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| EXPERT ADVICE: Great looking track that's derailment free and goes in fast | ||
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Moderators: site admin, Joe Fugate, Spinpuff
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| Joe Fugate |
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   Registered Member #3 Joined: Fri Sep 08 2006, 01:59PM: posts: 145 | For regular track (not turnouts) you can't get much more realistic looking model track than MicroEngineering flex track. And it goes down pretty fast too, if you use latex caulk to fasten it down like I do. Here's a photo of some HO ballasted and weathered ME track with scale code rail sizes (code 83 main and code 70 siding ... from the photo, can you guess which is the main and which is the siding?) ... But for turnouts, you can't get the same derailment-free performance from a commercial turnout unless you heavily modify it to fit the NMRA specs for turnouts since no commercial turnout is spot on. By the time you've altered a few commercial turnouts (and some are a real pain to fix the check guage through the frog if it's too tight), you begin to wonder if building your own turnouts might actually be better in the long run. The problem is time. Custom building each turnout in place on the layout takes me forever, since its a cut, file, check, file, measure operation all the way making it tedious and slow. And for me, bending in over the layout (especially as I get older) gets uncomfortable and I tend to rush the job when I shouldn't. Using something like the Fast Tracks jigs as you build a turnout at the workbench (read: do your best work) results in a turnout that's spot on the NMRA spec and it goes together fast ... the best of both worlds.  In the long run, for all but the smallest layouts, Fast Tracks, Central Valley (or similar) jig-based turnouts will be cheaper and perform better. If you go with commercial turnouts, not only will they cost you more in quantity, you will find yourself constantly maintaining them because stuff stalls or derails on them more than it should.  [ Edited Fri Oct 27 2006, 02:32PM ] Joe Fugate http://siskiyou-railfan.net - 250,000 hits and counting!  | ||
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| Joe Fugate |
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| Registered Member #3 Joined: Fri Sep 08 2006, 01:59PM: posts: 145 | One other note: my HO Siskiyou Line has 120 turnouts on it, and they're a mixture of handlaid and commercial turnouts. I find if I need to maintain a turnout because it's not performing well, it's one of the commercial ones. That ought to tell you something ...  [ Edited Fri Oct 27 2006, 02:16PM ] Joe Fugate http://siskiyou-railfan.net - 250,000 hits and counting! | ||
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| BN3022 |
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 Registered Member #529 Joined: Tue Aug 19 2008, 09:03PM: posts: 1 | Somewhere on this web site I saw some detailed information on building Central Valley turnout kits. Can you direct me to correct thread? | ||
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| Joe Fugate |
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| Registered Member #3 Joined: Fri Sep 08 2006, 01:59PM: posts: 145 | BN: You're thinking of my personal layout web site. You will find the Central Valley Turnouts how-to here. Joe Fugate http://siskiyou-railfan.net - 250,000 hits and counting! | ||
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