DoubleDAZ posted:Thomas, I was going to ask the same question Tom Tee did, but he beat me to it. 🤪
Anyway, I see you answered the question and I kind of figured you already had some RealTrax on-hand or on-order driving the decision to use it. As for the other things that have been mentioned, just some random thoughts.
While I completely agree that GarGraves/Ross is a better solution in the long run, the smallest GG sectional is 6.4” and they only have full size curves. This limits design options if you limit yourself to sectional pieces and almost always requires cutting if you want to expand the options. However, it’s fairly easy to cut and their flexible track is arguably second only to ScaleTrax in ease of use. Truth be told, the advantage probably goes to GG simply because more people use it and GG/Ross have good customer service.
My chief complaints with RealTrax are noise and keeping it clean. The plastic roadbed generally means noise, so depending on your tolerance level, you might want to consider adding something between the track and the decking to reduce the noise if it bothers you. Some folks use carpet padding, others use cork, acoustic tile, etc. My Christmas layouts were on 1” thick rigid foam on the wood framing, no plywood decking, and it was pretty noisy, though I don’t know how much was the track and how much was the hollow space under the foam. At the time I didn’t know the foam did nothing to reduce noise, but I used it mostly for weight savings. The next year I put the track on top of white batting and it helped quite a bit. I haven’t decided on what I’m going to do for my permanent Christmas display layout, but I’ll be using either Atlas or GG track, and I’m still considering ScaleTrax. Because Atlas and ScaleTrax are solid rail, they’re arguably the quietest.
You might also want to insulate the decking from the metal framing with a rubber/silicone gasket or something. I have no idea how sound transfers with plywood on metal.
When it comes to the 2” mistake you mentioned on the angled braces, please note that there’s no reason the decking can’t overhang the framing if it needs to.
Hello Dave,
As always you are a super nice person and offer good helpful information and I do appreciate all your efforts to help me avoid making BIG mistakes.
Yes, I placed an order for some of the track items a couple of days ago based on your "improved No.3" design and the attached list. I am comfortable with the Real Trax at this time for my first layout. I talked for a long time with a gentleman who has many years and a really large ( actually several ) layouts and he uses the Real Trax and gave me a pretty good run-down about the goods and bads. If I get any more excited about this hobby, I can see moving everything out of my shop which is 10x30 and adding another set of tracks in there. By then I will have a bit more experience and hopefully a bit more knowledge about this stuff and make changes to the tracks if needed.
I have been looking at various materials to act as a "pad" on top of the luan/plywood flooring to help with softening the noise. I have a small piece of an ? rubber / plastic ? open cell material that was used in a work boat that I designed for a company many years ago. Cannot remember the name or even where it was purchased, but I will do a bit more research and will let you know if I find a source.
The mistake was actually where I had three (3) pieces of angle terminating at the same spot. Two pieces joined OK at a 22.5 degree angle but the third piece needed to be scraffed cut so that the top was level with the bottom of the other two pieces. This made for a weird scraff, so I simply moved the Angle piece over and away from the junction and eliminated the weird cut, no biggie, but it does give a tad more deck space and moves that angle a bit away from the curved track.
Oh, I went ahead and ordered 20-pieces of the 30" track and if it is not a lot of trouble I would really appreciate an updated required list of track material for you latest layout. Thanks Dave.
