LET'S LAY SOME CURVES

As nice as it is to not have to worry about curves it just ain't practical sure walls are straight (sort of) but they attach at what the home builders of America call... wait for it... CORNERS!!!! You have 90 degree corners, 45 degree 22 degree etc etc etc and track doesn't make those corners with out... wait for it... CURVES! (not as excited about those) So how does one make curves? Well you could run down to the nearest hobby shop and buy up their stock of curves and don't get me wrong its real easy and your curves will look great and should be the right radius that you want, BUT that method is going to get real expensive unless you will only have 4 corners for your square room. I say square because that's about the only way that a drop in piece of track is going to work. and that's if all your pieces equal out correctly and.... forget it this is the real world and short of putting your layout on a plywood sheet your going too need a lot of odd sized pieces. As for those odd sized pieces they will usually come in a 4 pack and all you wanted was one piece.

Or you can Hand Lay that track and trust me that is a joy in of itself! I will tell you about the joys of hand laying track in another post on a bloody bridge I needed for Carma Gap.

Or we can use flex track which is the way I'm doing it. But again the problem is the dreaded curve. Now I have one Forney that requires a minimum radius curve of 22". But how do i make sure I have this radius curve? Well there are many fine ways of doing it, some are damn expensive some are just tedious (like speeling). I my self used a piece of 22" curve that bachmann made and just followed the curve of that it may have gone a little wider but it NEVER got smaller. Its quick and dirty plus I already had some extra from the tunnel project.

When you get to the curve place the correct radius curve in place then trace the the piece (that's why I like the bachmann track its got the roadbed molded on) if you want to draw the center line you can but the tracing of the whole piece seems to work better for me. Then I remove the curve and lay the cork right on the outside edge of the marks. I fount laying the high side of the curve gets a smoother curve and makes the second piece of cork lay in much easier. When you get that first piece down pin it down. use more pins than you think you need that way the cork doesn't try to straighten out. Now WAIT! don't mess with it let your glue set up good and tight (here in Arizona I give it 30 minutes) now you can put in the second piece of cork And again wait for the glue (the glue I use is just regular wood glue which you can get in gallon jugs). Once the glue is set remove the pins by giving them a little twist and slowly pull them out being carful not to pull the cork up with them. Now SAND the cork! Don't Skip This Step! The cork will have high and low spots between you 2 pieces, just sand em out the train will thank you in the long run. Now its time for track! And would you look at this you already have a premade center line between your 2 pieces of cork! Joy of joys! Just lay down some more of that wood glue spread it thin slap your track down and spike it in place. wait for the glue to set clean up any splatters and run you train!

Just a note of precaution do NOT join your rail right at the start of the curve or you will get kinks in the joint. Give your self about 6" of straight track prior to the curve your track will be much smoother, Also at you joints you may have to file them down abit to get them smooth the clickity clack sound is nice BUT sudden elevation change can cause derailments.