Over 50 years ago I was taught that for a seamless curve one needs to solder the track together for the entire curve on a straight line. This will completely eliminate any kinks in the curve. I have soldered as many as 4 flex track sections together in a curve and have had no kinks ever since i was taught this method.
Finding this saved my project! I was having a real struggle trying to lay Hornby flexi track on my twin track helix (the first of two) without having frequent derailments. After several tries at various ways of laying it, I can now get much smoother curves and have a success rate of about 90% compared with 10% before. Thanks so much for posting this detailed tutorial. Paul in NZ.
@user-pw3uq2cj4k Hi Paul 👋 I'm so glad this was helpful to your 90% success rate on your curved rails...that's just , awesome !! Thank you for commenting ...👍 Darrell SoCal 🇺🇸
wow this is just amazing. i was doing the exact same thing mystic said he was doing removing the ties. An then the way you solder the rail joiners i always put the solder next to the rail joiners and then the iron. But putting the solder on the tip would be better that way you don't get a bunch of extra solder on there. You made the perfect video on how to do it. i really appreciate you making this video I'm sure there will be more people will watch this and learn from it. thank you so much i will be doing this today.
Thanks Darrell, I learned something here. I was removing the end ties instead of cutting between them. then I would sand them down and slide them back under the track after laid. Cutting them between saves a step. Thanks Man :)
I never solder the inside section of the rails... If you hit the underside of the rail joiners, it will solder the joint from both sides, reducing the possibility of getting solder on the flange portion of the rails.
Couldn't you solder 3-4 sections of flex track together all at once? I know different flex track only one real slides, so I could see by soldering the whole curve at once that you might have 5 or more inches of uneven rails at the end. Good tutorial.
You could but when you do that you have 9 to 12 ' to deal with not to mention twisting the rails and because one side moves you will have to take out more sleepers/ties witch leaves a bigger gap that does have ties holding the curved rails .🙂Darrell
Darrell I do the same with my flex track always soldered them with the track straight. Good tip on what to do with the ties I always removed them and then filed them down and slide them under the rails I like your method much better. Thanks
Thank you Sparky and i am humbled for your Subscription ! I would SUB back but been a Subscriber for years to your channel which has helped me in many ways 🙂 Derail Darrell
Hello, so there are many ways to determine your radius. Cheapest way to do a radious is , take yard stick , at the 1 inch mark put a nail in . Next , if you want a 24inch radius, drill a hole big enough to fit a pencil at the 12 inch mark and put the pencil in and draw your radius... hope that helped...Darrell
Cheers...I just remove my ties and jamb them back in before ballasting...I did need to cut a bit out on top of the ties so they sit right under the joiners.
Ties under the track joiners will have to be filed thinner most of the time no matter if you take them out or slide them out of the way. In fact if you slide them out of the way, they will not come back under the joiner at all.
thank, you for youre great helpful video👍 seems i had bad luck on laying peco #83 flex track on a curve. why? well seems the rail was breaking off of the sleepers. so, now ive. got better luck just using the flex track for stright track only.] [now, you have a better way of making flex track work out for a curve]👍
Loved the video! Question, if a turn spans two power districts, how do you handle using insulated rail joiners instead of soldering the two pieces together? Or is it just better to wait until the next straight section to add insulated rail joiners?
@JimTittle , Thanks for the kind comment !! Yes , most definitely wait till you got a straight piece of track for insulated rail joiners (plastic) . Hope i was helpful 👍 Darrell
After the track is laid and ballasted all you have to do is cut the rail and the cut will be large enough to isolate the section. If you want to have a seamless joint, fill it with styrene shaped to the outline of the rail.
Soldering inside of the rail is just fine as long as you have good technique and don't leave "blobs" of solder. I have done this for the past 50 years in many clubs and on many layouts.
Over 50 years ago I was taught that for a seamless curve one needs to solder the track together for the entire curve on a straight line. This will completely eliminate any kinks in the curve. I have soldered as many as 4 flex track sections together in a curve and have had no kinks ever since i was taught this method.
@davidcurtis5398 Hi David 👋 Awesome and Thank you for stopping in and commenting...appreciated 😁👍DD
Finding this saved my project! I was having a real struggle trying to lay Hornby flexi track on my twin track helix (the first of two) without having frequent derailments. After several tries at various ways of laying it, I can now get much smoother curves and have a success rate of about 90% compared with 10% before. Thanks so much for posting this detailed tutorial. Paul in NZ.
@user-pw3uq2cj4k Hi Paul 👋 I'm so glad this was helpful to your 90% success rate on your curved rails...that's just , awesome !! Thank you for commenting ...👍 Darrell SoCal 🇺🇸
wow this is just amazing. i was doing the exact same thing mystic said he was doing removing the ties. An then the way you solder the rail joiners i always put the solder next to the rail joiners and then the iron. But putting the solder on the tip would be better that way you don't get a bunch of extra solder on there. You made the perfect video on how to do it. i really appreciate you making this video I'm sure there will be more people will watch this and learn from it. thank you so much i will be doing this today.
Thank you Dwight for your kind words and i really appreciate it . Hopefully this video will help others as well 🙂 Darrell
Darrell, I really enjoyed this tutorial. your solder joints are beautiful buddy. thank you for sharing your method with us. it was very helpful. David
Thank you Dave and coming from seasoned modeler much APPRECIATED 🙂 Darrell
what a very splendid tutorial Darrell
Thank you ...much Appreciated !! 🙂 Darrell
Thanks Darrell, I learned something here. I was removing the end ties instead of cutting between them. then I would sand them down and slide them back under the track after laid. Cutting them between saves a step. Thanks Man :)
Thanks John much Appreciated 🙂 actually i did this video for Dwight Kerley but I'm humbled that this was helpful even to a seasoned modeler . Darrell
@@deraildarrell I'm not seasoned Darrell, I been at it a little over 2 years. I learn from folks like you :)
Nice job well explained.
Phil
@uptownphotography Many Thanks and appreciated 👍DD
Made things look simple, thank you.
Hi Rick, There are many ways of doing track work !! Hope this would help a fellow model railroader... down the road . Thanks for stopping by 👍 Darrell
I never solder the inside section of the rails... If you hit the underside of the rail joiners, it will solder the joint from both sides, reducing the possibility of getting solder on the flange portion of the rails.
@willparsons32 Appreciate ya stopping in and commenting...many Thanks 👍😎DD
Couldn't you solder 3-4 sections of flex track together all at once? I know different flex track only one real slides, so I could see by soldering the whole curve at once that you might have 5 or more inches of uneven rails at the end. Good tutorial.
You could but when you do that you have 9 to 12 ' to deal with not to mention twisting the rails and because one side moves you will have to take out more sleepers/ties witch leaves a bigger gap that does have ties holding the curved rails .🙂Darrell
@@deraildarrell That is no big problem....
excellent solder work my friend
@@toddarmstrong.trackside.action Hi Todd 👋 Many Thanks and appreciated 👍 DD
Great tutorial Darrell. I think we need a full layout update showing the whole layout.
Why ... Thank you 😁 Darrell
Nice video Darrell that how I do it too. sharing this to a friend who doent understand this process over the phone LOL
Hi Ray 👋 Hopefully this will be helpful and awesome on sharing , Thank you and appreciated 👍 DD
Darrell, I am surprised that you solder the inside of the rails, I normally stagger the joints on the curve, great video,
Hi James and there are so many ways to do this and staggering works jus fine as well 🙂 Darrell
Darrell yes sir, I learned from Vinny
Darrell I do the same with my flex track always soldered them with the track straight. Good tip on what to do with the ties I always removed them and then filed them down and slide them under the rails I like your method much better. Thanks
Thank you Thomas !! Been doing this for as long as i can remember with flex track, makes for a very nice curve no matter what degree it is . 😎Darrell
amazing process to joint the flextrack,
Thank you and much appreciated 🙂 Darrell
i am sure this was very helpful.. Thanks for taking the time to show your method.
Thank you Sparky and i am humbled for your Subscription ! I would SUB back but been a Subscriber for years to your channel which has helped me in many ways 🙂 Derail Darrell
Great video. Described the process very well.
Thank you very very much John !! I think i covered everything and the video was WAY longer than anticipated 🙂 Darrell
Very good demonstration. Thank you for posting.
Thank you Bob much Appreciated !! Darrell
I have seen a guy stagger the joiners sothat the curve appears more smooth and you could hardly see where the joints are. Any comments on this?
Hi, and yes , i have seen this done. It's very effective as well . Thank you for your comment...appreciated 👍 Darrell
I don't glue track, I nail it down. Much easier to work with
Hi @customwood 👋 Thank you for your nice comment , and absolutely nailing track works great as well... 👍 DD
Nailed down track looks childish.
It's amazing video. And the tutorial of this video is very good. I just saw this video 10 times
Glad you enjoyed it , so much 👍 Darrell
How do I know the radius on my flex track?
Hello, so there are many ways to determine your radius. Cheapest way to do a radious is , take yard stick , at the 1 inch mark put a nail in . Next , if you want a 24inch radius, drill a hole big enough to fit a pencil at the 12 inch mark and put the pencil in and draw your radius... hope that helped...Darrell
Very very helpful, thank you. 🙂
Very welcome , Hill Top 👍😎 Darrell
Cheers...I just remove my ties and jamb them back in before ballasting...I did need to cut a bit out on top of the ties so they sit right under the joiners.
There are so many ways to do this and I've done it this way as well ... 🙂 Darrell
Ties under the track joiners will have to be filed thinner most of the time no matter if you take them out or slide them out of the way. In fact if you slide them out of the way, they will not come back under the joiner at all.
thank, you for youre great helpful video👍 seems i had bad luck on laying peco #83 flex track on a curve. why? well seems the rail was breaking off of the sleepers. so, now ive. got better luck just using the flex track for stright track only.] [now, you have a better way of making flex track work out for a curve]👍
Hi @gerlandkent , I'm glad you found this video very helpful, and I appreciate your feedback...Thank you for watching 👍 DD
Loved the video! Question, if a turn spans two power districts, how do you handle using insulated rail joiners instead of soldering the two pieces together? Or is it just better to wait until the next straight section to add insulated rail joiners?
@JimTittle , Thanks for the kind comment !! Yes , most definitely wait till you got a straight piece of track for insulated rail joiners (plastic) . Hope i was helpful 👍 Darrell
After the track is laid and ballasted all you have to do is cut the rail and the cut will be large enough to isolate the section. If you want to have a seamless joint, fill it with styrene shaped to the outline of the rail.
Really good informative video, 👍
Thank you much Appreciated !! Darrell
Good vid , stop repeating yourself, get to the point!
Thanks and appreciate you watching 👍 DD
Nice ❤
Thank you 😎 Darrell
Great tutorial... thank man.
Thanks Rick glad you enjoyed it 😎 Darrell
😊
In English, the L is silent in the word solder.
Thanks for watching 👍 DD
why not use solder with resin flux in it!!! too much flux is dangerous
Thank you 👍
That's just false. All you have to do is remove the flux with alcohol after you are done. How can you use to much???
Very nice tutorial! Got a sub from me!
Well ... Thank you John and hope it was helpful 👍 😎 Darrell
never solder the inside of the rails … it interferes with wheel movement and can cause derailments … frankly SURPRISED at such a process
Thank you 👍
files work pretty good to fix that
Soldering inside of the rail is just fine as long as you have good technique and don't leave "blobs" of solder. I have done this for the past 50 years in many clubs and on many layouts.
Nice
Thanks Jacob ... much Appreciated 🙂 Darrell
[youre, video was very clear and understanding]👍
@Garland Kent ... Thank you again for your feedback...appreciated 👍 DD
OK
Thank you for watching 👍 DD
I gave up watching because if the number of times he used SO.
So I gave up.
Sorry to hear that... 😞 You can always contact me via my email on my about page ...👌Darrell
He has a point...