Question on laying Atlas flex track

[jglfan]

I have used flex track a whole lot and ALWAYS place the sliding rail on the inside of the curve. This way you only cut rail at the other end, not rail and ties.

I've never payed any attention to which side I placed the sliding rail, except to be consistant and keep it on the same side. This because

try to avoid joints in the curve

this can't always be done, and I have found the best way to avoid kinks when joining two pieces of flex track on a curve (in addition to Steamtrains advise to solder) is to not cut the rail ends which are longer on the inside of the curve, but to instead pull out the sliding rail on the next piece of track and thread it thru the ties to meet the rail on the first piece. Use a chisel blade to slice off the "spikeheads" where the rails join in order to fit a railjoiner. Solder if you like, but it usually is not needed. The fact that the railjoiners are offset, that is, not directly across from each other, helps prevent kinks.

Gary