Am_Fet chugs another Prozac and scribbles:
If I ever find the person that put the idea of hand-laying N gauge track and points into my brain, we are going to have stern words over a cider or 7. The idea of attaching Code 40 rail onto individual 1mm sleepers is crazy, No?
Never mind....They say that Madness takes its Toll, and here I am with the exact change. For those of you who are unaware of them, a firm in the States called Fasttracks have developed a range of tools that allow you to build track and points in all scales. The most useful devices look to be tools for filing frog and point blade angles, as well as a full range of "turnout" (sic) templates to aid construction.
The coolest thing however is a complete set of laser cut point sleepers.....built to American spacings obviously, but what an idea! So, take that general idea, grab a guild plan or three, have a general scribble....and this is what we get:
Exhibit A is a set of sleepers for a 1:6.69 turnout/point/switch/lane changer. Below it is a sleeper set for a straight length of track. The idea here is that these are laser cut in 1mm ply, attached to the rodbed on your module and then the rail is added on (either Code 40 or 55), either by spikes or glue. By cutting out some of the webs in the straight track you could even curve it (I think). The genius behind this is you get track with the correct sleeper spacing.....
But is this genius verging into madness? I think its a good idea, but would anyone else out there be interested? Or are we just turning into a bunch of fringe looneys that no one wants to talk to at partys?
Thoughts?
3 comments:
Now that's a good idea. Raster burn in the rail locations and tieplates (dark brown), contact glue down the rails (with feeders pre-soldered), use an N track gauge to check things are perfect. Bet it would look damn good and not be too expensive. I couldn't do points but I'd be tempted to do straight sections........ The track is one thing that always looks hokey in my pictures
that is a good Idea , I'm hoping to get some fast track tools this year, to do some of my turnouts. and was wondering what i would do for NZ spacing sleepers.
I'd recommend using some PCB sleepers to solder the rail to in key locations to keep gauge over time and allow some adjustment when building. I'd be worried that contact glue would creep particularly on curves.
I've done a few handlaid points (N) using a full Fastracks jig and some curved ones built over one of their printed templates. The Frog and Point filing jig is the most important part of their tool set.
The system is designed around soldering to a few key PCB sleepers to keep everything in gauge with their wooden laser-cut sleepers (or individual ones) filling in the gaps.
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