I have designed the soon to be commenced uttering ton light railway using a mix of pecorino set track and 009 flexi on any rail. The intent of using set track is to get smooth curves as I have little experience of laying flexitrack.
I read somewhere that it is possible to remove the n sleeper web and replace with 009 as the rails will stay pre-formed.
Has anyone any experience of doing this?
Cheers
38
Peco now make set track in 009
ST403 1st radius Code 80 Rails - Radius 228mm/9in, Angle 22.5 deg. 8 pieces = half curve
ST412 1st radius Code 80 Rails - Radius 228mm/9in, Angle 22.5 deg. 4 pieces = half curve
I was looking at some of the larger radius set track.
38
It can be done but it significantly reduces the strength of the set track, especialy if you remove the chairs as well, so you may end up with an uneven curve again. It also take a very long time to do without damaging what is left of the webbing.
The N gauge sleepers are also too thin for 009. This can be sorted by adding plasticard to both sides of the sleepers but again this takes a lot of time. Adding plastic to one side only is possible but then the rail chair will be in the wrong place on the sleeper.
You can always cover the N gauge sleepers with ballast and /or plaster to hide them, but again the rail chairs will still show through.
On balance, personally, I think that the work needed to make N gauge track look good on a 009 layout is probably more than that needed to use 009 flexi track.
Brian Meldon
you could use the set track as a template pin it just in side of were you want your track then lay the flexy aganist this
I've designed the layout using set track on any rail, I'll print it off and use it as a template to lay 009 flexi.
38
It is quite possible to (carefully) remove the nickel silver rails from peco
In my experience gauge narrowing is not a problem with Peco flexi track at 9 inch radii.
However pre-bending the rails is a good idea.
Brian Meldon
The alternative would be using 'Tracksetta' templates that fit inside the rails on flexible track. I never used them but they have provision for pinning down the track through holes in the template.
The most difficult thing when using flexible track is to produce smooth rail joins. The easiest approach here is to fit a rail joiner when the rail is straight, then solder it to both rails and only bend the track afterwards. You may have some trouble with sleepers that need to slide over the join you just made!
Having said that, I prefer using set track for tight curves on my layouts. Since these were built before the advent of Peco 009 set track, I used Roco N scale track. Where this is in view such as on Nixnie, I heavily ballast the track so the underscale sleepers are hidden. In the end it doesn't look very obvious, though scale sleepers are really better.
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