MiniRails - Modules-Trackwork

Planning a module

To enjoy flawless train running, the track needs to be excellent! What daoes this mean for the model railroader? Well, the tracks should be mounted to a sturdy and non-warping surface. After all, if you want your passengers to ride a roller coaster, send ´em to a fun fair [:-))]! Straight track should be straight and not - sloppy said - a series of S-curves. Track joints should be straight and even in order to avoid derailments of, for example, small pilot wheels of steamers. A steady current flow must be guaranteed. Just imagine a 100+ car train jerking to a halt in a curve... ´Nough of theory and teachery. Now we get going:

Now the cork sheets enter the scene. For straight tracks, cut 30 mm (1.5" wide strips. For curves, these strips are cut in half length-wise. If this seems to be too tedious, you might also buy some ready made cork raodbed from your favorite hobby shop.
Remmber the marker lines on the subroadbed???	Hopefully they are still visible, because they are needed now. Extend them about 62.5 mm (2.5") to the center of the module and connect them with a straight line. you now have the centerlines for your tracks. The cork strips are now centered over these lines and glued down with either contact cement (woks fast) or white glue (gives more time for adjustments). If you prefer white glue, I recommend to additionally staple the cork to the plywood in order to be able to proceed without waiting time. Just don´t forget to remove the staples later on.
The module frame should now look somewhat like the one in the picture. Savvy guys build themselves a jig for module head to align roadbed and track, and so save a lot of time on future modules...
But now we can lay track, can´t we?	Well, yes, but.... apart from the track, we also need a drill with a 2 mm drill bit and soldering iron. Got everything handy? Oh, are those staples still there? If so, remove them now. And here we go laying track: Flexible track usually comes in lengths of 900 mm (3 ´). We need 1095 mm per main track (1220 mm module length minus 2 x 62.5 mm transition track). This means, we need 4 pieces of flex track in total for one standard module like this one. Cut three pieces of 195 mm length off one flex track. Now center the the first piece of track over the center line and secure it with pins. Make sure it is straight! Do not apply glue yet as we need to drill feeder holes through the cork and the subroadbed. The feeder holes should be as close as possible to the rails. I usually work from the rear to the front, meaning that I start with the blue line. So now, I need pieces of 4 inch long blue and black wires. The blue wire is soldered to the rail facing me while the black one goes onto the rear rail.
Somehow, we have to feed power to the tracks and that´s exactly what the feeder wires are for. They will later be connected to the bus wires running underneath the module. Once all feeder wires are in place, you are ready to glue the track down. You may use white glue, contact cement, or caulk. If you use white glue or cork, secure the track with pins until the glue has set und hardened.
Now add the short (195 mm) lengths of track to the already laid flextracks. Add track joiners to either piece of track and slip it on. I prefer to solder the track joints. If you want to do this, make sure the joiner is well heated and use only tiny amounts of solder. That stuff flows into every nook and cranny!
Once all the tracks are down, you are ready to test the electric...you thought. Before we can do that, we have to connect the feeder wires to the main bus wires underneath the module. Solder or crimp the feeer wires to their matching color bus wire. Suitcase connectors come in quite handy for this job.
Now we want to test the electric circuit. Clean the track, grab a loco, and slowly throttle up. If the engine runs: Congrats, You made it! If not, something´s wrong; forgot to connect the powerpack? Ok, plug it in and start over. This part of the job might not be very amusing but has to be done in order to have a flawless module later on. So take your time for diagnosis and repair... it pays. Befoer we start building scenery, we will build the needed transition tracks (6 pieces are needed). You may either use short lengths of flex-track (125 mm or 5") or sectional track which is available from Atlas, Roco, or directly from NTRAK.	Slip the transition tracks onto the ends of the main lines but don´t glue them down. They have to be removable! Hmmm, a piece of balsa wood would come in handy now. It should have the same length as the transition track and the same width and thickness as the cork roadbed. Slip the balsa under the transition track, center the track, and glue it to the balsa. Once the glue has set, ballast your transition piece and you have a fine looking sectional transition track.

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