How do you avoid your tracks from kinking when the temperature gets hot ?. My layout room is on top of the garage, and it can get really hot up there. Yesterday I noticed that some of the tracks I have laid were kinking. At that time it was probably 110 degrees, and of course to hot to work there. I am using Atlas flex (N) which is glued to the cork every 5 inches or so and the joints are soldered together. What will happen if I glue the entire track down ?, will it stop from kinking, or will it simply pop out of the ties ? Should I leave a gap between the tracks and then solder a wire from one track to the other one instead of soldering the joints ? Thanks in advance Jesper
Yes Jesper, leave a gap the thickness of a credit card on straight sections. Use a piece of #24 to #28 wire and make a loop in the middle. (Wrap it around an 8 penny nail). Then solder each end to a rail leaving the loop at the gap. Do not solder the loop. it is so the wire can flex as the rails move. Do both rails. Solder around curves is OK, the gap might catch a flange and cause a derail, see? Adding glue shouldn't be necessary unless you see the tie strip warping out of line. You may have to cut gaps. A dremel tool does a better job than sawing. OK?
watash has good ideas there. I would also try to get some of the heat out. I have one of these POWERED ATTIC FANS on my roof to pull out the super hot air up there. I don't have my layout in the attic like you do, but the theory is the same. Get as much of the heat out as you can. If your space runs 110 degrees or more, you will always have problems with kinking rail no matter what you do. Our NTRAK layout was set up in an air conditioned Mall storefront. We were having a terrible time with kinking trackwork. We found out that it was the overhead spot lights shining down on the trackwork, and the light rays were heating up the trackwork enough to cause kinks. Once we got certain spot lights turned off no more problems. It doesn't take much heat to do this.
