Joining Curved Flexitrack

[Halsted]

Many thanks for your help gentlemen.

[RSR Engineer]

One other thing I found to be necessary to avoid and/or counteract doglegs was to "massage" the rail ends to give them the same curve as the rest of the track. Just pulling the track round and fixing it down often won't be enough. If the rails can be pulled out of the sleeper strip and slid back in after "treatment", all the better.

Cheers,
Artur

[Ron S]

I solder two lengths of flex track in a straight line first at the rail joiners before I lay it in a curve so I don't have that problem at the join. leave a gap at the other ends for expansion.

[Mallard53]

On particularly sharp curves I have tried off-setting the position of the joiner on each rail by about 3''. Its a bit fiddly to do but it prevents a 'dog leg' forming at the joint.

[Chuffchuff]

Probably better to resurrect this thread than to start a new one ?

I would welcome some thoughts on joining a 300mm flexitrack to a standard length (about 900m) flexitrack.

My layout has a number of 90 degree bends which the inner line has a transition made up of a leading in from a straight to a Hornby R8261 (4th / 572 radius 22.5 degrees) onto a R609 (3rd / 305 radius 45 degrees) and out on a R8261 (4th / 572 radius 22.5 degrees).

I want to lay an outer line parallel to this line at 67mm centres.

The problem I have is that a standard flexitrack is too short and needs to be lengthened before joining a short length of straight before entering points.

Joining and bending the flexitrack to suit, seems to indicate that there maybe a problem with kinking at the joint.

My thoughts were to solder the joints but stagger them so that one short length of the track is at the beginning of the bend and the other short length at the other end so the joints a distance apart. it means a fair amout of wrigging and rebeding the rail onto the sleepers.

Ongoing track will be joined by fishplate / joiners with a credit card gap to allow for expansion. Its an attic layout so some expansion in summer will be encountered if my max min thermometer is anything to go by.

Thanks

[Walkingthedog]

Pre-bend the flexi first so that it doesn’t want to straighten itself. Slide the rails from the sleepers, apply the bend then slide the sleepers back on.

[Chuffchuff]

Thanks for the reply.

I have had partial success on the smaller lengths but on the longer lengths sliding the rails from the sleepers is not as easy as it sounds Any hints n tips ?

It's more a problem of getting the rail out. A slight chamfering of the rail leading front helps with putting the rail back. Once I get the rail to slide, it's just a matter of taking it easy.

Rgds

[Walkingthedog]

What make of track are you using?

[Chuffchuff]

As the politicians say “That is a very good question “!

Short answer, I don’t know.

Longer answer, is that I purchased some new unused track from my son’s father -in-law. (Apparently there is not an English word that describes my relationship to my son’s father-in-law) which he said was all Peco and the rest of the items of track are marked Peco, I know whole lot came from Gaugemaster shop, which is fairly local to us both.

The flexitrack is not marked on the rear, neither Peco, nor is it marked Gaugemaster. However other flexitrack I have that looks similar on the rear is marked Peco.

So I have my doubts, I would have though Peco would have marked the tracks. I suspect that the track is a generic track sold under Gaugemaster’s name.

My unused older Peco track is a more tolerant of being manhandled, maybe my “new” track just needs a bit more handling. It does flex OK, but as the sleepers are not releasing the rail without a lot fiddling makes it quite difficult to retain the bend.

That said, I have had other attempts, and have some semblance of the bend I need. It maybe that the my old unused Peco which has been around for a while (years!) has got more movement, and this new track just needs a bit of understanding.

Rgds

[Chuffchuff]

Sort of getting there, with the flexicurves. As stated above, I am not sure what make they are.

They only have a webbing breaks on one side and with a fair amount of flexing the rail will move out of the shoes. The other rail is held firmly and seems brittle.

Reading elsewhere it seems track layers have differing views on which side the open webbing should lay. With this track, the curve is quite restricted when the open webbing is laid to the inside of the curve.

I found some of my older Peco track has webbing breaks on both sides.

Like a lot of things in life, by the time you become proficient, you have just finished the job. ,

Rgds