GET YOUR CURVES RIGHT

Ron Naman says: My retirement project was to build a large ‘OO’ layout, which has about 200ft of track. I found that Flexitrack seemed to have a mind of its own and, using the tried and trusted method of fixing the track with pins, even using templates, didn’t quite give the smooth curves and junctions that I sought to achieve. I used the standard track spacing of 2in and minimum radius of two feet, as advised by Cyril J. Freezer, but found that as soon as I fixed and tested the second outer track, modern rolling stock clashed on the curves.

I decided that I didn’t want to fix the track in position with pins until I was sure that it was in the right place. Instead, I fixed the track down temporarily with small 6mm long screws fitted between the sleepers with small washers which overlapped the sleepers on each side. This allowed the track to be moved to either side by simply loosening the screws slightly and retightening. If more adjustment was required, I simply drilled another hole in the baseboard between the adjacent sleepers in an offset position.

The washers fit snugly between the rails and do not interfere with trains during track testing and the screws were tightened just sufficiently to hold the track in position without deforming it. When electrical and clearance testing was complete, I then pinned the track in position and removed the screws. Sleepers were pre-drilled to avoid the pins deforming them. The ballast filled the tiny holes left in the baseboard by the screws. Most of the track on my layout is curved, as the main line is arranged as a folded figure of eight to avoid seeing trains going around in circles. This method of temporarily fixing down the track enabled me to achieve the smooth flowing curves that I desired.