spike it down to wooden ties that were glued down to the base, thats not as easy as its made out to be, I ended up with 4 spikes per rail to each tie to assure the track didnt move out of guage as I fixed my rails down, and even then it still needed realignment in places.

It was such a headache that I set the whole thing aside for almost a year, the thought of doing it again isnt that pretty, the thought of just using something akin to sectional track that I can just cut to lenth is bliss, even if it is at a premium price, so forgive me if I take the easy way out here. Its all relative. :slight_smile:

Besides how many times have I read here about people forking over hundreds of not thousands of bucks for something that they knowingly buy needing a weeks work of tweeking and soldering and knocking with a hammer to make it work right before they can even place it on the bleedinā€™ track, but Iā€™m nuts for paying a bit more for something I can use right away??? Yeah then, Iā€™m a complete nutter ! :wink:

#10
Victor Smith said:
Like I told Chas, guess I'm just getting lazy, besides bending the little piggy down is one thing, getting the little piggy spiked down and stay in one place in the correct gauge is another thing all together, or worse trying to re-align correctly back into the plastic tiestrips. The smaller the radius, the harder this gets, way harder.... beleive me I know from experience. You have to remember I've "been there and done that" already with the portable layout. I already have a track bender and already have hand bent rail down to 32" dia. and was using the rail reinserted into the plastic tie strips for the Xmas treel track.

It worked for the Xmas tree train but due to the plastic ties the gauge was all over the place, but when I decided to take the Xmas tree circle and use it for the portable I had to redo it as the plastic tiestrips were unreliable to maintain the correct gauge. Almost everything other than the Xmas train derailed or stalled. The only way to get it to stay fixed in the correct gauge was to hand spike it down to wooden ties that were glued down to the base, thats not as easy as its made out to be, I ended up with 4 spikes per rail to each tie to assure the track didnt move out of guage as I fixed my rails down, and even then it still needed realignment in places.

It was such a headache that I set the whole thing aside for almost a year, the thought of doing it again isnt that pretty, the thought of just using something akin to sectional track that I can just cut to lenth is bliss, even if it is at a premium price, so forgive me if I take the easy way out here. Its all relative. :slight_smile:

Besides how many times have I read here about people forking over hundreds of not thousands of bucks for something that they knowingly buy needing a weeks work of tweeking and soldering and knocking with a hammer to make it work right before they can even place it on the bleedinā€™ track, but Iā€™m nuts for paying a bit more for something I can use right away??? Yeah then, Iā€™m a complete nutter ! :wink:


DITTO for me .
Easy is best , itā€™s nice that these two new curve tracks are available .

#11
Quote:
Ok...Another case of pricing things too high? I went to look and see that these 4 pieces of track (brass or SS?) are priced at WST at $52.19!!!! Holy heiffer! I can get a section of 36" SS track from WST for less than ahlf that and bend it myself! Yeah you said special ties strips and it comes with the new clamps. Big deal. I just do NOT see the percieved value here? Especially after last weeks email from big LP.
Of course you can get a 36 inch piece of track for half that. It's half as long as you need to make a 20 inch circle.
#12
Tom Ruby said:
Quote:
Ok...Another case of pricing things too high? I went to look and see that these 4 pieces of track (brass or SS?) are priced at WST at $52.19!!!! Holy heiffer! I can get a section of 36" SS track from WST for less than ahlf that and bend it myself! Yeah you said special ties strips and it comes with the new clamps. Big deal. I just do NOT see the percieved value here? Especially after last weeks email from big LP.
Of course you can get a 36 inch piece of track for half that. It's half as long as you need to make a 20 inch circle.
Yup screwed up my maths again! My math teacher Grandmothers are both rolling over about now. So it's not quite as much of a rip as I thought. My apologies Vic. Only a couple of dollars and not more than double.

Still Iā€™m with Cale that is sort of why I bought a Train Li. Wish i knew where I put it. Iā€™d be renting it out about now! LOL!

I can also appreciate the issues you ahd with the alignment on such a tight radius and Iā€™ve got to wonder if the TL bender can even go that small?

Humbly submitted

Chas

#13

No problemo! Iā€™m just thinking how different my indoor layout might have been if this was available when I started rebuilding it! I wish I had room for ā€œHigh Line!ā€ :open_mouth: :smiley:

#14

It is always good to have more options available.
Ralph

#15

OK Test videos

Dancing Macks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgxds_saE2Q

Casey Jr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r3zG54EW1M

Porter Pizza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Ewvak6nj4

and the biggunā€™
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-yU8HQgpq4

#16

Wow, I feel really dizzy nowā€¦thanks Vic

that is pretty cool! Casey looks right at home.

#17

Wow, at 20" and in 1:20, that would be a 33ā€™ circle in the 1:1 world, wouldnā€™t it?

#18

Might make a good turntable track :slight_smile:

#19
Jon Radder said:
Might make a good turntable track :)
Thats a very good observation, both for the 20" AND the 31" track, the track would need a pit but otherwise could be used almost intact.
#20
Victor Smith said:
Jon Radder said:
Might make a good turntable track :)
Thats a very good observation, both for the 20" AND the 31" track, the track would need a pit but otherwise could be used almost intact.
That's a bit small for the turntable I'm makeing. Does any one make 34" dia track?