Chairs for soldered track

[Sun VI]

Hello folk,

I'm seeking some help or advice regarding placing chairs on soldered track.  I'm building a small O and O9 layout and have hand made most of the track, my first attempt at this.  It all works, but I want to improve the look of the track by adding chairs.  I bought a bag of two bolt GWR pattern plastic chairs from C&L at the RailWells exhibition, thinking that I could cut these in half and stick them each side of the already made rails.  I hadn't considered that the chairs appear to be made to slide on to rails before being glued to the sleepers.  Consequently, the top of the chair is about level with the top of the rail, rather than fitting into the web at the side.  For the half chair on the outside, it's not visually great but for the inside half it's not visually great and interferes with the smooth running of stock. 

 

Should I give up on this idea?  Are there chairs that would fit?  Is there anything that I could do with the existing chairs to improve the situation?  If new chairs are recommended, it doesn't matter to me what pattern they are, the layout's part of a preserved line and I would claim that anything goes. 

 

To view the layout, Crossways Wagon Works, please see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/110496-crossways-wagon-works-an-experiment-in-7mm/

 

Many thanks

[peter220950]

Hi,

 

Not sure if they would work, but the Peco chairs are slightly lower than C&L or Exactoscale, these are 3.03mm high, the Peco ones are 2.88mm.

 

Your rail could be lifted up from the pcb when soldering, if it's yet to be built, a thin brass shim would help to raise the level, or you could investigate something smaller like S gauge to see if they have any that might do.

 

I have a few of the Peco chairs, if you want one or two to play with, and see if they are any better, PM me with an address and I will send you some to try, if suitable ypu could then order from Peco.

 

Its definitely worth the added detail, unless you put in dummy track spikes.

 

Peter

 

Edit,

 

Photo of the Peco (black) against Exactoscale

Edited September 20, 2017 by peter220950

[Tim V]

You have soldered the rail directly to the sleepers. If you look at chaired track, there is a gap between the rail and the sleeper, the chair fits in this.

 

You could raise the rail off the sleepers by interposing a piece of brass.

 

The plastic chairs are used by cutting in half to fit round usually rivets that are put through holes in the sleepers. You should persevere, chaired bullhead on narrow gauge looks so different.

[martin_wynne]

Standard-gauge chairs are going to look too big for most narrow-gauge track, which typically uses lighter rail than standard gauge.

 

The S Scale Society have some moulded plastic chairs which may look better for 7mm narrow-gauge. They are designed to lift code 87 bullhead rail off the sleepers like other chairs, so may fit your soldered track after some fettling, if you have used larger rail than code 87.

 

http://www.s-scale.org.uk/track.htm

 

 

(I have not seen them and know nothing about them other than reading the above web site.)

 

Martin.

Edited September 20, 2017 by martin_wynne

[Sun VI]

Hi,

 

Not sure if they would work, but the Peco chairs are slightly lower than C&L or Exactoscale, these are 3.03mm high, the Peco ones are 2.88mm.    Thanks for the photo.

 

Your rail could be lifted up from the pcb when soldering, if it's yet to be built, ... It's all complete now and painted where necessary, so I'd rather not start trying to re do it.

 

I have a few of the Peco chairs, if you want one or two to play with ... that's very kind of you indeed.  I actually live very near to Beer and have a friend who has connections there - I'll see they can be of help

 

Its definitely worth the added detail, unless you put in dummy track spikes ... now that's an idea, do you know how that might be done? 

 

Peter

 

Peter, many thanks for such a prompt response, you given me another option to think about. 

[Sun VI]

Standard-gauge chairs are going to look too big for most narrow-gauge track, which typically uses lighter rail than standard gauge.

 

The S Scale Society have some moulded plastic chairs which may look better for 7mm narrow-gauge. They are designed to lift code 87 bullhead rail off the sleepers like other chairs, so may fit your soldered track after some fettling, if you have used larger rail than code 87.

 

http://www.s-scale.org.uk/track.htm

 

 

(I have not seen them and know nothing about them other than reading the above web site.)

 

Martin.

Thanks Martin, yes I've used code 125 for both standard and narrow gauge.  As both standard and narrow gauge lines are on the same sleepers, I preferred to stick to one track size.  The S Scale Society chairs certainly warrant a closer look.

[hayfield]

Did you use flatbottom or bullhead rail?

 

The smaller chairs from C&L are the code 82 flatbottom ST base plates. Not only would you have to cut them in half but also cut a notch on the inside to clear the foot of the rail

 

Peck sell spikes or fit down Bambi staples, then drill holes in the sleepers. Or just put blobs of thick glue of filler

 

For 009 I would go for flatbottom rail and spikes or spikes and plates. Unless someone does TT size chairs

[Sun VI]

Did you use flatbottom or bullhead rail?  Bullhead

 

The smaller chairs from C&L are the code 82 flatbottom ST base plates. Not only would you have to cut them in half but also cut a notch on the inside to clear the foot of the rail

 

Peck sell spikes or fit down Bambi staples, then drill holes in the sleepers. Or just put blobs of thick glue of filler  I've not heard of Peck before and can't find them on the internet, do you have a link or other contact details?

 

For 009 I would go for flatbottom rail and spikes or spikes and plates. Unless someone does TT size chairs  The 09 track is also on code 125 bullhead rail soldered directly on to the sleepers.

 

 

 

Hello Hayfield, thanks for your response.  Perhaps the following photo will show the relationship of the standard and narrow gauge lines.  Imagine that the preservation society running the works had been able to get hold of a load of standard bullhead rail either free or for a knock down price, hence its use for narrow gauge instead of buying proper narrow gauge rails (- that's my story and I'm sticking to it). 

[hayfield]

Sorry I was on my phone whilst on holiday and spell check kicked in Peck should have been Peco, plus I did not pick up you were using code 125 rail

 

Very impressive, but short of a total rebuild by lifting the rails by 1 mm to fit 7 mm chairs, having said this my idea of using the C&L ST baseplates (4SC 101B) may still work, or perhaps some 4 mm chairs. send me a PM with your address and I will send a sprue of 10 chairs of ST baseplates and some spare half chairs I have in 4 mm  scale to you

 

With hindsight I would have used C&L flexi track Which and glue one track/ spike the 09 out of code 82 flatbottom or the Peco Pandrol clips with code 75 flatbottom,

 

Must say a great idea 

[bertiedog]

I am not suggesting that this is an answer just to the poster, just a general piece of advice, PC track usually means no chairs, as there is nowhere under the rail to take the base, even after splitting the chair in two.

 

As said pre planning could add brass plates under the rail at each chair, but then why not fit the correct chairs in the first place.

There is an answer I used on a club layout that was all PC construction, but it does involved a well equipped workshop.

 

A punch and die must be made to stamp out brass half chairs from strips of brass stock of 0.4mm or so.

The punch and die is made to stamp the half chair, and as it goes down the die the punch has a second stage edge that shears a tab in one side of the base and bends it up wards. This whole process is done on a flypress, or lever geared press. Unfortunately the process of die making is complex and will be beyond the resources of most modellers.

 

The result is a half chair that has a raised tab that once soldered on the rail gives a convincing chair, even in 7mm scale.

 

There is an alternative, the bases with the tab could be photo etched in quantity on sheets, broken off and the tab bent to suit....but this would be a bit higher in cost than punched versions.

 

There is a third alternative that can be done at home, use plastic. Make the half bases from plastic strip cut up, glue on each sleeper, and then add a smaller pad vertically against the rail, with solvent, and then a dab of superglue to make it solid.

 

Hope the ideas help, or are for reference....

Stephen.