Track

[Cjcrescent]

Charles:

Here's my 2 cents on handlaying track.

I did hand lay some of my HO track (including a turnout or two) on my first layout 30+ years ago. The track and turnouts functioned fine and looked fine - but took a LOT of time and work to make.

Well I sold or gave away that layout, and a few years later started another using all store-bought track (Atlas nickle silver code 100 flex track, and at the time I bought about 20 Model Power electric turnouts - #4s at $4.50 each - that had nickle silver rails.) I still have, use and reuse this track and these turnouts on this layout.

Why did I change from hand laid to purchased track? The time and work of handlaying was just too much TIME (I would rather run trains than hand lay track) and WORK (I wouldn't enjoy it), and here's another reason: model railroads are REPRESENTATIVE of real trains, so then so what if the spike heads were scale-wise too large and the rail was about a scale 4" too high? I could live with it. Also, the Atlas flex track is very easy to work with and makes laying track seem lightning-fast compared to hand layed.

However, having said all that, if you want hand-layed track - go for it. And laying track by hand might be easier today if you use Fastracks (spelling?) jigs and templates.

Lastly, does hand layed track function better than commercial track? I don't think so because I have an L shaped loop with 22" radius curves, Atlas 100 flex track, that I sometimes run my 65-car train on backwards (shoving with two engines) with zero derailments. [Why do this? Just because I can. ] As info, of the cars on the train 85% have plastic wheels and the rest have metal wheels. And when running backwards the train goes facing-point through an old Model Power curve-on-curve turnout.

Enjoy your new model railroad.

DougC

Good discussion on why you no longer hand lay your track. The gist of it seems to be, and correct me if I'm wrong, was that you basically didn't enjoy it. Folks like me do. I love being able to say just about all of my track is hand laid, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

As to does it work better than commercial components, that depends on the skill of the builder, as well as the cars and locos that will be running on the layout. None of the older pizza cutter wheels will go thru any of my turnouts as they are all built to NMRA specs. Also since my track is hand laid, its real easy to adjust if any problems come up.

Example: Yesterday while running a brass 0-8-0 in the yard, I noticed that it was stalling in a turnout. Turned out the problem was the track thru this turnout was a little tight, and was causing the engine to bind. A minutes work with a gauge and a pair of pliers, allowed me to correct the problem.

Turned out, I had never put in supplemental spikes on that turnout, so it had the minimum to hold it down but was never fully spiked. That adjustment would have been very different with a commercial turnout. With some commercial brands, that adjustment would have been almost impossible.

As to which is better, commercial or hand made, its personal preference I believe. I personally don't like the fact that you are limited in turnout geometry from the vendors, including Fasttracks. With the way I hand lay, I can lay out and build a turnout to the exact geometry needed for that particular area. I'm never limited to what I can buy, just to what I have the skills to build.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Patrick;

I taught myself when I was 12, with the help of a MR from 1955 or so, to handlay track/turnouts. The cheapest TO on the market then, early 60's, IIRC was the Atlas snap switch at $4.95 a piece. That was a lot of money for a kid back then.

My first TO I built looked like crap, but it worked!

 

[DougC]

Carey:

Sounds like you and me are around the same age - I was a little kid in 1955.

You're right, I didn't enjoy hand laying track, and I wanted to do something else with the time.

Again you're right, trying to re-gauge some track with the rails embeded in plastic on a turnout would be at best very difficult.

And I agree with you that track methods are personal preference. And I do understand the satisfaction with a job well done - currently my satisfaction is coming from adding 3 to 5 ounces of weight to some B'man and Atlas locos.

Anyway, between us I imagine we've addressed most of the "pluses" and "minuses" of track installation methods.*

* This might amuse you and some others - I actually did some hand laying track when I was young. Around 1960 I had a couple of American Flyer S gauge trains, but very little track. The track was really expensive for a 14 year old boy, so what did I do? I MADE MY OWN. How? I picked up some steel bands (they were used to bind large cardboard boxes) at the local hardware store trash pile (I was frequent visitor there - no, not the store, the trash pile). I then got some thick cardboard from boxes and cut out a lot of 2" long and 1" wide pieces, then using my pocket knife I cut two slits in them - the distance apart was the same as S gauge track. I then spaced out my new "crossties", press-fitted the steel bands in them, and presto!, I had some additional S gauge track. Did it work? Yes, but not nearly 100%. Did it last very long? No. But I do remember it did impress my dad and a friend of his.

DougC

 

[Dollie's Dad]

I've hand-laid track 'back in the day,' and it was a real PITA.

The first time was with TruScale milled roadbed. In theory, they slots the rails went into were in gauge, so it should have worked well. It didn't, and there were hours and hours of tweaking involved just to get it to run reliably and to overcome the roadbed's tendency to hold the rails out-of-gauge. The next time was my foray into HOn3. No commercial track was available at the time, so I had to hand-lay ties, then spike the rail to it. That actually worked better, but looked terrible. The ties (Campbell) tended to split, and the spike heads were unrealistically large even though they were 'narrow gauge' spikes, but it ran, and it ran well. Turnouts were made from kits, and with a lot of patience and gentle prodding, could be made to work reliably as well.

I tried all methods of spiking, including the Tru-Scale spiking tool and several different needle-nose pliers modified in different ways. I finally found one pair that worked better than the others, but never was able to go quickly with them. It was a slow, painstaking process where progress was measured in inches, not feet.