I have soldered and painted all my tracks and started to do trial tests on how to glue the roadbed to the extruded pink styrene. It allows me to practice trimming the roadbed under the turnouts ( It's not obvious for a newbie ).
I separeted both halves of the roadbed with an Xacto knive and realised there are 2 problems:
1) The 2 halves don't have the same width
2) The bevel angle is different ( both angles should be 45 defrees right ? )
3) Most important, when both halves are joined together and glued to the styrene the total with of the roadbed is way too large and not realistic.
When I glued 2 parallel roadbed with their center line 1 1/4 inch apart ( that matchs the center to center distance of 2 Atlas parallel tracks ) they almost contact each other while a prototype railroad has enough space for a ditch between 2 adjacent tracks.
I went down the local CN track and took some measurements. As a result I have to trim 2 millimeter of the wider half strip and 1millimeter of the narrower one
A total of 3 millimeter is about 0.12 " or 19 " on a real track.
I might even have trimmed more.
Do the N scale modellers who use cork roadbed have the same proble ? or it is just me ?
I purchased that roadbed at my LHS but it has no brand name.
P.S. I trimed a 1 yard strip yesterday using an Xacto and a 12" steel ruler ,believe me it's a real pain in the caboose.
Do you people think it's worth the trouble ?
I separeted both halves of the roadbed with an Xacto knive and realised there are 2 problems:
1) The 2 halves don't have the same width
2) The bevel angle is different ( both angles should be 45 defrees right ? )
3) Most important, when both halves are joined together and glued to the styrene the total with of the roadbed is way too large and not realistic.
When I glued 2 parallel roadbed with their center line 1 1/4 inch apart ( that matchs the center to center distance of 2 Atlas parallel tracks ) they almost contact each other while a prototype railroad has enough space for a ditch between 2 adjacent tracks.
I went down the local CN track and took some measurements. As a result I have to trim 2 millimeter of the wider half strip and 1millimeter of the narrower one
A total of 3 millimeter is about 0.12 " or 19 " on a real track.
I might even have trimmed more.
Do the N scale modellers who use cork roadbed have the same proble ? or it is just me ?
I purchased that roadbed at my LHS but it has no brand name.
P.S. I trimed a 1 yard strip yesterday using an Xacto and a 12" steel ruler ,believe me it's a real pain in the caboose.
Do you people think it's worth the trouble ?