I usually think of this sort of thing in the 1:1 world, but obviously not here. Maybe I thought that with the distances and tolerances involved there would not be a problem. I had re-laid the track on a bridge that previously had track laid on it by my father many years ago. I then ballasted the curves on both sides leading to the straight bridge. The bridge is simply ply supported by pine risers, very rigid. Track is Peco code 100 flextrack. I must have done this in winter, we get typically 12-22 degree days in winter and 6 degrees is the lowest it will get to overnight. This week we had one 32 degree day and I got this Not a lot, but looks terrible with the guard-rails, and can cause de-railments. No damage anywhere else on the layout. For laid track got out the trusty Dremel with cutting wheel. Just one cut on each rail was enough to remove the excess tension in the rail and it all snapped back to straight. Extra clearance and tidying was achieved with a flat file. Temperature today is back to a typical figure for this time of year, 22 degrees. Some track joiners and re-gluing the guard rails later and all is good. It's pictures like this that make me cringe about how much junk I have left around on the layout, and how much more there still is to do. Live and learn. Cheers Tony
Glad you got your track sorted out. We have a different problem in Scotland ....... The track contracts with the cold. I wouldn't say it was that cold but we lose one inch per foot of track in winter.
Hi Tony Expansion joints are about the only thing I use the Peco rail joiners for. The winter temps you describe sound like a summers day for us, so for your temps may be worth having more regular expansion joints. You could anchor the center of a piece of rail by soldering it to a nail to prevent the rail moving, with the rail joiners at each end coping with the expansion. The repair came out well tho' Paul
My problem was that although I did have expansion joins around, they were already closed up, this was a full (914mm?) length of flex track and it was in the middle of that section. I also wanted tight gaps between rails for better running especially with any fine scale HO 33" wheelset that might not like a large gap and find a new path of their own. Cheers Tony
Hi Tony You could stagger the expansion joints so that one wheel of the axle is always supported. I don't use the rail joiners for electrical connectivity - each piece of rail has at least 1 dropper connected to it Paul
Great idea with the staggered joins Paul, will try that next time. Next time to be hopefully soon, it will be a plank layout, primarily for kids beyond the racing games of most kids layouts. Cheers Tony
Wednesday was certainly hot for this time of the year. Rather than cutting the track directly across the rail, cut on a shallow angle to the rail. This can be done using a razor saw. This will be less noticeable but still allow for expansion. This can be done on all full lengths of flex track around the layout. As Paul mentioned, you will be required to add droppers to each section that has been cut. Cheers, Gary.
Good tip Gary Thankfully LSD has not suffered this problem, possible due to all the joints around the pointwork. However, my old oo gauge layout with Tillig trackwork did have the same problem on one very long curved section. At least there was no major damage Tony, just an easy fix. Kim