"Chris Wilson" wrote
In theory I agree with you, and in the past I've had great fun with layouts in lofts and garden sheds, but I guess we're down to compromise here, and it's just one thing which has and does work for me. I used to detest laying flexi-track on curves, but this method has eased my fears.
John.
I screwed a strip of poly something (flexible plastic strip) to the bottom of my garage 'up and over' door to exclude the leaves etc. It went quite a way to raising the temperature and reducing winter humidity!
I had four foot modules in my garage - eight per side. The rail expansion was even over the length, but the following contraction always seemed to occur in one place, with all the rails pulling the next section, leaving a 1/4" gap at the end of the crossover. "Clunk"!!!
Regards, Greg.P.
Greg Procter wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@ihug.co.nz:
....
Having now got a strip of the same or similar I'm waiting for a dry day when I'm off work(*) to do exactly the same.
(*)How can you tell I'm on a day off? Answer, "It's raining!"
...
Nothing larger than a yard, when laid in high Summer everything was butt jointed (bar two small gaps - about 1:32" in two tunnel sections), after last weeks frost - It was cold I tell you - damned cold an inspection showed that nothing had shrunk enough to make any track unusable or even unsightly - so I'm reasonably optomistic.
If it survives Feb I'll start ballasting.
It rains in Britain?
Timber frames shrink on hot dry days, expand on cold wet days. Next long layout I build might be on brass frames! ;^)
That gives me a brilliant idea for an answer to the perennial problem of storage for model railway layouts. Purchase an 'up-and-over' door set from Jewsons and build your layout on that. When you need the space, swing the lot up out of the way. Just remember to glue everything down. Disguise the handle with a small building or something.
I wonder if this idea has been patented? Wiring could present difficulties I suppose.
:-)
Hmmm, most 'up and over' doors end up horizontal at about 6'6"-6'9" above floor level, which might be a bit high for layout viewing. Also, the layout would end up outside the garage in the weather when you weren't using it! I guess if you mounted the 'up and over' door upside down so that it became a 'down and under' movement, you would get the right effect for a layout??? It would be at ankle height, the garage would be draughty and there would be no way to get the car in without driving over the layout/door, but those problems could be sorted somwhow ;-)
Regards, Greg.P.
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