I was just wondering if any of you still handlay your track? I went to a LHS, asked for homasote, and they looked at me like I was crazy. Some of them had no idea what homasote was. I know that flextrack now looks better than ever but to me you just can't beat the "flowing" look of handlaid track. Add to that the sense of accomplishment when your brand new steamer (or old one) just glides beutifully through your switches.
LOL!!! It just takes time and the right tools. It seems tedious at first but the end result is well worthwhile.
Track laying probably ranks just below rootcanal on my list of enjoyable experiences, so I can't imagine the pain and suffering handlaying would cause me.
All of my layout is handlaid ... code 70 mainline and code 55 for narrow gauge. Even have some dual gauge. Turnouts are fun to lay, but the dual gauge turnouts were a real challange. As long as they work!
I've done a little on a previous HOn3 layout. I cheated a little and used frog castings for the switches, but it turned out all-right. The layout I'm working on now will have a handlaid code 55 HOn30 section (switches built with Fasttrack jigs) and a standard gauge section laid with ME code 70. I think I like ME flextrack better than hand-laying, it just looks better to me. If I can find some ME code 55 HOn30 track I'll probably use that...
Well, as far as the homosote goes, its my understanding that its not available in all parts of the country, so depending on where you live it might be a novelty. My feeling about hand laid track: 1) Building a sizable model RR takes alot of time and there never seems to be enough of it, even when you incorporate time saving measures. Retired and lots of time? Ok, maybe. I'm not retired for a long time yet. So your time factor is no small issue for most folks. Not to mention the skill required for turnouts etc. 2) I've seen a fair amount of hand laid track and it looked less realistic than good quality flex track. Most of the time there weren't enough spikes and there usually wasn't the detail like the tie plates etc etc. I personally think that good flex track is faster and yields more realistic track. The one exception is custom turnouts that are fit into specialized situations etc. But I can usually make the commercial turn outs work well enough for me.
I used to make my own track years ago. With my hands being as shaky as they are now I wouldn't even think about attempting it again.
I handlaid all my track and the turnouts are scratch build, exept on the staging yard. The biggest advantage of scratchbuilding turnouts is that you can build them how it is necessary. Stefan My Gallery Railfan`s Homepage
Thats a nice looking yard. I will say that I achieved essentially a very similar flowing look with commercial turnouts and flex track on my last basement layout which sadly I have not pictures of. Basically if you are not afraid to trim commercial turnouts, you can get some pretty good results. Where hand laying comes into its own is where you have points and frogs much closer together than a commercial turn out will allow. But with 3-way, standard and curved turnouts you can achieve a very similar result in yards as the example above. Mostly just ordinary left and right hand turnouts trimmed will get you similar look as in the photos. BTW, are you adding more spikes later? Years ago when I looked at some hand laid track in a finished form, it looked like the above photo's with widely spaced spikes. Of course prototype track has alot more than that and that is one of the less realistic features I have noticed on hand laid track of the past.
Hand layed When you want what they don't make you can learn to hand lay things like this. A past club member hand layed this for the NWILRR model club lay out. You can see more of his work by clicking on the photo below This is a double track main with another rail road company crossing the two mains
me and my couzin are going to build a large layout in afew years we are making a abandoned line that we are going to handlay so it looks like its been siting there for a long time and the dimonds ore coing to be handlayd so we can make it like the Big ones in fostoria ohio they are loud they where shaking the camera 10 yards away
No, I don`t add more spikes later. Sure the trackwork would look more realistic but it`s a lot of work and I think it`s not worth because one don`t notice the missing spikes when the ballast is added and the track will be weathered as you can see on the photo below. Stefan
This is the overview of my Ho club's section, all handlaid. The smaller half, on the left side, is in use today some of the tracks in the right side, new section, are in use. Sorry couldn't find any track laying photos. I'll try to get some next time I go. Tryed to get some photos of the tracks. Best I could find. It is a 1950-1960s fictional RR.