ME Track, Atlas Switches

[lock4244]

Anyone have issues mixing the two? ME track, because it comes darkened, is going to be my choice in visible areas, but the Atlas switches are a better bargain... except I have to darken the rails.

[Mark5]

The only thing to me is that the ties are different lengths on ME vs Atlas.

[Sokramiketes]

Anyone have issues mixing the two? ME track, because it comes darkened, is going to be my choice in visible areas, but the Atlas switches are a better bargain... except I have to darken the rails.

Some people have noticed that it's hard to keep the pre-darkened rail clean, as the chemical reaction that darkens the rail keeps oxidizing the rail or something.  Anyone here notice that? 

Even if you just take the regular flex and paint it a single color (roof brown) it will look good.

[DKS]

Some people have noticed that it's hard to keep the pre-darkened rail clean, as the chemical reaction that darkens the rail keeps oxidizing the rail or something.  Anyone here notice that? 

I hadn't, but then I only had a layout with darkened ME flex for a couple of years.

Even if you just take the regular flex and paint it a single color (roof brown) it will look good.

Agreed, but the paint tends to flake after a while from cleaning. So, 60-40, IMO.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

STAY AWAY FROM THE PRE WEATHERED TRACK

I got some, I hate it. It's impossible to flex (because it's "crunchy" due to the weathering affect and the ties).

Just get some regular flex and spray bomb it once it's in place.

[lock4244]

I noticed that it's a bee-ach to flex... at least into any usable shape without extraneous effort.

[Big4Man]

I really like the looks of the weathered ME rail. Heck, even unweathered ME rail is a pain on the fingers. My biggest frustrations came with trying to solder anything to the weathered rail. At the time I was using the Code 40 Weathered Rail on copper clad ties. Even after an aggressive wire brushing and flux, it just didn't like to take solder well. I have also used the liquid weathering solution that ME sells and applied to un-weathered rail with mixed results. It is a mild acid and needs to be rinsed off after it has weathered out for a while. Again the results were so-so. Since I had to paint the copper ties anyway, I now paint all my rails with floquil and do any touch ups with their paint pens. Your mileage may vary...... 

Good Luck!

Dan

[Mr. G]

I've had the same issues with the ME weathered flex.  The finish chips fairly easily.  It's brutally stiff and I've found the finish cracks and flakes where the track at the bends.  I did try once to solder it with poor results, but I just attributed that my really awful soldering skill.

[SAH]

I really like ME weathered track.  You must handle the bending process differently but it pretty much stays at the radius to which it was bent.  This is helpful because I clean the bottom of the rail and solder my feeders to it.  I can easily mark and drill the holes for the feeder wires before I affix the track to the roadbed.  It's easy to get the flat bottom surface clean enough to make a good solder joint.  My weathered ME stock is just about depleted.  If anybody has some they'd rather not mess with, we should talk.   

I use a combo of Atlas, ME and scratched turnouts.  After my supply of ME turnouts are gone I'll not buy anymore.  Too expensive compared to Atlas and they have to be modified to be "DCC friendly" - Isolated frog and point rails the same polarity as the adjacent stock rail.  I only scratch when I absolutely must to make the plan work.

Steve

[lock4244]

So it really is a case of different strokes for different folks. What about soldering the joints with the ME track, PITA as well?

[DKS]

So it really is a case of different strokes for different folks. What about soldering the joints with the ME track, PITA as well?

I took the approach of not soldering any rails together; I soldered wire feeders to the undersides of the rails on each length of track, and left the rail ends unattached, just barely touching. This solved a couple of problems at once, including expansion/contraction and voltage drop. And having no joiners looked better than big out-of-scale ones. I was thinking about adding scale fishplates, but never got around to it.

[SAH]

I too try to get a feeder wire on every piece of rail.  I use rail joiners however.  My trackwork is too sloppy not to do so.
As a side note, my experience is that Atlas rail joiners work with ME track but ME rail joiners will not slip over Atlas track.
When I handlay a turnout I wind up soldering feeders to the rail side / PC tie surface.  Much easier and one less variable to juggle during the turnout construction process.
Steve

[lock4244]

The idea of not soldering the joiners has crossed my mind. My old layout suffered greatly from track warpage in the summer, so anything that can alleviate that is good, and I also would not dare omit the joiners... PC would have blushed looking at my work.

For now I'm going with Atlas switches as I stockpile for 'someday', but building my own (Fastracks) is a future possibility.

[MichaelWinicki]

The idea of not soldering the joiners has crossed my mind. My old layout suffered greatly from track warpage in the summer, so anything that can alleviate that is good, and I also would not dare omit the joiners... PC would have blushed looking at my work.

For now I'm going with Atlas switches as I stockpile for 'someday', but building my own (Fastracks) is a future possibility.

I think a lot of that track warpage can be mitigated a great deal by having the sub-roadbed on foam and not plywood or even worse homosote.

My last layout had the track on cork on homosote and it suffered a great deal with warpage.  The current layout is track on sub-roadbed on extruded styrofoam and the warpage issues have decreased substantially... about non-existent. 

[SAH]

I think a lot of that track warpage can be mitigated a great deal by having the sub-roadbed on foam and not plywood or even worse homosote.

My last layout had the track on cork on homosote and it suffered a great deal with warpage.  The current layout is track on sub-roadbed on extruded styrofoam and the warpage issues have decreased substantially... about non-existent. 

To further the  "different strokes" observation:  I have a different view on the use of homosote.  I use the homabed product for roadbed.  My layout sandwich is 1/8" hardboard and 3/4" (+/-) pink foam beneath homabed.  The frame is of the grid variety.  I've seen no warping or kinking whatsoever.  My Spencer section has been through the wringer regarding heat, humidity, freeezing cold and the track is still true.  I have a lot of sloppy (wide) gaps, so that might help matters.  But the trains run fine.
Steve