Well as soon as I can get my paws on some, I'm gonna use the expansion tracks. At least now I know of a place that I can get them and they are in stock and ship to Canada. At least in the interim, I've decided to try using cut lengths of flex track between the joints. I won't have to worry about putting power to them or the tracks on either side. I'll just put joiners on the fixed tracks and put the flex in the slot, bend it just enough to slide the joiners on it, and that should work as the power will be continuous across the joiners. I was supposed to take my layout to a show here in September, but I won't have transportation for my modules and all three of my son's are tied up on that weekend so I will be alone. I can't manage it by myself. So I'm gonna pass on this one and try for the biggie in April next year. I'll have a good part of my layout finished by then. I hope. Thanks everyone for you help on this. I do appreciate it.
Any images to share? Now we have talked alot:tb-biggrin:, but do you have any images of your modules to share? It's always nice to see new modules on the net.
Don't bend the flex track, the rails will creep each time and not equalize. Just push bakc a tie or two and slip the rail joiner back. Then drop in place, slide the joiner half the way onto to the module track. .
I understand about the tracks no equalizing, but if the end tracks are rigid enough, and the flex piece is bent just enough to get it into position, should not the rails equalize again when bent back into position. Since they will be butting up against the other sections, this should make them work out should it not?
No, it doesn't work. You need to keep the track straight, clear under the rails at least one end, so the rail joiners can be pushed back all the way, then after aligning the rails, slide the rail joiners half way over the adjacent rails. One end of the track can have soldered rail joiners to make installation quicker.
Correct. For Z-Bend Track modules "on the road", no substitute for the Marklin expansion track. For modular home layouts and other module configurations -when the adjacent members are always the same- with some restrictions, any of the discussed methods works.
Intra-Modules Connections Last night, just for a lark, I took some flex track and cut it to fit a couple of joints between my modules. I shaved 2 ties at each end so that they weren't attached to the rails, installed 4 joiners, and put it into place across two of the modules. To do this, I slid the joiners back on the flex track, put it in place, then with a jeweller's flat head screwdriver, pushed the joiners ahead until they were in place on the MTL track on both modules. Oh and I put cork roadbed under the flex track right up to the edge of each as well. It worked great. The power transfer from one module to the other was consistant and there were no bumps or jolts, no derailments, and no hesitation at either end of the plex. I made sure to cut the flex track so that it was a snug fit leaving only enough clearance to get it in and out without snagging. This is only a temporary solution to my problem, but it will do until I can get several pieces of expansion track which is ideally how I want to connect my modules. Since this worked so well, I won't have to use undertable connecting wires and clamps except for my turnouts and blocks. Most of these are some distance away from my central control panel. As I go along, I'm goinng to number each piece of flex track to conincide with the joints at each module as some gaps are slightly wider or shorter as the case may be and it will make for a faster setup knowing where each piece fits. As it stands at this point in time, with the existing modules and those still in the construction phase I will have a total of 17 pieces of flex track to slot into the joints. Seems like a lot I know, but that's as big as my layout is, or will be. I do have one concern though. At the joint of two modules, there will be a piece of flex that will have to be curved. In designing this part of my layout, I couldn't get a big enough radius to do what I needed to do by putting the curve on the module where I originally wanted it to be, so I've had to start it about 10 inches back from the edge of the module ahead. The joint or connection will come almost dead centre of the curve which I'm not really happy about, but it's the only way I can make it work and still stay within the confines of the module. When I get this part of it up and running, I'll see how it works with the flex track connection. HUMMM! Sounds like a movie. THE FLEX CONNECTION. I wonder if Gene Hackman is busy? So thanks to all who inspired me on this problem. Your help and ideas have been invaluable.
Well newtoscale, since you have no choice on the curved section, could you make a very short piece of flex in your curve removable? Like two inches long? Z bend has those large gaps to fit the adjustable sections in. Since you are not under those constraints, you could make the sections as short as you could get away with. If you were to glue something to the bottom of the section to hold your curve and then camo it to look like roadbed?... Just something to think about.
Great progress. Now, you have numbered track sections, so the Marklin expansion tracks are not really necessary, unless you plan to do different layout configurations. For the curved connection David's suggestion should work. As you mentioned, you've extended the cork roadbed to the edge of each module. At the curved connection you need to remove the cork, cut a piece of radiused plywood road bed to fit, then glue the curved flex track to the plywood. This will guarantee the solid and accurate connection.
intermodule connections It's been a while since I got this thread started and have only now read the last two responses. First let me say that I do appreciate all the suggestions on how to transfer power from one module to the other. Lot's of ideas to be sure. Second, I liked the video of using Marklin expansion tracks to connect one module to the other. I recently acquired a few of these expansion tracks and I have to say, I have never worked with anything so difficult in my life. I didn't know these things came in three sections. In the video it looks like they are comprised of only two. Aside from being very tight which I suppose is to make the transferance of power more consistant, I'm disappointed in the length to which they expand. I thought it would be further. With one end anchored and extending out the other two sections I was only able to get about 2 inches before the trackes came apart. That was a job in itself getting them back together again. I also found that if I wasn't careful in expanding them, the rails would easily pop out of the ties and again I had to struggle to get them back together. I tested these in several joints of my modules and I've decided that I'm not going to use them after all. They are just too awkward to work with, especially in tight locations. I think I'm going to go with my original idea of using drop in pieces and run power lines down between moduels and connect them to feeds from each module. I'm also going to use pieces of flex track at the more difficult to get at joints and just slide the joiners into the other rails. It will obviously take longer to set up and tear down my modules but the expansion tracks are far too difficult and frustrating to work with.
I'm not sure what I've missed here, but my module group and many others swear by the Marklin expansion tracks. While slightly finicky in some respects, if module standards are adhered to, and the expansion tracks are modified as instructed in the Z_Bend Track manual, they are the most reliable and flexible solution ever for connecting modules. Nothing else even comes close. I'm sorry you have been so frustrated in your attempts. Perhaps others will chime in and give more constructive advice.
Yes Bryan, I agree with you completely. The tracks are not intended to 'stretch' a long ways. If your module track work is installed according to ZBT standards, then your expansion tracks will only end up being expanded about a 1/4" at most. This depends of course upon your module ends being square to begin with. It boils down to doing very careful and presice bench work and followed by laying your track to the correct length from the module ends in order to have the expansion tracks work as designed. There is nothing quite like expansion tracks to connect modules together at train shows. Quick and easy. But of course you must have a gentle steady hand........ The expansion tracks must first be 'prepped' before installation. You need to remove the last tie on each end thus allowing rail joiners to easily slip onto the rail ends. Also the last tie usually had been 'captured' by a slight dimple in the rail end that holds the tie securely. Once that binding feature has been removed, the rails slide easily in and out of the center section. I grab the rail carefully with a pair of pliers and hold the tie and pull gently until that dimple seems to pop loose. I don't think I did a very good job of describing the procedure, but trust me, once you have caught on, the results are always good. It is just a learning curve on those expansion tracks.
Thanks for the suggestions but I'm not going to use the expansion tracks for the reasons I've indicated above. I'm quite sure that for you gentlemen they work perfectly but I find them just too awkward and time consuming. My layout does not conform to Z-Track standards simply because of the what I'm modelling my railroad after. To get the desired affect and keep as much to the realism of the part of the country I'm trying to model, I had to ignor Z-Track standards except for height. Everything else doesn't work on my layout. I'm pretty much winging it here and so far it ain't bad, but in at least a couple of places I've had to use a bit of artistic license in order to get my track to function the way I want it to and still maintain the integrity of the countryside. For the most part, I think I've done not too bad a job, but I still have a long way to go. I'm hoping to have it ready for a local train show next April and I'm working under time constraints here. On Dec 7, I'm going into the hospital for a knee replacement and they it will be at least 2 months before I can climb stairs well enough to get down in my basement to work on my layout. I'm trying to get as much done now, so that what I have left is only supperficial and cosmetic work which can be done while sitting down. But that's another story. Again thanks for the suggestions but expansion tracks are out for me. Cheers.
We understand that you are not making your modules to a standard. The reference was to how far back the track ends from the module interface. This was stated earlier as 2-1/8 (1.125" or 54mm). The expansion tracks are designed for a 4.33" (110mm) gap and have a range of 3-15/16 (100mm) to ~4.3/4 (120mm). The Z-Bend standard would be 4.25" so you would have to just slighly compress them from their out-of-the-box dimension. You still have to compress them to allow for the rail joiners to be started but then re-expand them back to their nominal length. One thing that makes them a bit more difficult is Märklin's thin sheet metal joiners. These are not good for multi-use and are easy to bend. Many of us replace them with more robust Micro-Trains or MicroEngineering code 55 joiners. Also, the expansion tracks are not designed for curves or height differences. .
Yes I discovered the joiners being easy to bend. I never thought though of putting MTL joiners on them. Perhaps I'll try that. In as far as spanning modules, I had my track back from the edge by 1 inch, but when the expansion tracks became to frustrating, I put it back to 3 inches from each edge to make sure I had enough to secure to the module. So my joining pieces of flex track are 6 inches less just enough for clearance. As for my drop in pieces, I'm using an ordinary MTL feeder track. The tracks on the modules are back far enough for this feeder track to drop into. This is anchored at one end with rail joiners and the other end is bare. The trick is to make sure that this feeder track lines up perfectly with the track on the other side as there are no joiners to hold them together. It works reasonably well at this stage, but once I have glued everything in place, added my plasti-cloth and everything else, they should be much more stable. I also plan on recessing the bare end of the feeder track ever so slightly into the roadbed on the other module just to give it something to bite with so it won't move side to side. Of course the straight pins I also apply assist in this regard.
A bit of thread resurrection, but I recently received my Feb 2011 copy of RMC. It has a very nice article on mating modules titled, "The mating habits of the North American module." I'm seriously looking at adapting the interface for my single track module designs.
Hummm! I'll have to check that out. I have solved my problem with transfering power from one module to another, but I'm always on the lookout for new and easier ways to accomplish this. Thanks for the info. K
