Handlaid Z and Superelevation (many pics)

Superelevation and Handlaid Z Rail

I needed a couple Balloon Turnaround modules so I can run trains on my Z Bend Track modules. I decided to handlay the rail as apposed to using the Micro Trains track because there would be too many rails joints due to the short length or their flextrack.
Here are the tools I used:


I made this jig to build my own flextrack with. I just fill the slots with PC Ties, apply a little flux, lay the rail in the slot, and solder the ties to the rail.


I use a steel block to hold the rail down while soldering the ties on.



After all the ties in the jig are soldered to the rail, I lift out the flextrack rail, drop more ties into all the slots except the last one, and lay the rail back in the slot with the last tie soldered going into the remaining tie slot. This keeps the 1" PC Tie spacing perfect.

 

Now for the Superelevation. I glued 1/64" thick 1"x .040" shim sticks to my roadbed, placed just about under where the outside rail will sit. As this scales to Z Scale, it will raise the outside rail a scale 4" higher than the inside rail.


Now I glued the PC Ties down with Walthers Goo, a form of contact cement in an easy to dispense tube, aligning the rail just above the shim sticks. I held them in place with the steel blocks and sometimes just my coffee cup. The glue tacks up quick, but I use T Pins to hold the rail in alignment for an hour or so.


I also add a little extra Goo where the ties lift from the roadbed, and weight them down till the Goo sets.


Sometimes you run a little short of rail. This can happen in the middle of laying the rail, but not to worry, just solder a rail joiner on, and use the jig to add more properly spaced ties to the extra rail.

 

Here you can see the jig loaded with ties, ready to solder to the extra rail length.



Once the outside rail had been glued down and the glue set, I use white glue, and slide a precut Tie Strip between the PC Ties. The Tie Strips have 9 Z Scale 7"x 9"x 9' long ties, to match with Micro Trains flex ties, and are attached at a point that goes under the rail. A guy can lay this form of handlaid flextrack real quick using the jig, and tie strips.


The next step, after all the tie strips are glued down, is to solder the inside rail down. I used the Micro Trains Z Scale Coupler Height Gauges for track gauges. They work well with code 55 rail, which is what I used here, but are a little sloppy for use with code 40 rail. I still use them for code 40 rail though, as the critical points are only with the turnouts.


And after the tracks were laid, I rolled a couple cars at high speed around the turn to see how the superelevation performed. It works pretty good, and cars have a cool looking lean as they bank into the turns.


Working in Z still requires a little extra effort than does other scales, but it's a lot of fun to build things yourself, and it's always fun to see if you can streamline the process at all.

Happy Holidays,
-Robert

 

I cut the tie strips with a laser. Even though they are one piece, they still break apart sometimes while installing them, because I have the wood grain set lengthwise to the ties.

It costs me about $1 a foot worth of ties in laser time, but the method is 10 times faster than laying and aligning individual ties for the same net results. It's also way cheaper to lay track this way than buy Z Scale flextrack at $4.50 a foot retail.

I found that 1 PC tie every inch will overcome any expansion and contraction effect do to temperature. I discovered this by accident when the Micro Trains flextrack I laid next to the handlaid track warped way out of gauge in the sun when we were connecting up our modules lase summer in my back yard.

The hand laid track stayed in gauge because of being soldered every inch, so it's expansion must have been a very small amount in between each inch of PC ties. Too small to see, but I should have taken a Micrometer to it just for reference.

Back to the ties... If you want some I can cut them for you, in trade for something I can use on my Z Scale modules.

 

As always, impressive, Robert! I have a hard time imagining hand laying in HO, let alone my native scale (N), LET ALONE Z Scale!! I'd really like to try it sometime, but seing as how I have this habit of never finishing any project I start, I may just have to wait awhile for that one. Again, nice work!

-Mike

 

The jig is just laser cut basswood, glued together. It should work for Nn3 dual guage just as easy as for Z, just do the narrow gauge rail, then the standard gauge rail last. Tie spacing needs to be different, as does the tie size, but I can make a jig for them. As always, trade is the name of the game. Just email me with what you propose.

-Robert

 

Actually I gave up on handlaid track for my modules, as i had too much warpage in the sun. The solder ties and rail lift from the roadbed as the rail expands and gets hot.

Unfortunately, that is a side effect of high real estate prices... nowhere to setup modules, so we do it in people's backyards.

Here is a photo of what the finished track looks like up close:


Notice the solder balls on the sides of the rails. Well, it's cheap to handlay track, but it really needs to be kept out of the sun. All my turnouts have been scrapped due to sun warpage.

-Robert

 

Well, it is very robust with solder ties every 1 inch apart, but I think I needed to have cut expansion joints every 8 inches or so to prevent warpage. That would have meant lots of feeder wires too.

-Robert