Junctionmad

OK , I hope this review is helpful , as a comparison , I have compared it against C&L s new Hi-Nickel bullhead, which is on thick sleepered fasttrack base as its a similar price and also new to the market I received two length of DCC Concepts Legacy bullhead , there was no evidence of any damage or pressure in packing as Gaugemaster had sent them in an enormous UPS triangular cardboard packaging first some basics , ( pics underneath ) Dimensions ( by digital vernier ) Gauge 16.45-16.5mm measured on the inside of the bullhead sleepers length 31.81mm width 3.55 mm wide ( corrected from earlier edit) thickness 0.8mm height of rail from 3.4mm inter sleeper gap is 5.7mm edit: Gauge at approx 3 foot radius curve 16.25mm ( which I was not expecting ) but I expect that its the inner rail excessively inclining inwards ? by comparison the C&L Gauge : 16.72 nominal ( top bullhead ) sleeper length 31.9mm width 3.46mm thickness : 1.75mm height of rail 4.18mm inter sleeper space : 6.5mm Note that allowing for the difference sleeper thickness, the height of the rail above the top pf the sleeper is almost identical 2.43 C&L , 2.6mm DCC The DCC product is notably clean of flash , whereas the C&L fastback bases are not and its a plain to clean them up The DCC track is considerably more flimsy, but thats the nature of thin sleepers, but in practice it seems more then adaquately strong The nature of the steel rail and the flexibility of the track base, is that flowing curves are much easier in the DCC track then the C&L ( which is very difficult to form into a nice smooth curve . The DCC track base has alternating cuts in the web on each side and curves very easily , the C&L has a far too rigid web of 8 sleepers and Ive found it necessary to cut the webs to implement a nice curve ​Inclination of track There is definitely some strange issue with the inclination angle, it can vary quite considerably, examining this , and looking at the photos, I put this down to the rail being held by the chair in the middle of the web and the design of the chair allows considerable room for the foot of the rail to slew in the chair , and leads to some of the odd inclination pictures you have seen, its very noticeable at the cut length end , but it can be seen after cutting in the middle of the track . Its noticeable that the C&L chairs hold the rail much tighter/rigid then DCC Concepts chairs . I have attempted to sketch the issue below . The bearing faces on the rail are very thin and its my belief that the inside web is acting as a " pivot" What this means in practice , I have no idea , possibly some gauge narrowing in certain cases , you can clearly see the issue if you zoom the single DCC sleeper picture Soldering DCC in their attached document with the rail , strongy suggest you need solder containing silver , a 50 w iron and high temperatures , Since I had no silver solder, I used ordinary rosin cored 60.40 solder as a test , i used my 50W Hakko iron , which is a professional unit, with the temp at 400 degrees Rosin only : no ability to wet surface and no adherence Carrs Green flux: some adhesion, very poor wetting , balling Carrs Yellow Flux: Better wetting , but far from perfect I acknowledge that I cannot at this point comment on 2% silver solder ( I have some on order ) Workability This is a hard call, using a standard flat needle file I , filed away the bullheads on one side , the stainless is notably harder as expected , but the main issue is that also as expected it work hardens rapidly resulting in a decreasing ability to maintain a cutting edge , it became more and more difficult to file the heads to reach the web as it work hardened ( it became more slippery etc and the file struggled to bite ) HiNi is a good bit harder then standard NS, nearly as hard as the stainless, but does not work harden in the same fashion and hence is easier to file The DCC rail can be easily cut by my new Xuron cutter, but a fair bit more force is required then HiNi Rail Profile ​DCC 1.95mm rail height bullhead width 0.93mm C&L 1.94mm bullhead width 0.91mm Photos some photos C&L is the lighter grey. certainly for the Hi Ni , there is very little difference in colour, the stainless is a little more matte. apologies for the quality of some , Im no photographer, but they are loaded into RMweb at the highest resolution it allows, so they should zoom in a good bit My conclusions, are that its a welcome addition , but Id have some concerns over the inclination issue and the workability , the workability may be moot for those that intend to buy the point work ready made, All the errors in this review are my fault !

I just received my DCC legacy track. The rail inclination is certainly noticeable. I'll report later with photos and how it solders and files etc.

good god no, the cobblers children feet are always barefoot . Ive enough software in the day job ! I'll follow up your comments for opinion in the Handbuilt track section on rm web dave

I have no idea what the passive third person is , perhaps they used to be known as chaperones when one went dating in past years ! I say " counter intuitive " merely because modern GUIs have a style and action guide , that are fairly standard across applications. Programs that predate this trend Autocad springs to mind and Templot tend to have " non standard " look and feel and it's the only area I would offer a critique on Templot. In modern GUIs , we use the mouse in a select and action paradigm and Templot is very different , having more in common with the likes of AutocD then modern ground up GUI apps ( yes Martin , I know it's not a cad program , I am merely drawing comparisons ) I've done a huge amount in Templot recently and as many of said , it's a great program. Apologies John for the diversion , but I felt I had to respond , back to normal programming and your fabulous thread Dave

I find Templot fancinating , as a Mac programmer , the way martins brain works is often brilliant but counter intuitive Anyway back to turnouts

horror stories , tell us more Martin.

Will do. It's scheduled for next month

Thanks John and Martin , I'm on to my next turnout which I'll document so if I have issues I can post the sequence and build method Dave

John , one of the issues I have is maintaining the gauge through the switchblade tips , or more correctly along the planeing angle. I typically position the straight stock rail after fitting the common crossing , then I gauge the opposing switch rail , from the stock rail , when I come to fit the curved stock rail , I find it difficult to gauge that , if I follow the template , I get small errors where the gauge tightens or widens , perhaps my build sequence is wrong , maybe I should fit the curved switch rail against the straight stock rail first Perhaps youve covered fitting switch rails elsewhere ?, maybe a form of block gauge would be useful here as I could gauge the position of the curved rail from the straight switch rail Dave

absolutely brilliant John we are indebted to people like you that take time to document and explain your build process Question I presume there is no reason why the copper clad shim built crossing method couldnt be used in the full plastic chair plastic sleeper method you describe , this would allow cut chairs to be used etc dave

Thanks John , using C&L 00-SF gauges , which are very shallow , so should be fine , I think it just needs more attempts and practice , keep up the thread here, its great . Dave

no, have been building some 00-SF on thick plastic sleepers, I find the inability to easily " fettle " the track work , compared to copper clad a bit of a drawback. with the plastic , one its set, it requires considerable effort to release the chairs. My next one is in plywood , so I see how that goes . Im working up to a curved double junction !!!!!

I cant find a source of 00-SF 3 point track gauges, C&L have a " no order" on theirs which suggest they have no source , is there anyone producing a 00-SF 3 point track gauge ?

well the proof is in the eating , I have ordered some DCC track, ar the current price its very similar to C&L new pre-made up HiNi Fasttrack lengths ( which are my current favourite ) I generally prefer thick sleepers as the point work is easier made up , but we shall see in a few days.....

were all the chairs functional , or did you use your copperclad shim techniques ?

You mentioned it was 3 series stainless and I've worked with most of the common 300 grades including 303 316 304 etc inc "L" options , by comparison nickel silver is easier in my opinion But basically I don't really see what problem is being solved

I must say , at this stage , I don't see the point of stainless steel rails. I've found it very difficult to work manually , and given that to fully exploit this new more accurate 00 track, we will have to build most of the point work ( certainly until we get to a collection of rtl points and crossings ) , this leaves us with the difficulty of hand machining stainless , not a nice task. Really with the availability of HiNi track, the colour difference is such as to really sideline the steel rail issues and we retain the excellent workability of nickel silver. As to the market viability of 4 ready to lay providers of 00 plain track, I wonder where this market will end up. My odds are with PECO , even if it takes them a few years to flesh out the point work.

Well Irish ½ copper pipe is 14.7mm of as opposed to uk 15mm ( what good compliant Europeans you all are ) !!! , which is why of course my ikea tap fittings always leak !!! Oh PECO bullhead , good idea , feet or metres , I'm ambi-.......?

God I hope not

Personally , I think PECOs announcement is a blocking one, to try and prevent certain potential competitors from entering the market. In reality they are not going to sell much track , if punters have to build point work to match. PECO will know this , announcing the track buys them time to design and manufacture the pointwork , which I beleive they will do regardless of "reaction " .

I like the " float in space " feature, how about a few stars in the background and a rocket flare I mean after all it is " rocket science " in my opinion . nice andy nice :D dave

Hmm , I have a few metres of it, I cant say its any " straighter " then anything else, its really just Exactoscale Fasttrack bases threaded on HI-N rail . it flexes with the best of them, The webbing is not continuous over the whole 1m rail,. as again the fast track bases are just 10 or sleepers long Heres a pic of the new C&: flexi, pulled out of its box, hardly " not flexible"

Why do people, with little to contribute, just come into this thread to poke fun. start your own thread.

have you solved the issue of insert moulding of bullhead rail ?

well , coachman, the balance between operational complexity, room space and radii will continue for ever. On the scalefour forum, at present there is a discussion about getting down to 24" radii !!. It will always be so. Realism, is in the eye of the beholder, many things on model railways are not " realistic ". But that does not preclude making 00 track look a bit better and " closer" to the prototype . No I suspect the PECO aficionados would like it to make to code 75 and continue as before, with just better looking track. thats my tuppence