Thanks so much for these videos. I've been wanting to learn how to hand lay N scale track for years....I watched your 2 videos, laying track & building turn-outs. How do you hand lay N scale on turns, while maintaining the radius, staying in gauge & such? I'd also like to know if you have a list of needed supplies & where to buy them. Thanks so much! Kirk
I've listed the tools I use in the video description. Most of the stuff should be available by basically all online vendors. Fast tracks parts can also be ordered directly from their website. For laying curved track I either eyeball it, when it's just a small curve after the diverging track of a turnout, or draw the line where the edges of the ties should be with a pencil and a piece of wood or styrene bent and clamped to the right curvature. If the ties are in about the right spot you should be good shape. For maintaining the track gauge an NMRA gauge is really the best way to check. The micro engineering tree point gauges are helpful, but sometimes the track ends up just a little bit too tight. It's easy to fix by quickly resoldering the spot with the correct gauge though.
Loved the video. I plan on hand laying my track as well, but still sorta in the research phase. So I would like to ask you. Do you use Code 40 or 55? If code 40...Where to you find wheel sets for your locomotives and rolling stock? I know low profile wheels are readily available for rolling stock, but am curious as to how well they perform on code 40 track, if this is in fact what you have. Nice video and thanks for posting this. I think more N scalers should consider this. Would love to see how to hand lay curved track as well. Thanks, and Cheers!!
Thanks a lot! I'm using code 40 rail. Soldered code 40 track actually provides more clearance than Atlas code 55 track. So hardly need to do any wheel swaps. I do change the wheel sets of micro trains cars to their low profile wheel sets but other than that rolling stock works just fine for the most part. I have two life like GP20 that seem to have flanges that are slightly too tall. I've not really come up with an idea how to deal with that. This is more of an issue when they need to run on Atlas code 55 track though. Building curved track works pretty much the same as straight track. I just place the PCB ties closer to each other. About every fifth tie would be a PCB tie on curved track. I also bend the rail to roughly the right curvature before soldering to eliminate the tension. After that it's just business as usual.
@@ModularRailroading That's very interesting to hear on the code 40 rail. I would have never guessed that. Most modelers I know or come in contact use the Atlas 55. But I seen John LaRocca's video on hand laid track and noticed he used 55 on the mains and 40 for the yards and sidings. But when I saw your track gauges with 40, I had to delve deeper. I appreciate the response, as there just isn't too many people that try this in our scale. And if they do it's usually 55. Hopefully your video will give some inspiration to others to try as well. Thanks again...Cheers!!
I am just starting a shelf layout with code 40 and this video is a huge help. What’s your method for adding feeders to your track and turnouts? Also do you solder 3 ft sections or 18 in?
That sounds like a nice project! I got the 3ft long rail sections. Most of the pieces of rail that make up my track probably aren't longer than 18", but I feel there's a better chance to not end up with a bunch of unusable short rail sections when starting with 3ft. I drill holes for the feeder wires right next to the rail. About halfway between the PCB ties and then solder the feeder wires to the bottom of the rail. I simply jam the soldering iron into the gap between rail and roadbed and add a liberal amount of solder to secure the feeder. To power the frogs of turnouts it's best to drill the hole before building the turnout and add the feeder while soldering the frog section. When everything is painted and ballasted the feeder and the solder blob that secures it are invisible 😉
@@ModularRailroading Thanks, I’d read in an old MR article that they found the longer lengths harder to work with but I think that may have been with the pliobond method (which I tried but found not to my liking). I hope you will keep adding video’s. Your minimalist approach to production is greatly appreciated.
@@alanjannone Thanks! You might need to wrestle with the rail a bit to get the first one or two solder joints in place when working with a full 3ft section. But you can always cut the rail to roughly the required length. And when the first joints are in place and everything is pointing in roughly the right direction it's relatively smooth sailing.
I like the idea of soldering rails that will cross between two modules to screws tied into the benchwork. On your modules how do you align them so tracks line up easily and smoothly when the modules are connected?
I use alignment pins for all module connections that aren't the universal interface. The pins have a male and female part and I drill the holes for them into the face plates before building the modules and mark the face plate pairs and which orientation they where in when I drilled the holes. Then I only need to glue the alignment pin parts into the holes and the modules go together exactly the same way every time they're assembled. The universal module interface our group uses is a pair of holes in the face plate at predefined positions in relation to the single track main line. The modules are bolted together with screws that have a smaller diameter than the drilled holes so there's some wiggle room for adjustments.
@@ModularRailroading Very cool video, well presented. But, I am also curious about how you do the connections. The written word is pretty descriptive, but, is there any chance you could do a 'how you do' video on this ? And, I love that you grind off the screw heads... I was planning to just go with a little smaller screw, with a flat head, and solder to that. But, I really like your way, and am going to borrow your method! Thanks for showing that!
@@dghmrrinn951 Thank you! I'm not planning to build any new modules in the near future but I think I can make short "behind the scenes" and "between the joints" video showing how the segments go together and how they are aligned.
Thanks! On spurs and industrial track I don't use a sub roadbed and glue everything directly to the top of the module. For main line tracks I use 3mm cork strips. I bought a pack of cork sheets at a hardware store years ago and cut the strips to the size I need from those sheets.
Thanks for the video. I’d like to see how you do curved sections of track as well.
Very helpful
Another enjoyable video. Thank you!
wow so much work!! I admire the hand laid track though, it's the ultimate for realistic model railroad
Thanks so much for these videos. I've been wanting to learn how to hand lay N scale track for years....I watched your 2 videos, laying track & building turn-outs. How do you hand lay N scale on turns, while maintaining the radius, staying in gauge & such? I'd also like to know if you have a list of needed supplies & where to buy them. Thanks so much! Kirk
I've listed the tools I use in the video description. Most of the stuff should be available by basically all online vendors. Fast tracks parts can also be ordered directly from their website.
For laying curved track I either eyeball it, when it's just a small curve after the diverging track of a turnout, or draw the line where the edges of the ties should be with a pencil and a piece of wood or styrene bent and clamped to the right curvature. If the ties are in about the right spot you should be good shape.
For maintaining the track gauge an NMRA gauge is really the best way to check. The micro engineering tree point gauges are helpful, but sometimes the track ends up just a little bit too tight. It's easy to fix by quickly resoldering the spot with the correct gauge though.
Loved the video. I plan on hand laying my track as well, but still sorta in the research phase. So I would like to ask you. Do you use Code 40 or 55? If code 40...Where to you find wheel sets for your locomotives and rolling stock? I know low profile wheels are readily available for rolling stock, but am curious as to how well they perform on code 40 track, if this is in fact what you have. Nice video and thanks for posting this. I think more N scalers should consider this. Would love to see how to hand lay curved track as well. Thanks, and Cheers!!
Thanks a lot! I'm using code 40 rail. Soldered code 40 track actually provides more clearance than Atlas code 55 track. So hardly need to do any wheel swaps. I do change the wheel sets of micro trains cars to their low profile wheel sets but other than that rolling stock works just fine for the most part. I have two life like GP20 that seem to have flanges that are slightly too tall. I've not really come up with an idea how to deal with that. This is more of an issue when they need to run on Atlas code 55 track though.
Building curved track works pretty much the same as straight track. I just place the PCB ties closer to each other. About every fifth tie would be a PCB tie on curved track. I also bend the rail to roughly the right curvature before soldering to eliminate the tension. After that it's just business as usual.
@@ModularRailroading That's very interesting to hear on the code 40 rail. I would have never guessed that. Most modelers I know or come in contact use the Atlas 55. But I seen John LaRocca's video on hand laid track and noticed he used 55 on the mains and 40 for the yards and sidings. But when I saw your track gauges with 40, I had to delve deeper. I appreciate the response, as there just isn't too many people that try this in our scale. And if they do it's usually 55. Hopefully your video will give some inspiration to others to try as well. Thanks again...Cheers!!
I am just starting a shelf layout with code 40 and this video is a huge help. What’s your method for adding feeders to your track and turnouts? Also do you solder 3 ft sections or 18 in?
That sounds like a nice project! I got the 3ft long rail sections. Most of the pieces of rail that make up my track probably aren't longer than 18", but I feel there's a better chance to not end up with a bunch of unusable short rail sections when starting with 3ft.
I drill holes for the feeder wires right next to the rail. About halfway between the PCB ties and then solder the feeder wires to the bottom of the rail. I simply jam the soldering iron into the gap between rail and roadbed and add a liberal amount of solder to secure the feeder.
To power the frogs of turnouts it's best to drill the hole before building the turnout and add the feeder while soldering the frog section.
When everything is painted and ballasted the feeder and the solder blob that secures it are invisible 😉
@@ModularRailroading Thanks, I’d read in an old MR article that they found the longer lengths harder to work with but I think that may have been with the pliobond method (which I tried but found not to my liking). I hope you will keep adding video’s. Your minimalist approach to production is greatly appreciated.
@@alanjannone Thanks! You might need to wrestle with the rail a bit to get the first one or two solder joints in place when working with a full 3ft section. But you can always cut the rail to roughly the required length. And when the first joints are in place and everything is pointing in roughly the right direction it's relatively smooth sailing.
I like the idea of soldering rails that will cross between two modules to screws tied into the benchwork. On your modules how do you align them so tracks line up easily and smoothly when the modules are connected?
I use alignment pins for all module connections that aren't the universal interface. The pins have a male and female part and I drill the holes for them into the face plates before building the modules and mark the face plate pairs and which orientation they where in when I drilled the holes. Then I only need to glue the alignment pin parts into the holes and the modules go together exactly the same way every time they're assembled.
The universal module interface our group uses is a pair of holes in the face plate at predefined positions in relation to the single track main line. The modules are bolted together with screws that have a smaller diameter than the drilled holes so there's some wiggle room for adjustments.
@@ModularRailroading Very cool video, well presented. But, I am also curious about how you do the connections. The written word is pretty descriptive, but, is there any chance you could do a 'how you do' video on this ?
And, I love that you grind off the screw heads... I was planning to just go with a little smaller screw, with a flat head, and solder to that. But, I really like your way, and am going to borrow your method! Thanks for showing that!
@@dghmrrinn951 Thank you! I'm not planning to build any new modules in the near future but I think I can make short "behind the scenes" and "between the joints" video showing how the segments go together and how they are aligned.
Great videos. What is your sub roadbed?
Thanks! On spurs and industrial track I don't use a sub roadbed and glue everything directly to the top of the module. For main line tracks I use 3mm cork strips. I bought a pack of cork sheets at a hardware store years ago and cut the strips to the size I need from those sheets.
Where did you get the glue from?
The glue is just basic white glue for glueing wood parts together. It should be available in any home depot or similar.