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In lugnet.trains, Ken Rice wrote:
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I have made a length of Lego compatible flex track. You may see the
instructions here:
http://users.erols.com/kennrice/flextrack.htm
--
Ken Rice -=:=- kennrice (AT) erols (DOT) com
http://users.erols.com/kennrice - Lego Compatible Flex Track,
Civil War Round Table of DC & Concentration Camp made of Lego bricks
http://members.tripod.com/~kennrice
Maps of Ultima 7 Parts 1 & 2, Prophecy of the Shadow, Savage Empire,
Crusaders of Dark Savant & Others.
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Ken,
nice work. Let us know how well this operates.
I did some experimenting along these lines last summer, but I didn’t think of
cutting and bending tabs on the ATLAS track connectors, very cleaver. I was
going to grind flange off the base of the rails
http://www.akrailroad.com/images/25&30_lb_rail1small.gif
and fit them into old style track ties/sleepers. For my experiment I removed
the studs as you did, and glue connectors or plastic brackets onto the plates to
hold the rail. I’d done drawings for cusutom LEGO compatable sleepers, with the
bracket in place, but I lacked BBB’s courage($$$) to have them produced.
I thought I’d share some of my research if anyone else is planning to try this:
The ATLAS track uses code ~ 24 nickel Silver rail, this means that it is scaled
to real rail, but is .24 inches tall. With the connectors it’s just a bit
taller. Fortuneatly this is almost exactly what LEGO used to model thier track
dimensions on. LEGO is ~ code 250.
You can purchase code 250 rail from Llagas Creek
Railwayshttp://www.ntgrc.org/rail.htm:
Item 250NSNB @ $10.25/6ft length.
Which makes it a bit more expensive then LEGO track when you add the cost of
connectors and plates. But there’s a cheaper way! (see below) That length is a
bit over what you would need to to make 1/2 circle at a 72 stud (22.5”)radius if
you bought two rails!
If you are making fixed radius curves, it’s recomended that you get a rail
bender. http://www.llagastrack.com/index.html#railbender
Or make one using stacked washers (3 sets) that are losely attached to a board.
To save alot of money you can use aluminum rail. It holds up just fine for
indoor use, but it a pain in the @$$ to solder to!
If you want a cheaper solution then useing 2x8 plates. I recomend using 32 x 32
stud baseplates. You can cut these into 2 x 8 stud strips. They won’t click to
other baseplates on your layout. But that’s not very useful on curves anyway. In
fact it’s better to use these baseplate material for curved sections, as the
track height lines up better with LEGO straight track. The only kicker is that
the baseplate is Lt. gray enstead of Dk gray. Now if I could get brown
baseplate, that would look sweet!
As for connecting to LEGO track. I recomend cutting up curved track (we all seem
to have extra of this), and only using the very end half ties, and soldering the
very ends of the LEGO sheet metal onto some shaved nickel metal rail.
Mat
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| I have made a length of Lego compatible flex track. You may see the instructions here: (URL) Rice -=:=- kennrice (AT) erols (DOT) com (URL) - Lego Compatible Flex Track, Civil War Round Table of DC & Concentration Camp made of Lego bricks (URL) Maps (...) (20 years ago, 21-Feb-05, to lugnet.trains) !!
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