In search of the light…
I’ve not had a religious awakening, despite it being a Sunday, in fact I’m talking about the search of light weight track…
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| Peco Code 83 rail and sleepers, left, with Atlas Code 55 rail right, in the same sleeper web. |
On Beaverbrook I have used Peco Code 73 on the Co-op spur and contrasting with the Code 83 elsewhere, this looks suitably like the prototype to please me eye, especially with modern locomotives and stock. However, after following Chris’s adventures with Coy in H0 last winter I’ve had a yearning for something lighter, and the desire to try my hand at creating a stretch of more decrepit looking shortline or logging track. A casual conversation with Chris and he mentioned why not try some Atlas Code 55 N gauge track in Peco H0 track bases, surely it couldn’t be that simple? I had visions of hand spiking and tedious construction… you see the thing that has put me off for so long is that, if I’m honest, my passion is scenery and the stock that run on the track, so like the baseboards, the track just needs to be built as quickly as possible, and work well, out of the box…
It works…
I hoped it would. It certainly did when I used code 55 Micro Engineering rail in flex track ties from Micro Engineering code 70 flex track. What you’ve got is proof that it’s a transferable concept.
What I’ve personally discovered here is a panacea, the lightweight look I desire with none of the effort. It won’t work with turnouts, but I’ve an idea about that to try another time, but the trackwork looks delicate and spindly, airy, of a time. Modern flanges run through without catching the plastic spikes. My thought is to mount this short length on a base and paint, ballast and weather it, see how it looks as it comes to life, in fact I’ve an idea to cut the sleeper base up and respace the tied slightly more haphazardly. Ballast with Earth rather than Woodland Scenics, work in different materials… learn from those who’ve had success…
I placed the 44 tonner on the track…
…and I’m in love!
You can never go back now, this is beautiful… Plain track is a gateway drug. Turnouts next…
I’m not sure I share Chris’s passion for track building, but I find it infectious, it drives me to reconsider what I want to achieve in this foundation of model railways / railroading. I’ve shied away from EM and P4 in British modelling, finding OO generally too much of a compromise. H0 offered a way forward, Code 88 wheels another step, here with Code 55, I’m another step closer to what I think I’ve been working towards for sometime. I’m feeling a shelf layout, one turnout, coming along here, with the lightweight, scale(ish) trackwork I desire and some wonderfully evocative mountain scenery all in 1m x 26cm… we shall see… I’m looking forward to playing with this 6” section today. Perhaps Sunday is a chance for us all to try out something new in our modelling? It doesn’t need to lead anywhere obvious, try out something you’ve wanted to for a while, for yourself, no one else, with no expectation of where it will lead or what finished looks like.
More soon…
Currently exploring whether something similar would work in N scale, fitting code 40 rail into code 55 track bases. Won't work with Peco as they recess the rail into the base, by may work using Atlas code 55 bases. Would definitely need wheels with finer wheels though.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy looking at all your differing interests,
Vaughan
Vaughan thank you for getting engaged, I love that people enjoy the variety of my modelling, from whatever background they’ve arrived. I can’t see why your approach in N wouldn’t work, apart from the flanges, which luckily in H0 I don’t need to worry about. Let us know how you get on, Chris and I have discussed the potential, but not tried it.
DeleteVaughan, the idea should work as you describe. Even modern N scale wheels often have flanges too large for at least commercial code 40 flex track. What can work though is a compromise where you could:
Delete- insert code 40 rail into code 55 track (Atlas or Micro Engineering)
- cut every 5th or 10th tie out of the plastic base and replace it with a PC board tie
- once the PC board ties are in place you could run along the inside face of the ties and sand down those cast spike heads freeing up the full 0.040" height of the track.
- this is going to take a little longer but leaves some fantastic spike and tie plate detail on the outside of the track combined with the running qualities on the inside face.
Chris
One additional comment worth mentioning in our chat:
DeleteThe Micro Engineering (probably true for Atlas too) code 55 rail is quite wide. While, when we say "code 55" we're describing the actual height (0.055") so has no connection to any particular modelling scale the section through the rail seems to favour one particular one. In the case of these code 55 rails they are quite wide and I think of them being proportioned to work for HO--they're just too wide for N despite being a superb height.
Code 40 rail from Micro Engineering is shorter than code 55 but also narrower. If threading into someone else's ties I wonder if there's still enough width in the foot of the rail for the spikes to grab onto? I have some here and I'll try.
Chris
I think this is really cool. My own experiment was just a compounded series of "wonder what would happen if I?" moments all linked together and it worked out. Wherein my example I was staying within Micro Engineering's catalogue you've combined Peco ties with someone else's rail. I'm convinced this works. I'd love to hear what you're thinking for the turnouts--certainly that casual comment has already set the imagination over here at Prince Street in motion.
ReplyDeleteChris
Don’t get too excited! It’s of me after all and you know how little I enjoy track laying. I’m thinking Peco Code 75, as we do when using Bullhead rail on British layouts…
Delete