Getting back into track building

[Junctionmad]

I’m returning soon to personal layout building after years of club layouts using peco products.

I’m considering peco legacy bullhead and building all the crossings myself mostly turnouts and diamonds no slips

I’ve a lot of experience in FDM printers ( ender) but treating myself soon to a new FDM and a resin printer

So I’m thinking of plug track in 00-SF ( flaring back to peco as required)

Am I on the right track ??? !!

What would people recommend as a good resin printer I think I’ll buy the cure and wash unit also. I have a generous budget

Dave

 

[Martin Wynne]

So I’m thinking of plug track in 00-SF ( flaring back to peco as required)

Am I on the right track ??? !!

@Junctionmad

Hi Dave,

Only you can say if 00-SF is the right track! For 00 ideas I wrote some notes recently:

https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/00-track-gauge.615/post-5795

but that still leaves EM, EM-SF and P4 to think about.

For the plug track there are a couple of points to bear in mind:

1. It's still all very experimental and Ethelred. I'm hoping it will be a usable option by the middle of this year, but I said that last year!

2. It can if necessary be made with thin timbers matching flexi-track, but it is 100 times easier to build plug track with timbers 1/8" (3.2mm) thick in 4mm/ft scale:

Which means flexi plain track will need packing the trackbed with 1/16" card, cork, foam, etc., to match the rail top to plug track. Even more to match thin flexi such as Scaleway. Which actually makes it much easier to represent prototypical ballast shoulders and cess spaces etc. It isn't necessarily a problem, but it may need thinking about at the baseboard design stage.

Having now handled the thick FDM-printed plug track bases, I find them much easier to work with than the flimsy thin bases in Exactoscale and Finetrax kits. It means they can be cleanly fixed in place using pins or screws, all subsequently hidden under the ballast. That removes the messiness of gluing, the stress of getting the alignment perfect first time, and overnight waits for glue to set.

For resin printers there is a wide choice if budget is not an issue. I have been well pleased with the little Elegoo Mars 2 printer, but having a build plate no larger than a postcard is a bit limiting. Something larger would be nice -- especially if thoughts turn to 7mm scale or larger. Apart from the quality of the results, from watching the dozens of YouTube printer review videos it seems Elegoo also comes out top for build quality, customer service, printers arriving well packaged without damage or parts missing, etc.

The mystery of those reviews is that they nearly always show those ugly miniature fantasy figures being printed. I can't understand that many folks would want to print such things, or what they do with them when they've got them? A review about the results when printing a model signal or buffer stop would be so much more useful. Or is that just me?

cheers,

Martin.

 

[Junctionmad]

Thanks Martin. I am going to use peco legacy 00 peco legacy bullhead for plain track and it has a much thicker sleeper base then SMP etc.

Thanks for tips re resin. I’m really hoping to print my own chairs etc. I’m also buying a small laser for another project so I “ could” use it as well

 

[Hayfield]

Thanks Martin. I am going to use peco legacy 00 peco legacy bullhead for plain track and it has a much thicker sleeper base then SMP etc.

Thanks for tips re resin. I’m really hoping to print my own chairs etc. I’m also buying a small laser for another project so I “ could” use it as well

C&L also do a thick based 00 gauge flexitrack, the sleepers are in 60' panels with 12" timbers at each end and with the correct sleeper spacing. Also the chairs have keys in them. Its a bit dearer than Peco but you only buy it once and if you are representing the correct timber positions and chairs on a turnout why spoil it with incorrect plain track ?

 

[Junctionmad]

Thanks