Flexible track

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LNR
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Re: Flexible track

Post by LNR » Sun Nov 04, 2018 12:45 pm

ge_rik wrote: Sun Nov 04, 2018 9:26 am Interesting debate on the efficacy of rail benders. I've never used one.
I'm in the same boat Rik, never had or seen the need for one, perhaps because my minimum radius is 7ft.6". To me flex track allows you to have transition and sweeping curves. To use flex track and bend it to 5ft. radius or less might be a different matter. I appreciate that some are confined to using set track because of space, but another point about flex track is that with longer length there is more bridging effect over minor undulations inevitable in the garden railway environment.
My track is all code 250 and not fastened down by the way!
Grant.

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Re: Flexible track

Post by tom_tom_go » Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:10 pm

I think that's the difference, due to my small garden I had to fit curves well under 5ft!

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Re: Flexible track

Post by invicta280 » Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:33 pm

As I'm shortly to start laying track this subject couldn't crop up at a better time for me. Most of my line will be on a gentle curve using Peco SM32 flexi track.
Do I really need a rail bender? Hopefully not. Cutting the sleeper base as appropriate should allow me to get the sort of curve I want naturally- at least I would think so. Others may know better! I'm more concerned with cutting the inside rail accurately. I imagine a hacksaw is best? I do have one of those Xuron trackcutters which I used on a 00 guage line but I shouldn't think they are up to the job.

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Re: Flexible track

Post by GTB » Sun Nov 04, 2018 2:20 pm

I'm using the same Accucraft code 250 track as Grant and I'm also not planning on using a track bender.

When I was building the turnouts, it was very easy to bend the curved rails by hand. When assembling the flex track, the problem was stopping the rail bending.......

The Accucraft sleepers for their code 250 flex track are a firm fit on the rail and since the brass rail bends easily, once you curve it, it stays that way.

I've no experience of any other track brand in garden scale, but heavier rail will be harder to bend, as will hard drawn rail. A combination of springy rail and a rattly fit of the rail in the sleepers may well require a bender of some sort.

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Graeme

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Re: Flexible track

Post by GTB » Sun Nov 04, 2018 2:28 pm

invicta280 wrote: Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:33 pm I'm more concerned with cutting the inside rail accurately. I imagine a hacksaw is best?
I used a piercing saw with a #3 blade when I was cutting various bits of rail when I was building turnouts. The other alternative would be a fine razor saw, as you want as many teeth in contact with the rail as you can.

The biggest thing will be holding the rail perfectly still while cutting. A block of wood with a couple of grooves at rail spacing and clamped to something solid would be one way.

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Re: Flexible track

Post by philipy » Sun Nov 04, 2018 2:33 pm

A slitting disc in a Dremel or similar, and then a file to square things up, works for me.
Philip

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Re: Flexible track

Post by invicta280 » Sun Nov 04, 2018 3:45 pm

Thanks for the advice. I'm hoping the weather stays ok a bit longer!

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Re: Flexible track

Post by tom_tom_go » Sun Nov 04, 2018 3:46 pm

The sleepers on Peco code 200 rail are not a firm fit, the rail will simply bend back to it's original position if not formed into the required radius first.

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Re: Flexible track

Post by Soar Valley Light » Sun Nov 04, 2018 6:26 pm

philipy wrote: Sun Nov 04, 2018 10:00 am Thanks Rik, I was beginning to think I was the only one without a rail bender! I've never really found it necessary, I don't even use a jim crow, I've found that long nose pliers do the job adequately, it's only rail ends on a significant curve that need tweaking.
With you all the way there Phillip. I just give the joints a tweak with the pliers and the rest (mid length) is down to some careful setting out of the free end of the track before the track pin goes down.

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Re: Flexible track

Post by Lonsdaler » Mon Nov 05, 2018 9:47 am

invicta280 wrote: Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:33 pm As I'm shortly to start laying track this subject couldn't crop up at a better time for me. Most of my line will be on a gentle curve using Peco SM32 flexi track.
Do I really need a rail bender? Hopefully not. Cutting the sleeper base as appropriate should allow me to get the sort of curve I want naturally- at least I would think so. Others may know better! I'm more concerned with cutting the inside rail accurately. I imagine a hacksaw is best? I do have one of those Xuron trackcutters which I used on a 00 guage line but I shouldn't think they are up to the job.
So long as the track is well fixed then it shouldn't be a problem - as others have siad the ends of each length will try to remain straight, so some attention with pliers or a Jim crow, if you have one available, usually sorts that. as tom says, if your track is floating loose in ballast, it will try to straighten out again.
Phil

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Re: Flexible track

Post by IanC » Wed Nov 07, 2018 10:28 am

tom_tom_go wrote: Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:10 pm I think that's the difference, due to my small garden I had to fit curves well under 5ft!
My curves too will be well under 5ft. I shall be forming curves round a template.
Ian

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Re: Flexible track

Post by tom_tom_go » Wed Nov 07, 2018 10:38 am

You can use AnyRail software to print out 1:1 scale templates:

www.anyrail.com

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Re: Flexible track

Post by quilkin » Wed Nov 21, 2018 7:36 pm

Big Jim wrote: Thu Nov 01, 2018 7:31 pm A meccano rail bender would be a nice project to write up for this forum.......
I have now tried! Not entirely successful.
Image
The track runs between the brass and the plastic flanged wheels. It does bend the track a little, but the force required is too much for rather feeble Meccano bearings (not visible in the photo is the fact that all the reamework strips are 7 or 8 parts thick to help rigidity).
But what the exercise has shown me is that any bender designed for use with the sleepers in place is going to be very inefficient, because there's ony 4mm clear height on the rail sides to allow any wheel to push against. The rail itself is 8.5mm high so we can only exert pressure on less than half of it. This may possibly end up with distorting the width of the rails?

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Re: Flexible track

Post by tom_tom_go » Wed Nov 21, 2018 7:58 pm

I take the rail out of the sleepers before bending, I don't think you should be trying to bend both rails at the same time while attached to sleepers...

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Re: Flexible track

Post by ge_rik » Thu Nov 22, 2018 7:57 am

Full marks for trying. It certainly is a marvellous looking beastie.

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Re: Flexible track

Post by pandsrowe » Thu Nov 22, 2018 9:26 am

When I first made my rail bender I was amazed at how much force was required to bend the rail and in fact my initial device did not work. When you think how relatively easy it is to bend the rail around your knee for example but of course there is a fair amount of leverage available when doing it like that, imagine trying to bend it just using finger pressure, much less leverage available because you are working over a very short section which is how a rail bender is working, hence lots of force required. One thing that I have thought about making is a "Jim Crow" as I don't believe that they are available as a commercial item, I feel that a device like that would give quite precise control over the bend of the rail but getting repeatability might be an issue. Has anyone here tried this?
Phil

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Re: Flexible track

Post by IrishPeter » Thu Nov 22, 2018 2:25 pm

Brass is a lot more difficult to bend than aluminium, and in the main when I have been laying flexible track it has been the latter, so knee bending - especially given my usual 5' minimum radius - was not an issue. Brass on the other hand... that was a case of borrow a mate's rollers, especially as I was laying a 3'6" radius curve at the time.

A Jim Crow is a slow way of doing it. On a garden line you can chalk the radius you want on the path and be patient, then it is a very accurate way of doing it. I am afraid my experience of Jim Crows is confined to 12" to the foot scale, so I cannot tell you how it would work with code 332 - as opposed to 30lbs/yard!


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Re: Flexible track

Post by Big Jim » Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:29 pm

I have now tried! Not entirely successful.
Image
The track runs between the brass and the plastic flanged wheels. It does bend the track a little, but the force required is too much for rather feeble Meccano bearings (not visible in the photo is the fact that all the reamework strips are 7 or 8 parts thick to help rigidity).
But what the exercise has shown me is that any bender designed for use with the sleepers in place is going to be very inefficient, because there's ony 4mm clear height on the rail sides to allow any wheel to push against. The rail itself is 8.5mm high so we can only exert pressure on less than half of it. This may possibly end up with distorting the width of the rails?
Superb job, sorry to read it is not as effective as it could be. As others have said, it may be worth playing around with loose rail to see what happens.
If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer!

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Re: Flexible track

Post by Robert Hammond » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:18 pm

Flexible track is definitely the sort to use, but a rail bender is a must. They can be a bit pricey, but for my Peco track I bought just the three rollers with the correct profile for the Peco rail, mounted the 2 outer ones with bolts onto a block of wood so that they would turn, and mounted the centre one on another block, then bolted the 2 blocks onto each jaw of a workmate. You then adjust the separation of the jaws to get the required radius of curvature of the rail. Easy, cheap and it works.

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