Unitrack Restoration

[Tony Galiani]

I am wondering just how much abuse Unitrack turnouts can take.

I am struggling to sort out my next project and have been thinking of reviving Chihiro Tetsudo in the mean time.  It has been stored away since Catzilla struck though it should be reasonably easy to return it to operation (though updating the landscape and buildings will take a bit of time).

 

The key question is how to manage the Kato Unitrack turnouts.  Each of my layouts has some design flaws and the problem with Chihiro Tetsudo is that the manual turnouts are awkward to operate.  When I initially set the layout up, it was easy to operate the turnouts manually as there were not buildings or trees in the way.  Once the layout had that all in place, it became a challenge to manually change the turnouts with trees, buildings and trains in the way.

The layouts are heavily embedded in the scenery so converting them to power will be a bit of a challenge.  I see two options - cutting through the foamboard (2 inches / 50 mm) thick to run the wiring or pulling them up from the top.  I am thinking the bending and twisting required might damage the Kato turnouts but am not sure.

Has anyone had any experience pulling up glued down Unitrack?

Wondering if this is more trouble than it might be worth?

Any input appreciated.

 

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

 

(Based on some videos I have seen, I am thinking of converting the branchline to a gravel loading site and reorienting the town scene but only if I can get the track working well again.)

[gavino200]

I've done it a few times without damaging anything. But mine were never as buried as yours. Do you remember what glue you used to fix them in place? Usually you can get something thin like a spatula underneath to work them free. 

[inobu]

Tony,

 

On all of my build I plan for the future. Even if I build a DC layout I wire it for DCC. If something changes and it usually does its easily addressed.

Always plan for the future and watch out, preventing painting yourself in a corner. In this case it would have been no problem to just hang the switch wires under the layout.

 

If it were me I would make a complete assessment on what you don't like about on the complete layout. If there are a lot of time consuming issues then forgo the recovery and start over.  

 

The gating question is what happened to the wires under the switches. Did you cut them off, left some of the wire or what?

 

If there is some wire to work with then find the X Y location of the wire location. You can make a template of the switch and place it on top of the switch and measure 

the location from the x edge and y edge of the layout. You can then go under the layout and mark the same location. Boring out a hole to the switches wire location. 

 

Once again its depending on what happened to the wires.

 

If the wires are cut so short where you have take the switches apart to re-wire then the switches have to be extracted then do this.

 

Good that you used foam. Drill two holes on either side of the starting point of the switches to the depth just below the switches and hot wire the

switch section out. The drilled holes allows you to get the wire just below the surface and cut the switch and glued section. If you cut it flat

you can replace the switch as a complete piece.

 

 

Inobu

 

[Tony Galiani]

Thanks for the replies.

I initially glued the track down with white glue and in some places I could easily pull it up.  However, in other places, I built up the ground around the turnouts with plaster.  So digging them up would be messy.

As to the wiring underneath the turnout, the Unitrack turnouts are designed with a plug in system.  So to activate them, I would just need to plug the Kato cable into the underside of the turnout.  Getting there is the issue but maybe excavating the foam would be the way to go.

 

This was my first full layout build so future planning was not really on my mind.  I did design it so that I could add an extension at some point but that was about all the forward thinking I did.  Live and learn!

 

CIao,

Tony

[inobu]

Ok, the switches are #4 with the plug in you are in luck.

 

Just measure the switch locations and match the locations on the bottom of the layout and cut a hole to the bottom location of the switch and put the wire in.

 

 

 

 

Make sure to cut the hole as a slot to prevent disturbing the switch.

 

 

Inobu

 

 

[Tony Galiani]

Thank you!

This is very helpful.  I was thinking of going to the local  train store to buy a turnout so I could figure out where the plug is located.  Your information will make this a lot easier.  I will work on the layout over the next few days.

Tony Galiani

[inobu]

[gavino200]

Also if you have a rigid thin wire somewhere in your work room you can pass it down through the foam from the location of the wire socket insert. Then you can follow the wire back up through the foam to the exact location. It won't leave any visible mark on your scenery. That's how I would do this if it were a surgical procedure - which it sort of is. 

 

What I'm thinking of is a .045 inch K-wire. I have lots of them and they're handy hobby tools. But anything similar would work. 

 

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-a-kirschner-wire-2548523

[inobu]

15 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

Also if you have a rigid thin wire somewhere in your work room you can pass it down through the foam from the location of the wire socket insert. Then you can follow the wire back up through the foam to the exact location. It won't leave any visible mark on your scenery. That's how I would do this if it were a surgical procedure - which it sort of is. 

 

What I'm thinking of is a .045 inch K-wire. I have lots of them and they're handy hobby tools. But anything similar would work. 

 

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-a-kirschner-wire-2548523

Get these.

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-1-8-in-x-12-in-Black-and-Gold-Drill-Bit-DW1602-G/202579643

 

 

[Tony Galiani]

Success!

Thanks for all the helpful information!

I decided to give it a try with the tools I had on hand .... as well as my wife's bread knife with a serrated, narrow blade.

I used a drill bit designed to do holes after I measured the depth so that I would not go through the foam.  Once I had a hole open most of the way to the underside of the turnout, I used the bread knife (which also has a scalloped tip) to cut away the foam until I cleared out most of it.  Then, once I could see the underside of the turnout, I used a narrow chisel to clean out the space.  A long tweezers helped me connect the Kato wiring piece to the pins on the turnout.  Tested it several times and it worked as it should!  And I did not damage the scenery on the top of the layout.

 

I am pretty pleased and am more optimistic about restoring the layout.  I have four more turnouts to do but this was the most important one.  It is the one that is most difficult to reach once trees and buildings are in place so even if I do not succeed with the others, the layout can still be used easily as the other turnouts are all close to the front.  I will need some additional Kato turnout controls - hopefully I can run over to the hobby shop in Raleigh and pick them up.  With a little luck, I can get the remaining turnouts sorted in time to start renewing the layout on New Year's Day.

 

I am thinking I would like to try a winter scene  - I would like to do a full snow scene in the future so this will be a test bed for ideas.  I am unsure as to how to redo the town scene and long siding so will post this as a layout project once I have fixed the wiring.  I appreciate being able to get good ideas and that will encourage me to restore/improve the layout.

 

Mille grazie!  Ciao!

Tony Galiani

[Sheffie]

Nice work, Tony. This pink foam is pretty easy to work with!

[Tony Galiani]

This looks like an innocuous piece of track but it is not.  Last year I started a mini tram layout but gave up the project as it had two issues - I did not realize how heavy Sculptamold is and ended up seriously unbalancing the layout.  Then one of the compact turnouts went bad.  I recently pulled the track off and took the turnout apart to try and figure why it would not switch properly.  After a lot of head scratching - because the wire that throws the points seemed to work properly, I realized the problem was on the outside.  The piece connected to the throw bar had been pressed down and was binding.  Loosening it fixed the problem and so the points now work properly.  So the track became available for reuse - maybe another mini tram layout as I would like to have something small enough to sit on my workbench and run while I am working.

 

This particular piece of track had a level (well, more or less level) crossing on it made from plaster.  I soaked it in soapy water and the plaster dissolved - a little clean up and the residue was gone.  I was a bit nervous about this but when I dried it off and plugged into some other Unitrack, it worked just fine!  Actually, better than the other track which I had not cleaned.  So, good to know that Kato Unitrack is so robust.  I had read stories about washing it - glad to see that they were legitimate.

 

Ciao,

Tony

[cteno4]

Tony,

 

only thing that can happen with washing Unitrak can be a tad of oxidation on the rails that a contact cleaner can get off and also some oxidation and schmutz down in the metal couplers of unijoiners. It’s almost impossible to deal with any issues in the metal joiners themselves outside of replacing them. When I got to cleanup old sceniced track, I pull the unijoiners off and toss them in the ultrasonic bath with soap and then after a couple of rinse cycles in the bath I use to do a 95% isopropanol cycle, but now I just let them dry and spray contact cleaner on them. But at the first sign of being loos, cruddy or oxidized I just replace them, they are pretty cheap in the scheme of things working well. I’ve definitely been slowly replacing any old copper unijoiners that are still around.

 

jeff