Rail length

[AMJ]

I was sat riding inside the bar car on a railway enjoying a pint of ale thinking about it few things.....

 

Most model track maker's produce rails in most scales and gauges as standard yard long lengths.

 

A yard in OO would equate to 76 yards (or 3*76 yards for length in feet). N scale will be roughly twice and O about the equivalent of 130'.

 

Ignoring modern welded rails prototype track is often laid with 60' track panels.

 

Being prototypical even for O a yard of track will need to be cut in half. A Mark I coach is roughly the same length as a standard 60' track panel. Some locations use shorter 40' sections.

 

At least as modeller's we do not need to be continually jacking and packing the joints when they have dipped.

 

Should we be cutting track into 60' realistic equivalent lengths?

[Merfyn Jones]

I was sat riding inside the bar car on a railway enjoying a pint of ale thinking about it few things.....

 

Most model track maker's produce rails in most scales and gauges as standard yard long lengths.

 

A yard in OO would equate to 76 yards (or 3*76 yards for length in feet). N scale will be roughly twice and O about the equivalent of 130'.

 

Ignoring modern welded rails prototype track is often laid with 60' track panels.

 

Being prototypical even for O a yard of track will need to be cut in half. A Mark I coach is roughly the same length as a standard 60' track panel. Some locations use shorter 40' sections.

 

At least as modeller's we do not need to be continually jacking and packing the joints when they have dipped.

 

Should we be cutting track into 60' realistic equivalent lengths?

 

A lot of people do cut to 60' lengths and it looks better. A simpler alternative is a part saw cut through the rail head only then adding cosmetic fishplates. That makes electrical continuity simpler.  You should then get the right sort of noise from your stock.

[Guy Rixon]

The recent hot weather has been causing expansion problems on some layouts. There's a discussion of this over on the S4 Society forum, where the consensus seems to be that rails no longer than 60' scale, with expansion gaps, cope better.

 

Cosmetic fishplates have also been identified as a problem, in that the fold-up kinds block the expansion gaps. Semi-functional fishplates might be a compromise. These would not hold the rail ends together along the length of the rail, but would be soldered to one of the rails at the join such that they stop the other rail from moving vertically or laterally.

[Fat Controller]

Rather than saw most of the way through the rail, use a triangular needle file to make a notch in the rail head; the resultant sound as vehicle pass over is most satisfying. The Rev Lewis did this on his garden line 40+ years ago; it meant you could hear trains approaching in pitch darkness. The noise as wagons went over the notches gave you an idea of how fast a train was approaching the shed.

[corneliuslundie]

But you need to know what rail lengths were being used in the period you were modelling. 60 ft rail is comparatively modern. In the 19th century 27 and 30 ft were common and it gradually increased over the years. But shorted lengths could remain in goods yards for many years after they had been replaced by modern rail on the main lines.

Jonsthan

[TheSignalEngineer]

Secondary lines also had a lot of 'Re-Cuts' where the bolt holes were cut off each end of the rail and re-drilled. These came down to 45 feet in some cases with repeated treatment. Very entertaining at speed in a Pacer as it exaggerates the Nodding Donkey effect.

[The Johnster]

Ok, inspired by all this I'm off to make incisions in the rail heads on Cwmdimbath at around 50 foot intervals for sound effect purposes; the rails are 're-cuts' of 60 foot cascaeded from main line use.  I might at some future juncture reinforce the point by putting the fishplates on.

 

Derdum derdum...