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fiNetrax


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I'm right with Karhedron on this (post 25). Bought a couple of meters of Wayne's track last week to investigate and will move completely to FiNetrax if I can make the points work without too much hassle. In an e-mail, Wayne indicated they were imminent. Can't wait, because I think the results will be well worth it.... Wayne was of the opinion that most contemporary, proprietory N gauge stock should run on code 40, but that older pizza cutter wheeled stock could (changed from would, apologies) be a problem.

 

Alastair M

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I'm sure Wayne is right that any recently launched (last 5 years?) stock will be fine on the Code 40. There may still be a few items out there in the manufacturers catalogues and on shop shelves that were designed longer ago and still have oversize flanges. Even these may prove to be OK - BH is more forgiving than FB because the fixings/chairs don't get in the way so much.

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There may still be a few items out there in the manufacturers catalogues and on shop shelves that were designed longer ago and still have oversize flanges.

Not the case with the Farish range - the Bachmann produced stock all went over to finer flanges quite quickly. A couple of the early Dapol models suffered from flangitis, but that also rapidly got fixed with future batches.

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We have an informal meeting round at the pub (Fountain, Enmore Green, Shaftesbury) this evening and it was agreed that we should all take a recent acquisition to show to others.

 

Quite a few N gaugers are turning up so it really was time for me to persevere with the parcel of fiNetrax that I received last week. Just made up a 60' length (to  scale!) to stand my Engineers Saloon on.

 

I did manage to be a bit quicker than last week but the prospect of 30 metres of the stuff is still quite daunting. I think it will be OK though once I make up an assembly jig.

 

Apart from looking great, the big bonus for me is finding how robust it is once assembled. OK, you can't give it the abuse that you can to Peco, but with reasonable care it should be quite easy to use. 

post-14663-0-69711400-1360150675_thumb.jpg

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I did manage to be a bit quicker than last week but the prospect of 30 metres of the stuff is still quite daunting. I think it will be OK though once I make up an assembly jig.

 

 

The 2mm Scale Association sell a jig for the assembly of Easitrac, and it does indeed make it much faster to put the rails in, as well as reducing the chance of breaking the chairs whilst doing so. It would not work directly with Finetrax as the sleeper spacing differs, but I am sure something similar would be possible.

 

CHris

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Hi Guys,

Nice to see people using my fiNetrax. Work on the turnout kits is progressing and I thought I would post some pics of the Nickel Silver Lost Wax Cast Frog that I first had done (sorry about the quality of the pics, the white balance of the camera is completely off):

1 in 6 with 0.85mm flangeway...

DSC_5577.JPG
DSC_5581.JPG
DSC_5584.JPG
DSC_5570.JPG
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Not easily seen in the images but there is actually representation of bullhead section which matches well with the actual rail.

Today I should receive a batch of 20 3D printed frogs to send to the caster, I am hoping he will have no issues burning out the plastic material.

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Hi Wayne,

 

Thanks for posting those shots. Accurately filing and then soldering together reliably the crossing (frog) was one of my weak areas in 4mm track building. So I definitely like the idea of pre-cast and these look good.

 

My other big problem is tie-bars. Looking forward to seeing your solution to that.

 

Joseph

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Hi Wayne,

 

The nickel silver lost wax cast frogs look great, I am really pleased that the development moves in a positive direction for you.

 

Really looking forward to seeing these turnouts now, as Ben says, please keep us updated.

 

Cheers

Lee

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My other big problem is tie-bars. Looking forward to seeing your solution to that.

 

I would agree that tie bars are the making or breaking of these points. I have always found making these far more of a pain than the frogs.

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Really getting excited now, along with the others on this thread.

 

Great development all round. If the points get nailed then this has got to be one the biggest steps forward in N since Dapol and farish stepped their respective games up with the rolling stock improvements, whilst the trackwork was left in the dark ages.

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It certainly is.

 

I think that a lot of people have been put off N over the years by over-large wheel flanges running along "girders". This quality of track could persuade a lot of folk to convert to N and improve the market for Dapol and Farish (and Arnold, of course).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Guys,

Just a couple of snaps of a half built diamond crossing showing how the cast frog blends with the nickel silver rail. The alignment into the holes is perfect :)

DSC00176.jpg
DSC00179.jpg

The top of the cast rails is just slightly under the other rails which will be solved in the next cast. Also, the section of the rail (the head, web and foot) doesn't quite match the rest of the rail so I am also tweaking this. I am pretty happy with the colour match, though.

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Super stuff

 

I'd think myself that most modellers would be pretty likely to be wanting to paint their track anyway so that colour match is probably not that important although i suppose you'd still want the rail top to match or be pretty close. Looks like you've achieved that anyway.

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Thanks for the comments guys!

 

I could cast the chairs in but they would be nickel finish/colour so opted instead for plastic half chairs to be glued in place (not shown on pic) as this will give a better finish.

 

It is also my aim to have the 'K' crossings of diamond and slip kits pre cast.

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Hi Guys,

 

Just a couple of snaps of a half built diamond crossing showing how the cast frog blends with the nickel silver rail. The alignment into the holes is perfect :)

 

DSC00176.jpg

DSC00179.jpg

 

The top of the cast rails is just slightly under the other rails which will be solved in the next cast. Also, the section of the rail (the head, web and foot) doesn't quite match the rest of the rail so I am also tweaking this. I am pretty happy with the colour match, though.

 

Looks stunning.

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I could cast the chairs in but they would be nickel finish/colour so opted instead for plastic half chairs to be glued in place (not shown on pic) as this will give a better finish.

Wouldn't all these parts need painting (other than the railhead) when the track was weathered anyway?

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