Bachmann EZ Track

[Chops]

I don't know if this something broadly available in the UK, but in the US it comes in both O and HO, the latter being my interest. It comes in two varieties: steel rail in a black plastic roadbed, or nickel silver in a gray plastic roadbed. Sturdy clips fasten the roadbed sections tightly together and the plastic roadbed allows the track to be set upon carpet or baseboard whilst providing an exceptionally even rail surface and no kinks in the geometry.

North American modellers tend to turn their collective noses up at it, although for the determined sort one can ballast it over as well as any other foam or cork roadbed. As my experimentation with abundant and cheap surplus Atlas Code 100 sectional track revealed that OO flanges, tended to ride upon the miniature rail crampons, ride up and over flangeways in diamonds and turnouts, and even when using 1/87 British range stock. All in all, incompatabilities were rife between British model trains and North American range sectional track.

Years before, I don't know about now, Fleischmann made a beautiful sectional track embedded into a weather ballast roadbed- and it cost at least four times as much as any other sectional track, at the time, so scrub that idea whilst trying to feed a family of five plus assorted pet butterflies, rabbits, dogs, and cats.

To the point, I recently assisted a friend with building his HO layout, and owing to medical issues, he relies upon the relative reliability and simplicity of Bachmann EZ track. We banged out a rather nice pair of mainlines and one inner branch line within about five hours time, using no track plan, just applying what we had in inventory and along the lines he envisioned.

Testing it with a couple of North American range pieces, it was soon evident that even on such a large space- 8 x 12 feet (1.4 x 3.7 metres) the stuff was remarkably derailment free and reliable. It was surprising to see something of this size work right straight out of the box. No bus wires were used, either. That sort of voltage drop appears to be mostly an AC thing.

As I had tried, years before, using North American Atlas track for British rail without success, it was assumed that this EZ track would be no better. Yet, curiosity got the better of me, and I ran a Mallard with a rake of five, and then a vintage Electra with its pizza cutter flanges. To my astonishment, not only did these pieces run, they functioned superbly better in every aspect of speed control and trackability than they ever did on British OO track, and did not complain whatsoever when run through diamonds and #4 turnouts.

Here is a mercifully brief video of that test, in this case I had graduated to trying out a Hornby Peckett with three axle coaches, a Rapido Tram, and a Dapol DMU. After this video was shot, a set of face to face #4 turnouts were placed to communicate from the outer to inner tracks. Anyone who has tried this knows that face to face #4's is an invitation for stalling and derailments. Again, the tiny Peckett pushed right through and the three axle coaches right behind without any trouble at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOKBGlP3hPo

I had been planning for a smallish expansion of Henley, using only British code 100 sectional track, and having discovered that everything functions better on EZ track, all the plans for expansion have been scrapped and we will move forward using exclusively Bachmann EZ track.

[Mountain Goat]

The one diference and advantage is that the ready ballasted track system is less likely to distort if it is regularly being assembled and dissasembled the ordinary track may be stepped on or distorted etc while the complete ballasted built in track system is more solid so will have less issues. The same goes for its electrical qualities as traditional railjoiners will start to lose their effectiveness in regular assembled or dissasembled use.

I have not gone down the route of pre ballasted track because they do tend to look plasticky but for a ready to use track system that is reliable who can fault it?

[Chops]

The British stuff, of any vintage or design, trampled over the track defects without complaint, so more temperamental el cheapo North American range had to be brought in to ferret out track defects: mis-joined rail ends (7), an out of gauge straight (1), and a loose guide rail of a switch (1) were quickly repaired. The British stuff easily crossed the back to back #4 turnouts, of any type rolling stock, whereas the North American stuff struggled; previously overweight and with plastic wheels are the suspected culprits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgEKqDaEDYI

[Chops]

Having been thoroughly amazed at how well Bachmann EZ Track supported to the reliable function of vintage and modern British stock, I did the unthinkable and pulled up every yard of my expensively imported OO rail and sold it on eBay, with free shipping to the UK, as I feared simply no one would buy it except in the UK. It sold for $100 for someone in the Shetlands, and the cost of postage was...$100, so for all that I might have left it on the kerb. Well, someone in the Shetlands made out like a Highway Man.

Time and excess energy have been in short supply, but finally I wrestled in two sheets of plywood to flank the existing Henley into roughly a C configuration, with enough topography to recreate the Plains of Salisbury in whole. No, I shall not be getting high marks for original baseboard planning, but then I have had a lifetime to learn that somethings I am fairly good at, such as breathing, and other things such as advanced carpentry and track laying I'd just better not fool with. So, two slabs and two tables to support them, and off we go.

The picture in my mind is for two parallel mains that will fold back upon themselves, using parallel diamonds, to re-traverse the existing Henley proper. Skewering the mains a point-to-point branch line is conceived, using the most excellent automatic reversing track, also made by Bachmann.

(The italic function got away from me, and I cannot rectify it).

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[Chops]

My progress to date:



Not for lack of imagination, but time. I will probably die clutching a Triang.

[Puddles]

That’s a nice piece of wood chops, must have taken years to grow so just take your time and you will get there in the end.
Puddles

[darkscot]

My progress to date:

I share your pain! I spend multiple manhours perusing model railway magazines and YouTube videos for inspiration when really I should just be getting on with it!

[Chops]

between bouts of sheer fatigue, and sleeping with the cat, managed to wrest the slabs upon the tables and then the tables upon the concrete
blocks to raise it precisely eight inches to mate with the existing Henley (under the blue tarp). One might wonder why I simply didn't cut the legs
on Henley and drop it eight inches, but I wanted an appropriate height, and I can't cut worth a damn, much less draw a crooked line.

The other issue is that I have one or two single driver locomotives, and they will not accommodate the slightest incline.

The layout on the right foreground is Armodilloville, that I chopped in half, and sold off half my rolling stock, to better focus on British stuff. The white blob on the left is the corner of a small, portable, I hope, Old West layout I've been picking away at for the past year. Beneath Henley lies a 3' x 3' circular diorama layout of a winter scene of a first generation steam American line. In the shelves lies the dormant, but workable, subway layout
which measures 4 inches by six feet.

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[yelrow]

Chops, hi, rather you than me. Looks a tad like hard work. First time I have seen concrete blocks on a model train layout. Bon Chance. John

[Chops]

Thank you all for your kind words. This is one of my big kicks in life and it means a lot that a few people also get a hoot!

The smart phone kept overheating and so the video quality is poor, but you get the idea. The quick fix to even up the baseboards consisted of pushing in a piece of scrap plywood. One and done. Suits me just fine!!

The overall layout is quite cluttered at the moment, that will improve now that the track has been established.

Some North American pieces here and there, primarily used for initial track cleaning duties However, the left flank of Henley will be detailed in such a fashion as to allow it to be Americanized for the purposes of videos, and then switched back to a British theme, easily.

More as a joke, not quite so funny now, will be some Soviet sets, because back in 1964 I actually went to the place with my entire family while Dad did research in Moscow. That is a whole other story. And no, it is not a nice place, and even as a youngster I could grasp that easily.

Truth of the matter is, concrete blocks and all, is that I decided to unlearn all the best practices gleaned over the last five decades. I wanted something that fit my abilities and tastes, with simplicity, but operational challenge being core. The right flank is destined to become a passenger terminus, in the British style. Americans do such things but rarely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKdlCqY7EvQ