Model Railway Track
Regarding model railway track there are a couple
of points which need to be raised. Traditionally the British have
tended to use foreign mechanisms for their locomotive models, however
given the more restricted loading gauge on British lines it was often
difficult to fit the loco body onto the available chassis or
indeed onto a British made chassis. As a result a compromise was
adopted using a slightly larger scale for the body but retaining
standard model railway track. This situation first reared its head
with the 'OO' models, built to a scale of 1:76 or 4mm to
the foot. These actually run on HO track, which has a scale of 1:87
or 3.5mm to the foot. As a result the track is approximately 14%
under scale, the rails and the sleepers are too close together. This
has resulted in a number of variations requiring hand-built track
such as 'EM' and P4, both of which use a gauge of just over
18mm as opposed to the 16mm of the standard commercial track. The use
of over size bodies was then perpetuated in N by adopting a scale of
1:148 for 'British N' but using continental track with a
gauge of 9mm, corresponding to a scale of approximately 1:160. The
track gauge at 1:148 should be 9.7mm and again the rails and sleepers
of commercial track are too closely spaced. For people working in N
who required a fine scale appearance the solution adopted was to use
the already established scale of 2mm to the foot, using a scale of
1:152 and a gauge of 9.4mm.
Whether this is a problem depends
upon whether you find the incorrect gauge and sleeper spacing
offensive. Having worked with both 'OO/HO' and 'British
N' I have personally always found the appearance acceptable and
I suspect my poor modelling skills would make the transition to 2mm
rather more difficult than I would like. In particular hand built
track puts me off the idea, I just like playing trains and I can live
with a few inaccuracies. If commercial track became available I might
consider building the rolling stock but this is more likely in 2mm
scale than British N.
To add to the confusion there are now a number of Japanese 'N' gauge models on the market, however as much of the Japanese railway system uses a gauge of about three and a half feet they build some of their models to a scale of 1:150. Because of the difference in the loading gauge many Japanese N models are larger than their British counterparts. To further complicate the issue the Japanese also operate some 'standard gauge' lines, mainly associated with their high speed lines, so they also sell models built to a scale of 1:160, as with the European N Gauge models these are slightly smaller than British N. Having said which the Japanese models, both track and rolling stock, have an excellent reputation for quality, I have a couple of now rather elderly Tomix 0-6-0 shunters that I use as 'industrial' loco's and I am well pleased with their performance.
Another point worth raising is the
quoted radius of set track curves. In model railway terminology the
quoted radius is measured to the centreline of the track, hence a
nine inch radius U curve requires about twenty inches of baseboard.
It is a very good idea to have a space of perhaps an inch and
a half between the outside rail of the track and the edge of the
baseboard and I now also add a strip of wood along the edge of the
baseboard, raised to form a low wall and covered in home-made 'brick paper'. This eats into the
available space on the board but prevents models falling to the floor
if they come off the track. I learned this the hard way as I am now
the proud owner of a Farish Class 37 with no buffers at one end.
Real track is not shiny and bright, its dark and dirty so
painting the sides of the rails improves the look of a layout no end.
Humbrol used to offer a paint called 'track colour' for this but that
is currently not available, their 'rust' colour can be used however.
Painting the track with a brush after it has been laid is possible
but time consuming, a better option is to paint the track before
laying it. I invested in rather a lot of Peco flex track some years
ago when it was on offer, and I am still working my way through the
stock. This track is not ready-ballasted so it is easy just to spray
it with a suitable colour (for ready ballasted track such as
Fleishmann you really need to go back to the paint brush). I don't
own an air brush so I used motor car brown primer aerosols to spray
the plain track (once it had been cut to size ready to lay and the
track feed wires soldered in place if required). Whilst the paint is
still wet wipe the top of the rails with a rag soaked in thinners and
wrapped round a scrap of wood. This removes most but not all of the
paint on the top of the rails. You then also need to clean off the
paint at the ends where the rail joiners will go, a fibreglass pencil
is really useful for this, I have recently changed to using one with
a brass refill and this seems even better. Once the paint has dried a
Peco track cleaner finished the tops of the rails.
I later
found 'Bestial brown' paint from 'Games Workshop', this looked better
(I thought) and seemed more resilient than the primer I had been
using when bending the track about during fitting. Unfortunately
Bestial Brown is currently not in production as an aerosol (it is
available as a pot of paint though).
Points I paint by hand,
I have had problems getting the moving blades clean enough to provide
reliable current switching when I used a spray for these. If using an
aerosol you can spray this point blank on to a scrap of tin foil and
use a brush to transfer the paint to the rails and sleepers.
I
have found that it is easiest to solder dropper wires to the rail
joiners than to the rails themselves, I use six inch lengths of
either thin tinned copper wire or 5 Amp fuse wire. These wires are
pushed down through holes in the baseboard and connected to the power
lines using chock-block connectors screwed under the baseboard.
Once the track is laid you need to ballast it and for the
last few years I have used Chinchilla Sand from the local pet shop
for this. It is fine (do ask for the type without the seeds in it)
and works well as N Gauge ballast. I use a redundant kitchen cleaner
spray bottle to pre-soak the ballast with water mixed with a drop of
washing up liquid. Set the spray gun to produce a fine mist, point it
across the tracks and hold it about a foot above. Do not point the
spray at the ballast itself as it will blow it about. I then use a
large eye dropper (a plastic tube with a rubber bulb on the end) to
drip diluted PVA (60/40 PVA and water, again with a drop of washing
up liquid added).
I am very sparing anywhere near the points,
it is better to go back and do these with some neat PVA applied with
a match stick and some ballast sprinkled over it. Take care on Peco
points that you do not gum up the little over the centre spring
behind the moving sleeper on the points and make sure no ballast is
stuck inside the flange ways.
I have no idea what chinchilla
sand is made of but if it is piled deeply and fixed with diluted PVA
I have found it has a tendency to cake and crack as it dries. All I
do then is add some neat PVA over the affected area and sprinkle on a
bit more sand. Filling in around the track with scrap cardboard
reduces the required depth of sand. The stuff I use is almost pure
white but it takes diluted water-colour paint quite well even when
PVA'd to the baseboard. Alternatively you can cover the point rails
with paper to protect them and spray the track with Games Workshop
grimy grey paint to tone it down a bit.
Peco foam underlay is
easy to fit, just lay a strip of glue down where the track is to go
and press the track down onto this. The glue soaks up through the
foam and sticks the track as well. This ballast does not cause points
to gum up and provides quiet running. There are however two
drawbacks. Firstly it lifts the track slightly, so trackside
structures such as platforms,tunnels and bridges need to be raised
slightly (I use thick card cut to fit). Secondly the ballast on
parallel tracks does not meet in the middle so you have to fill-in
the gap. You can stretch a spare length of the foam (to make it
slightly narrower) and insert it upside down as a filler but you will
still see the joints at the sides. One option is to use chinchilla
sand, laid on neat PVA, to cover the area. Both the Peco foam and the
chinchilla sand will take up diluted burnt sienna water colour paint
which blends everything together and gives the track that well used
look.
Buffer stops on a model railway (at least in N) tend to
be a bit fragile, they can be knocked off or damaged by even a small
tank engine. The most robust option is the Peco 'sleeper built'
buffer, this has holes at the rear to hook onto the end of the tracks
and notches at the front to clear the rails. It is best to fit these
before ballasting the track.
Fig___ Securing model
buffers
To
prevent them being knocked off by a 'rough shunt' the Peco
sleeper-built buffer stops can be fixed in position, either by
drilling a hole in the top and adding a wood screw or by sitting them
in a bed of epoxy. I would suggest adding some epoxy-putty to the
inside of the buffer and inserting the screw (coated in grease)
whilst this dries. You can then counter-sink the screw head as shown
in Fig___ 'A'. Alternatively you can cut away the rear mounting holes
so the buffer can be placed onto the track, grease the inside or line
it with cling film and press it down onto some epoxy putty built up
around a wood screw as shown in Fig___ B. Either method will make the
item solid and secure.
Making the timber-built buffers
yourself, either from strip wood or even match sticks offers the
possibility of setting them into the baseboard surface as shown in
Fig___ 'C'. This however assumes the surface is suitable, I use a
soft wood felt like material sold for use in expansion joints in
concrete. With the vertical supports and the rear braces set in this
way, and well glued, the result is a strong buffer which is able to
withstand the odd hundred mile an hour collision.
To protect a
rail-built buffer place a wheel-set on the track and screw a small
wood screw down into the ballast between the sleepers. When the head
of the screw reaches the axle on the wheelset back it off a turn and
hacksaw off the head of the screw. This leaves a stub of metal that
will catch the axle on any wagon moving toward the buffers as shown
in Fig___.