Is it necessary to wash flex track in a detergent solution before laying it to prepare it for painting/weathering with acrylic latex paint, e.g. Polly Scale?  I had read someplace that someone had reported adhesion problems in painting the plastic ties on flex track with these types of paints and thought the problem might be due to some residue on the plastic ties, e.g. mold release chemicals.

Thanks for your help,

Bob

I have several PECO code 83 turnouts, mostly the curved ones that are DCC friendly. These turnouts have a spring in the throwbar which keeps the points in place whichever way the turnout was last thrown. I plan to use Tortoise turnout motors. Should I remove the throwbar spring or is the Tortoise motor strong enough at 12 V to override the spring?

John

Hi,

Can someone please explain why turnouts should not be install at an angle with the gradient? Do they always have to be level?

My proposed layout has a 1.8% gradient on the left hand side from the sweep around the back of the Engine House up past the platform and on to the cross-over bridge at top. There are five turnouts in this section. If it were feasible to include the turnouts in-line with the gradient I could reduce that climb to about 1%.

Colleagues,

For my layout (swiss style), I'm looking for a system allowing to control all swiches, signals, etc, by PC. I know that it's possible by using any digital system (DCC or similar), but I don't want to install DCC on my layout, as:

- The central units are very expensive

- I have a very extensive engine collection, and I would not like to have to install a decoder in about 450 engines