I don't like the weathered track myself

I don't like the weathered track myself. The weathering increases the friction between the rail and the ties, making it much harder to bend.

I find the unweathered track is just about perfect - bend easily, holds its shape (a trait I just love about ME track), and is super easy to solder feeders to.

Weathered track just seems to be filled with annoying extra work to me. A pain to bend, have to get out a motor tool and wire wheel to clean off the ends where the joiners go, to clean off a spot for the feeders ...

I much prefer to do all that work up front, then one time later come in and weather the rails. Half the time (at least) the weathering's not right, so I end up painting over it anyhow. Then there's the problem of matching the weathering on the flex track rails with the unweathered rails on turnouts ... the hassle just never stops!

IMO, go with the unweathered, you will be glad you did.

Thanks Joe

Exactly what I needed.  Insight from someone who has tried both ways and already found the path of least resistance.  Thanks!

ME Track

Hey BH -

I wish I had started with ME track myself (I stated with Atlas and changed over half way). I am modeling a yard and industrial trackage, and that is the kind of track that really gets (and shows) a thurough beating. So why am I bothering to say this at all? Well, like Joe said, ME flex track takes and holds a curve once you bend it (unlike Atlas 'wet spaghetti" track), and if you gently twist it before you get it in "position", you can introduce the look of wavy "slightly beaten" track what otherwise would be a piece of boringly straight (or even gently curved) track. And better yet, doing this does not produce poor tracking ability later one. The track is still in guage, and as long as your wheel sets are in guage too, you will have no problems. It's not a major visual effect, but very subtile and adds so much more "character" to the track, in my opinion.

CF

I'm with Joe on this one...

I've used weathered in the (distant) past. But now I use only ME UNweathered. It's easier to bend, solders better with less prep work, and it's a bit cheaper (at least the last time I looked).

One thing though - the ME wooden ties are thinner than the plastic flex track ties so you might want to shim them a bit between flex track sections (or under turnouts).

Although Atlas has made great strides in improving the appearance of their flex track, the ME still looks better (and is available in HO in 100, 83, 70, and 55!)

Charlie

And I'm with Joe and Charlie

I only started laying track just before Thanksgiving last year. It was Atlas code 100 on a hidden return loop.  I found the "floppiness" of the Atlas track to be convenient for making the proper radius, but difficult to keep in accuarte position and alignment while being caulked down.  When I started laying "real" track, my LHS only had 18 sticks of ME code 83 track, and 12 of them were "weathered" (they are actually blackend, which doesn't look weathered to me).  So I started laying the weathered track on the main, and used Atlas code 83 on the siding.  The weathered ME track was very difficult to form to the proper curvature, difficult to solder feeders to, and difficult to solder together.  The Atlas code 83 had the same floppiness of their code 100, and the same problems with maintaining a curve.  But the UNweatherd ME code 83 was great!  It curves almost as easily as the Atlas, but retained the curvature I wanted very well.  It looks great, and it was exactly 1 cent more expensive per piece than the Atlas.  My LHS has problems getting ME track, though, so I have found a source in New Jersey who has good contacts with ME.  I order it from him at a generous discount, and ME drop ships it to me in Georgia.  Which makes me wonder why my LHS couldn't do the same...

Good feedback!

I'm starting to get the feeling that laying flex might be even easier with ME non-weathered flex, than it is with Atlas, simply because ME does hold a curve.

I'm seeing a bit more than one cent per stick cost difference between Atlas and ME, but I think it's still well worth it.

With the information presented here, I am sure I want to use the non-weathered track.  Having to clean the weathering off the track in order to solder is reason enough, IMO.

Thanks guys!

It may have to do with minimum order requirements.

"I order it from him at a generous discount, and ME drop ships it to me in Georgia. Which makes me wonder why my LHS couldn't do the same." 

I ordered some ME flex track from my local hobby shop a few years ago.  I've been a regular customer there for many years and have special ordered a lot of stuff from them.  With ME the price and availability is better directly from ME than it is from a distributor like Walthers, but ME requires a $100.00 minimum to ship. 

If I wanted only a couple of pieces, the hobby shop would not have ordered it, because they would need to order $100.00 worth, and hope to sell the rest.  I wanted code 55 which is not going to be a big seller, so they could not justify an order of less than $100.00.  Since I needed a lot to build my switching layout, I ordered about $110.00 worth.  I expect that as I get my benchwork up and start building, I will need more.  I'm going to use the code 55 rail with Central Valley switch tie strips to build code 55 switches as well as using the ME code 55 flex.  I plan to start with the yard and see how much track that uses, and then plan for the rest of my layout based on that to make sure I order enough the first time.

You lhs may have not wanted to order less than $100.00 worth for you for fear of getting stuck.  Also if they don't know you that well, they may be hesitant to place a large order for fear you will "stick them."  Some hobby shops may be afraid to make special orders for fear of being stuck with unsellable product if the customer changes his mind.  My local hobby shop has been stuck a few times.  Needless to say, customer's who have ordered products and then decided they didn't want them after the product came in, lose the priviledge of any future special orders from the hobby shop.

I hear of people talking of

I hear of people talking of this technique. I wish someone would post a video on you tube and give visual demonstration of this. I have read about it, but I am a visual learner.

If you are talking about using the Central Valley switch tie

strips to make your own switches, Joe has a video on how to do it available from his web site.  I don't know if he makes his own frogs.  The Proto 87 store carries frog castings in both Proto 87 and NMRA standard sizes.  I plan to use the Proto 87 frogs on my switches.

CV Turnouts, the Joe Fugate way...

Joe files his own frogs using a fast tracks filing jig, The Frog Helper

There is a tutorial with pictures on Joe's Siskiyou Line forum too.

Is there a video on the Model-Trains-Video site Russ?  I know Joe mentioned he was going to do a video when he had time, I wasn't aware it was available already.

Where was MRH 2 years ago

Where was MRH 2 years ago when I bought 24 stacks of 6 tracks each all pre weathered? I asked a couple of hobby shops I dealt with at the time and they both said that the M.E. Pre weathered track was the way of to go. Well I will tell you Joe is almost dead right. M.E. Pre-weathered Track is everything but not impossible to use and once its down and wired and soldered it does look good for narrow Gauge track but it does take a bit of buffing the end rails and soldering is an adventure all it's own. I have always enjoyed a challenge and so I got one but the next Railroad I build will still use M.E. Track but it will be the shiny silver stuff.

I wish CV would start building HOn3 switch kits. It would sure speed things up for me. Don't get me wrong I love Fast Tracks fixtures and their Point form tools are the best as well as their Frog fixtures but I'm not real crazy about the gluing the ties to the rails that they use it can get a little messy at times of your not careful.

Dan

bare rail vs flex

FWIW, I used the weathered rail on my layout (not flex, mind you, but just bare rail), and didn't find it troublesome to work with. A metal brush on the dremel cleaned off the ends for joining and a spot for soldering feeders in about 20 seconds per rail section, and they bent just fine (Using the Fast Tracks rail bender).

I also haven't had much trouble blending it in with the turnouts, which were created using un-weathered rail.

I'm curious why the flex would be that much different, it would seem odd that they use different tie sets for weathered and un-weathered rail.

As an aside, Don, what do you glue? I'll agree the plobond is nasty stuff to work with, but once the pc board skeleton is soldered in, I've just spiked the turnout to the wooden ties underneath.

Custom Trax

Has anyone ever seen or tried using Custom Trax   http://custmtrax.com/index.html

They offer fully assembled turnouts and flexible track that is Code 83 nickel silver rail spiked to stained and weathered wooden ties on flexible roadbed and it's even ballasted with Woodland Scenics ballast (some choices of color are offered).

I haven't seen any reviews of this product and wondered if anyone has used it.  I can't believe the track is flexible, but videos show that it certainly is.  The flexible track seems a little expensive, but when you start to factor in the cost of track, roadbed, ballast, and your time and effort, I think the pricing is easier to justify, plus you end up with a hand laid look.  The switches are extemely well priced for what you get.

David

Custom Trax

Interesting product.

In watching the video of the straight track being flexed, I don't see the inside rail on the curve sticking out from either end of the track.  Maybe it's just not visible?

The price of the straight sections is too high for my tastes but the turnouts do seem more reasonable.  It would be interesting to see a review or to hear from someone who has used the product.

They should send a free starter pack to MRH for a first look article.

For myself, I think it's a bit too "ready to run".  I am getting ready to start building my own turnouts so a track system where everything is done for me is heading in the opposite direction from where I was going.

Glue tips

Regarding the mess related to gluing rail:  Hobsco has micro tips that attach to end of the glue container.  These really help control where and how-much.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/904-302

I believe I also saw a similar product on the FastTracks website, but I couldn't find it just now.

it would seem odd that they use different tie sets for weathered

Actually, I believe the problem with the weathered rail is that ME does NOT use different tie strips, and the blackening adds both a slight increase in size and a much greater coefficent of friction, both of which reduce the ability of the rail to slip throught he cast-in spike heads that hold the rail.

Glue Dispensing Tip

FastTracks has a tip for the pliobond adhesive as Don mentioned.

Here is the link.

Micro Dispensing Tube

I probably got confused.

I knew Joe had posted something about his method of doing "handlayed" turnouts using the Central Valley tie strips, and jumped to the conclusion that it was in a video.  I posted from memory.

Confused

You were likely recalling the discussion where Joe said he was going to get a CV turnout video up on the M-T-V site...

Of course he currently has so much on his plate with the magazine that making video tutorials has to get in line, no doubt along with a bunch of other things he has on his "to do" list.

Plans around building CV turnouts

I plan to do an article in MRH about building CV tie-based turnouts, and I want to do a video for it as well. I'll probably put a few highlights in an MRH video and make a full step-by-step video available for purchase from the Model Trains Video web site as a download. This will be the typical $1.99 - $2.99 download depending on format, so it won't break the bank for anybody.

I also want to include some tips for doing curved turnouts using the CV tie strips - they work really slick for that, too.

I also rely heavily on the Fast Tracks filing jigs - so the article and videos will show the entire process.

I hope to have this as a 2010 article in MRH, probably later this year.

Great!

I'm looking forward to both the article and video!

Is there a way I could have Model Trains Videos download automatically as new ones become available...just like that annoying Window Update thing, only not annoying at all in the case of M-T-V videos!  You could just bill my PayPal account accordingly...

Then when a new video is released I'll get a little popup that says "New VIDEOS are avaialble", or something like that...I know...I'm just dreaming! [wink]

Can't wait to hear about the tips for curved turnouts with CV tie strips!