Hand-Laid Track - Part One

There are many reasons why one might consider hand-laying track, rather than using flex-track, commercial turnouts, or some combination thereof.

• Cost: hand-laid track and turnouts can represent enormous cost-savings

• Appearance: well-laid track will often look much more 'real'

• Special requirements: often there is a need for a turnout or special trackwork which is not commercially available.

Bear in mind that, in preparing this series, I speak from vast experience - I built my first hand-laid track less the two months ago J. Having said that, I have learnt quite a lot in those two months, and faced up to some serious challenges, including curved and dual-gauge turnouts. Add to that my requirement for 'DCC-friendly' turnouts, and I believe I have some things to share.

Choices

There are a number of choices to be made ...

• Rail Size: Because we are a largely narrow-gauge community, we probably want to use the lightest-weight rail that we can get away with. For me, that choice came down to Code 55, 70, or 83. As my railroad represents a typical low-budget operation, I decided to go with Code 70, being a light weight rail, but with a reasonable rail-head height above the ties.

• Ties (Sleepers): The type of ties to be used will depend on another choice - will the rail be spiked or soldered down? As I had decided to solder mine, I needed both PCB (printed circuit board) ties and wooden ones. My intent was to use one PCB tie for about each four wooden ones.
  The PCB ties are used as a base upon which the rail itself is soldered and allows the track gauge to be precisely set. A groove is cut or filed across each tie to electrically isolate the two rails.
  The wooden ties are used to fill in the gaps between PCB ties, and provide a more realistic appearance.
  The size of the ties will be dependent on how you want the final effect to appear. This layout is On30, so the ties are 38mm long, 3.2mm wide and 1.0mm thick. The PCB ties were supplied cut-to-size by Precision Railcrafts in Waikanae (New Zealand) and the wooden ties by Woodsworks Scale Stripwood Supplies, also in New Zealand.

• Track: I had decided early on to build the turnouts myself, but use Micro-Engineering's excellent flex-track to join them together. Once I started on this process, I quickly changed my mind and abandoned the M-E flex-track, the sole reason being the difference in appearance between it and my hand-laid turnouts. I resorted to hand-laying the track as well.

Foundation

Having not hand-laid track before, I started with a 'clean slate' conceptually i.e. no pre-conceived notions of 'the best method'! It seemed to me that it would be helpful to build the track on my bench, rather than on the layout. To this end, I cut out a track-bed from 4.75mm MDF (medium density fibreboard), just wide enough to take the ties.

To make it practicable to handle this on the bench, it was cut into seven sections.

Tracklaying

The turnouts were built in place on the track-bed sections, and inter-connecting track built between them.

The track-plan had been drawn using 3rd Plan-It, which allowed the printing of full-size templates to be printed. These templates were glued to the track-bed using an aerosol adhesive. A major advantage with using a tool such as 3rd Plan-It, is that it shows the correct position for most ties and turnout details.

Once the template was attached to the track-bed, PCB ties of the correct length and width were glued on to the template in the chosen locations. Note: If using the template method, make sure that it is glued down with an adhesive that will hold up under any later processes, such as ballast-laying with 'wet glue'. I could also have glued the wooden ties down at this point but didn't - they were still 'in the mail'! Although 38mm ties were being used under most runs of rail, longer ones are required for building turnouts - for this purpose, I had a supply cut to the same specifications as the 'regular' ones, but 76mm long. These were cut to length as required.

Turnouts

Ok, this is we get serious! Whilst the laying of turnouts may seem a daunting task (I approached it with considerable trepidation), it is really not all that difficult if tackled carefully, accurately, and with some logical thought. There are a number of approaches for building turnouts - this is just one!

First, the terminology ...

Take particular note of the Isolation Points. These are grooves cut/filed through the copper of the PCB ties to electrically isolate various parts of the turnout. Also note the Rail Gaps on the outer ends of the Frog Rails. With this arrangement of Isolation Points and Rail Gaps, the turnout will be 'DCC-friendly', with DCC Track Power only needing to be provided to the two Stock Rails, and to the Frog section via a DPDT micro-switch or similar.

Now that you're familiar with the terms, consider the logical steps in laying the rails ...

1. The straight Stock Rail. This is quite simple, but needs a notch filed therein where the curved Point Rail will check in. For starters, cut the rail to length and lay it aside.

2. The straight Frog Rail. This needs to be filed to a point where it will meet the curved Frog Rail (see item 3). The best method is to cut and file both Frog Rails and check that the filed ends meet neatly.

3. The curved Point Rail (I make this with the straight Wing Rail in one piece - see item 7 below). This needs to be filed on the non-wheel-contact side to match up nicely with the Stock Rail that was cut first, and gently curved to the required shape. Now, file the notch (as mentioned in item 1) in the straight Stock Rail to take the curved Point Rail. Some builders also make a slight z-shaped kink in the Stock Rail to provide extra seating for the Point Rail.

4. Place the straight Stock Rail in position and carefully solder it down to two or three ties. Solder to the outside of the rail only at this point.

5. Using a NMRA gauge, place the straight Frog Rail in the correct position and solder it down as well.

6. The curved Frog Rail. Cut to length and file the point where it meets the straight Frog Rail. Bend the rail to the correct curve and place in position. Solder it down to the PCB ties and to the straight Frog Rail - you can lightly sand off any surplus solder later.

7. Cut the curved Point Rail to separate it from the associated Wing Rail, then solder it down to the the two ties at the right-end only. Don't forget to check the Wing Rail clearance using the Flangeways section of the NMRA Gauge before soldering it down. Also, don't forget to put the little bend in the right-end of the Wing Rail before soldering into place.

8. The curved Stock Rail. This needs to be notched for the straight Point Rail, and then curved gently to the correct shape. Place it in position on the left-most PCB tie and solder in position, using the NMRA Gauge to ensure correct placement. Locate the other end of the rail in position, using the NMRA Gauge to measure from the curved Frog Rail, and solder it in place.

9. The straight Point Rail. Cut to length (I make this with the curved Wing Rail in one piece and then cut it into the two pieces), file it to a point where it will seat into the curved Stock Rail notch. Solder in position to the two ties at the right-end only. Locate and solder the Wing Rail.

10. Install the Point Bar. This can be a length of PCB tie, sanded on the underside to reduce it's thickness slightly. Drill any holes required for turnout operation before installing the bar.

11. Lightly solder the left-end of the straight Point Rail to the Point Bar, ensuring the the Point Rail is not accidentally soldered to the matching Stock Rail.

12. Place a spacer (a piece of PCB tie is useful) between the straight Point Rail and it's matching Stock Rail to provide flangeway clearance. Now, solder the left-end of the curved Point Rail to the Point Bar, ensuring again that the rails are not soldered together.

13. You should now have an operating turnout! But wait, you're not finished yet ...

14. Make and install the two Guard Rails. These are to prevent wheels from becoming misaligned with the Frog Rails, so must 'cover' the gap and have the correct Flangeway clearance according to the NMRA Gauge.

15. Check all gauge clearances, and then go back and solder all rail to the ties where this has not already been done.

16. Now you're finished!

Remember that, at any time in the process, it is very easy to melt any solder joint and re-locate the rail. Also, don't be afraid to 'toss' the piece of rail you're working with and make a new one!

Throughout the building process, check and re-check everything with the NMRA gauge.

Your first turnout should take, perhaps, one evening to build. After that, it only becomes quicker and easier!

Interconnection Track

The track between the turnouts is easily built using the same methods.

Turnout Motors

Another advantage of building the track on the above track-bed sections was that the Tortoise turnout motors could be installed and tested whilst the sections were still on the bench.

Installation

When the track-bed sections were all completed, holes were cut down into the styrofoam base of the layout for the turnout motors, and the sections glued down to this base. Wiring was then carried out underneath the layout.

Next Issue

Curved and Dual-Gauge Turnouts

Copyright © 2005 Jeff law

Page last changed 25/01/2005