Large Scale Central

Widening stainless rail - problem track holding plates widen wit

General Discussion
#1

Having stainless track - per Aristo-Craft - and enjoying the benefits of not having to clean nearly as often as brass, I have found one foible: The Aristo ties’ rail securing plates are capable of enabling the stainless rails to narrow ever so slightly in places independent of having curves.

I am cautious as in 40 feet of track I have only three small places whereby the rails have managed to narrow the distance between the two slightly. The track’s plates permit the rails to move slightly inward so the axle/wheel configuration on the car trucks is greater than this distance. The outcome is the wheels ride up on the rails.

I placed a piece of heavy plastic between the rails to make the correct separation.

Have others noted this problem.

Wendell

#2

Nope, haven’t had that problem and I have 350 feet of it.

-Brian

#3

Yes, I have the same problem… the screws underneath hold the gauge, the “spikes” have huge amounts of space between them and the rails.

Greg

#4

Wendell,
is your rail freefloating or are the ties restrained? Also, the track gauge varies both ways. I have even had an Accucraft #2 Goose pilot truck ‘fall’ between the rails. I had to gauge the rails to prevent the bus derailing, by ‘staking’ the rails closer, within tolerance. Track will tend to closeup on curves in my experience.

       I have used stainless for the last five years and find that correct wheel 'back to back' is important for troublefree operation.  The only exception is some wheelsets have overly large fillet radii between flange and wheel tread and a relatively oversize flange thickness.  These must be set at a compromise measurement for reliable operation.  Setting them at a nominal 1.575" back to back,  will cause operational problems,  particularly through switchwork.
#5

I’ve had AC stainless track on the ground for over 5 years. Never noticed this problem. I do religiously check/set the B-B on all my wheel sets.

I only have one place where there has ever been any rail-climbing problem. A curve on a steep grade. And the only loco that has a problem here is the AC RDC-1. I have attributed this to side-to-side level problems not being handled well by the long /rigid wheelbase of the RDC. The RDC will run through this area without problems if I make sure the curve is level side-to-side.

All of my track is made from 5 foot straights. In the straits the factory tie screws remain. In curves I remove them to bend then put back what I can. Usually that’s less than 40%. I don’t bother drilling new holes in the ties or rail to do better.

#6

yes…I have had this problem with several Aristo #6 switches…I helped to widen the gauge by using an exacto knife to trim a wee bit of the “Simulated spikes” on the outside of the straight stock rail, allowing the stock rail to move slightly outwards. Since I usePC wood roadbed, I simply used some long spikes to hold the rail over, just enough to hold a wider gauge.
I drove the spikes through the ties on the inside of the rail at the simulated spikes…I didn’t spike each location, just a few to hold the rail over.

This is another indication of the problem we as consumers have with Aristo, and their “Engineers”. They don’t seem to take any notion, that STANDARDS for gauge of track or wheels is one of the most important things that work towards trouble free running and operation. This applies to everyone, model railroaders who might do extensive operations, or the garden railroader who simply wants to run in circles.

Then of course we get the fog-headed people who don’t want standards of any type

#7

The funniest thing is that Aristo track often “fails” the Aristo track gauge.

Their wheelsets ALWAYS fail the Aristo gauge.

Regards, Greg

#8

Other data:

The stainless rail I speaking of is the 8’ long rail sections threaded through the Aristo ties. In this particular location where the narrowing exists, the ties permit lateral movement of the rail. The problem sections are about 6" long. To prevent the problem where I suspected it most probable – long curves for example – and prior to threading the ties on those long rail pieces, I cut away the spacers on the plastic ties and thus created a curve with the ties virtually resting against each other to prevent the problem of lateral rail movement thus changing the guage.

Thanks for the input – I’ll report later on how well the spacer idea works plus another suggestion:
Our contributor in Washington state, “Dr. G”, also offers installation of small spacers inside the holding tang on the rail plates to push the rail back held with glue. I’ll give this a try also. If you miss “Dr. G’s” input, a good reason is he is in the middle of a Jaguar restoration-- not one you stuff.

FURTHER THOUGHT:
Comparative to Aristo’s ties strips I think the LGB product is stronger. This is a conclusion reached only because I have had no history with the LGB sections of track “going out of guage.” HOWEVER, those sections are prefabricated track sections not rail threaded through ties. That may be the difference.

Yes, I did use a railbender on the stainless. My limited experience with the stainless rail – granting all the advanatages of not having to clean – is it has a MEMORY! Bend a long section of curve that is at 8 foot or less diameter, and the rail prefers to straighten out. True, this ever so slightly, but it is different than brass lengths not showing the same desire to straighten. Having helped others install 8 foot lengths of threaded brass rail bent to 6-8’ diameter curves was the comparison.

Wendell