Hand laying N scale track

[Kb4iuj]

Anybody here know where to find some Nickel Steel code 55 rail. Found the gauges & spikes at Micro Engineering. But, of course this trackage would be necessary for long straight runs where snap track would be deemed not necessary. And a 3 foot section of plastic ties trackage is just a tad expensive at $2-3 a section. Course, code 100 is naturally bigger and might yield a better ride at high speeds.

 

Anybody here fooled with such a task... I'm talking about 60 to 75 feet of just straight track but over and under and thru mountains & hills. Passing thru and over small towns enroute to a major city. As who here has really seen your model fly down a straight away at normal proto type speeds ?

 

Some of you guys might not know Texas is probably going to be buying some N700 (Houston to Dallas).

And ya might not know about the light rail system that's going in in Hawaii. Which has a Japanese build look about it, though they say their buying trains from Italy.

[Kb4iuj]

Another long great straight away trackage would be the Seven Mile bridge of the FEC to Key West. Like how many feet in a mile.

 

How many n-scale feet in 12". And if anybody here ponders this there are 2-3 different types of viaducts used. Clearly a sight to see come this winter time. Maybe by bicycle or Google Maps.

[kvp]

Good quality N scale code 55 flex track is made by Peco. It's actually code 80 sunken into the ties with the inner side of the ties formed a bit flatter to allow NEM standard wheels to run over them. True code 55 track is not usuable with standard flanges, so if you use true code 55, then you'll have to use finescale wheels on everything. A friend of mine ran into this while building an american layout for himself, only to find out that 99% of his rolling stock had oversized flanges. Even Kato made american locomotives need code 80 or the Peco/Tomytec kind of trick to make the code 80 look smaller and thinner.

 

ps: N scale size calculations can be done by multiplying the real feet with the scale, so 1 real feet is 148/150/160 feet in N scale (Nuk/Nj/N scales). 1 N scale mile is around 33 real feet.

[velotrain]

I was wondering just why you would want to hand lay - other than it being cheaper than flex, and only on the straights.

 

BTW - I think you're looking for nickel-silver rail.

 

I'd take kvp's suggestion of the Peco code 55, but use it everywhere except for the turnouts.  You'll need to work out how to join the two, but I'm sure it's been done before.

 

Since you appear to be interested in a better appearance than using all sectional track, I'm not sure what the reason is to use it in the curves.  Using cork roadbed should get the rail height up to about the same level as on the turnouts - although I gather the Kato is higher than the Tomix.

 

Most guys who hand lay will use individual wooden ties - even in N.  I believe the usual technique is to mount a long section on a piece of tape, then glue them all down at once, and then sand them level before staining and laying the rail.

[Kb4iuj]

Cost are a main consideration and challenge. Do note I'd be putting in a spike in some basswood every few inches. Hence, for a mountain scene where the tracks are covered in snow/white silicon