02-13-2009, 11:37 AM
Rob, in the second pic (IMG_0093 GIF) it appears to have a kink in the track leading off the straight section of that turnout on the left. A member of our modular club did a clinic titled "Trackwork For Dummys" at our club meeting last Wed. He pointed out that if track looks bad it will be bad. Basically, if you can see a kink, you will have derailment problems. One trick he showed us that I had never thought of before is to get a section of the metal shelving brackets that mount metal shelving brackets to walls. It is readily available from home improvement stores and is cheap. It just fits between the rails of ho scale track. You could take a four foot long section, and cut a few pieces different lengths from 2 or 3 inches to 2 or 3 feet. You use the shorter pieces on short straight sections of track and longer pieces on longer straight sections to get your track to be straight without kinks. I know some guys have mentioned that they like to have track less than perfect to model branch lines that have not received proper track maintenance, but remember that in ho scale 1/8 inch = a little less than 1 foot. The worst branch line track in prototype probably bends a couple of inches over a 2 or 3 feet length or more. I other words, the worst track you could put down to replicate bad prototypical track would probably vary from straight by 1/32"-1/64" over a distance of 3/8" - 1/2". The critical point of track is the inside of the flange and the tops of the rail where 2 pieces of track meet. The flange of an rp25 wheel in ho scale will only reach @ 1/2 way down into the inside of the top of the rail. If you run your fingers over the inside and tops of all rail joints, you should not feel any bumps. If you feel a bump, either from a variation of rail height, or misalignment of the rails, or any sort of angle or tangent from one rail to the other, your trains will probably derail regularly at that point. He suggested that the best test was to push your longest car through the track work with a second car coupled to it for a "handle" to see if it operates smoothly. If you have track problems, he suggested, tear it out and start over in that area. If it is bad to start with, it won't get better, only worse.