Track (N part 46)…

As the foundation, the literal and figurative base of all we do in modelling railways we cannot escape the fine balance we strike between realism and playability…

We all recognise that Peco track is robust and strong and when sympathetically painted and weathered well represents modern mainline track. However, it leaves the modeller with a more bucolic bent in something of a quandary. Thanks to British Finescale that ‘fine balance’ is now much finer for modern N gauge as most box fresh Farish and Dapol models will run un-modified on Code 40 rail. I’ve used the bullhead track on Paxton Road (2) before, so was familiar with the product but for my new project I wanted to contrast the two rail styles, the perfect opportunity you might say to try out the flat bottom.

Finetrax - note the Dowmac on each sleeper, incredibly fine.

A box from British Finescale arrived swiftly including a few of metres worth of concrete sleeper mouldings, flatbottom rail and a building jig (along with a couple more metres of the bull head parts too, for the Cambrian project). The mouldings are similar to the bullhead, a pair of sleeper webs on a central spine. You cut these off and clamp 4 webs in the jig and thread the rail. Repeat 4 times and you’ve built half a metre of track.

Top to bottom: Peco Code 55 flatbottom wooden sleeper / British Finescale Code 40 flatbottom concrete sleeper / British Finescale code 40 bullhead wooden sleeper. 

As you’d expect the results are superb and even without paint or weathering my heart sings with the possibilities this will lend my N scale modelling. Let’s not give Peco’s offering a hard time here, it is well engineered and solid track, it will accept almost all N scale flanges and is available from most good model shops. The British Finescale track is fiddly, delicate and time consuming. For me it represents an investment worth making however, the realism literally then grows from the ground up. If you read Friday’s blog you may have seen a mock up of where this is heading, but otherwise you have a few weeks I expect until I’m ready to share plans for Paxton Road (3). Enjoy the rest of the weekend, until next time, more soon…

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