I am starting my second layout.. a three decker no less and i decided to go with c-55. my first was c-80. now to the meat of the topic. i plan to solder three lenghts of flex together and mount it on a reverse loop road bed. Do you want the movable rail of the flex track on the outside of the loop or in the inside? Secondly, as in the c-80, the c-55 does not have any holes in the ties to allow "pinning" to the road bed, so how to you get the c-55 to stay in place while you glue and ballast it?
I haven't even thought about on which side the moveable rail is placed...hmmm! In saying that, I've had no problems with c55 on my layout (movable rail on the inside or outside). I use map pins placed against the edges of the rails to hold the track down till the glue drys.
Atlas says always put the sliding rail to the inside. It keeps the tie spacing correct. If you put the slider on the outside, every other tie pair will flare apart on the outside of the bend. If you are using the c55 to achieve a more prototypical appearance you are going to want to keep the ties evenly spaced. Plus if you put the slider on the outside you will waste ties that you will have to cut off along with the longer rail. See how every other tie pair flares out on the left side with the sliding rail to the outside. Does not happen with the slider to the inside as seen on the right.
