Laying Flexible Track - Tips for the Unwary

the ferret said:

[reply]Fishmanoz said:



Hello Fishmanoz. I am in the midst of building a large layout. The attic space is 28ft by 9ft. Apart from the loco coaling facility I have consciously avoided gradients. I whole-heartedly

agree with everything "Flashbang" says. I use the XURON cutter myself and find it excellent. The trouble with saws is that they produce tiny grains of swarf, that no matter how fastidious you are at cleaning up afterwards, can get into points and loco mechanisms

and wreak havok. With the Xuron you must remember to cut with the flat side of the blades towards the finished end otherwise you will have to finish off with a needle file - and there is more tiny grains of waste metal again. Where curves are concerned I have

made up a tool using a 4 inch G-clamp, a pencil pressed into an interference fit hole in s piece of batten. The G-clamp is used to clamp the first piece of batten to another piece of batten with pencil graduations so that you can accurately set the radius.

Radius centres are plotted and wooden members temporarily screwed in to correctly position a pivot point using a three inch screw as a centre. Over this screw you fit the clearance hole in the inner end of the second piece of batten. The cork underlay is 1.25

inches wide and the radii are marked on that as well as the plywood baseboard. Then you cut out the curved strips of underlay with a good sharp modelling knife. The curved strips of underlay are then laid and glued (white PVA) in between the pencilled lines

on the baseboard and the glue allowed to dry. Then the track is laid on the cork and pinned down. Ballasting can then be done later. It is better to get everything running OK before ballasting.

As an aside, can anybody tell me what has happened to Hornby

track pins? These used to be three-eighths long gimp pins with a flat circular head. Their shank diameter was 0.7 mm
and a drill this size in a pinchuck produced a nice "press-in" interference fit. Now I have bought some more track pins and these are positively

huge with a domed head. The drill size is now 1mm precisely and it requires care not to damage to the sleepers.

As an upholsterer friend says he can no longer get gimp pins I suspect that the Chinese manufacturers are being difficult.