When your trains get a little kinky

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Eddie Landreth

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Mar 8, 2003
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We've had some pretty cold temperatures here the last few days, and my basement has gotten down in to the 50's. Apparently it's enough to cause the benchwork to contract somewhat and here's the results (see below). Obviously, I'm going to be spending some time the next few days cutting in some expansion gaps. :mad: So, for all you guys just now laying track, take heed - if the track has no where to shift to, it will flex outwards.

kinky_track_1.jpg


kinky_track_2.jpg
 
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Dick Elmore

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Aug 22, 2003
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Turk...You must live on the old Burlington Rt. in NE Colorado. When I used to take the train E. out of Denver, the first hour the train rode like that track looks, really wobbly and rough. What made it more noticable was the fact that the dining car closed an hour out, so if you wanted to eat dinner, you had to try doing it on that track. I was once told by one of the train crew
that the Burlington had laid that track a long time ago, and didn't do a very good job at maintaining it. I haven't ridden it since the merger so I don't know how it is now.

Dick
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capt_turk

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Nov 14, 2004
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I live in Green Cove Springs, Fla. in Reynolds Industrial Park. The Park was a large Naval Air Station during WW11. It's full of track, and it all looks like Eddies pic.
There is a (I believe) CSX car shop on the base just a short distance from where I park my RV. The had a string of at least a half dozen locos there a couple of weeks ago. The track is so kinky going to the shop that I'm surprised the locos don't derail getting to the shop. It's definitely a slow bell section of track. Wish I had a pic.
 
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NYC-BKO

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Jun 6, 2004
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Wow, too! I've seen heat kinks on the real railroads like that but never a cold kink, that's some serious contraction there Eddie. :eek: Good luck with the fix, I guess the MofW will get doubletime and a half for holiday work!!!! :cry:
 
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kchronister

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Nov 1, 2004
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Wow, Eddie. THat's nasty looking!

I think you may need to look deeper than mere temperature here. I broke most of the rules laying my flextrack - soldered most of the connections, only a few expansion joints... etc... My train room regularly goes down to the 50's or even 40's and I've never had anything like that happen... I think you may need to ponder how you're laying the track if you don't want to face this issue repeatedly...

Kris
 
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Eddie Landreth

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Mar 8, 2003
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Here's a pic showing the joint after I pulled the nails out and separated the joint. You can see how much the rails were trying to move against each other. When I laid the track back this summer, I butted the rails up against one another, so now it looks like I need to nip a little off and rejoin. So, this summer I guess I should expect to see a small gap there now. I thought about using some latex caulk, but I like being able to reposition track as needed. Hopefully, nipping a little here and there will solve the problem.

expansion_2.jpg
 
dhutch

dhutch

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If, yeah, but your'll only get gaps upto the size of what you remove, obviusly, so it wont be too bad.

- also, if you need to, you might have to chop a lenght if rail in half, so that there are to expention/comtraction joints sharing the diffrence.
 
SAL Comet

SAL Comet

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May 13, 2004
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Ha Eddie, I think your problem is more due to loss of mosture than temperature differance. Basements collect mosture during the warm mouths, and loss it in the winter. Also your plywood was new then, which means it will shrick some as it "cures". If you seal your plywood top and bottom with a good exterior paint, the rexpansion should be minimal. (just the thoughts of a woodworker)
 
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Gary Pfeil

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May 7, 2001
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Scott beat me to it, I've had trackage like that, it is due to the wood drying out, in my case due to the furnace running in the winter. It dries the air very much, and like most basements it is quite humid in the summer. The wood contracts as it dries, pulling those track nails closer together. I pulled the nails as required, used a dremel cutoff disc to cut a gap, usually that was enough to shorten the rail sufficiently. Added drops if required. When the wood swells those nails will go back to where they were and you'll have some gaps. I painted my wood subroadbed after that but that doesn't completely prevent the problem. I used regular latex paint, perhaps something specifically for sealing would work better. I found the problem existed primarily where track nails extend into the wood. My handlaid track, spiked into homasote, never has had a problem. Some handlaid track for a track in the street scene, where I spiked directly to some pine, had the same problem. I haven't tried it, but avoiding track nails and glueing instead might help. I now only lay track during the heating months. I haven't experienced any problems with excessive gaps opening, yet. Hope this helps.

Gary
 
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