RonH posted:I was thinking of doing this a couple of years ago. I was going to start with new Menards 0-42 track (already purchased), Going to order 36" O gauge straights then purchase the standard gauge inner and outer rails/ties/insulators from US track.
I see that you are starting with standard gauge track and adding O ties.rails and insulators.
Is there any draw back from starting with O and adding the standard gauge rails/insulators/ties?
I will be using new materials.
Figure I ask as you have more experience on this as you are making it work.
I actually had a lot of both O gauge and STD gauge track already. I bought more sections from Menards and Kirk at USA Track. I ended up disassembling the STD gauge track to make the 5 rail track. Your approach will work fine. A Few things I learned:
- To Kirk’s point above, the lengths of the rails vary. Plan on cutting the STD gauge rails for each curve and straight length of your track plan to get the tightest fit for each rail joint.
- Menards rail has a wider base than USA Track. The USA Track insulators are a little small for the Menards rail. They can be made to work by opening the insulator and center tie tabs a little more than 90 degrees on each side before installing on the Menards rail.
- S curves are tight for the O gauge trains on 5 rail track. This is where I needed to tweak the radius of the curve a bit. Also the rail head “rolled” to the side a bit here.
- Have a solid surface to work on and use a block under/inside the tie when assembling the ties and rails. I created sections, then moved them to the layout to install.
- I moved some of the O gauge ties back from the end of a track section and used a STD gauge tie there. I alternated this on long straights and inside curves. I didn’t want the outside rails to “float” at every track joint.
- There is a great tutorial on the Tinplate Times website here.
George
