Iain Rice's book on track?

[JimF]

Can I safely assume the above book will cover all aspects of building one's own track and turnouts?

Thanks.

Jim F

[grovenor-2685]

All aspects? No, its quite old now and includes a few odd ideas. Its helpful though and worth a read for the basics.
Keith

[alaninDM]

I agree with Keith: it is no longer cutting edge. But IR's enthusiasm and the prototypical information is very useful. He explains techniques so lucidly. Plus lots of excellent photos and diagrams to help understand what we are trying to achieve and what can work with fairly limited tools and skills. I think it is a must for someone starting to explore hand made track. Also see Norman Solomon in MRJ a few years back.

Alan

[dcockling]

Also excellent is the 2mm Association's book 'Track'

cover-medium-50-percent.jpg

http://www.2mm.org.uk/products/trackbook/

All the Best
Danny

[4307]

Definitely worth a read as it contains so much information and gives some good suggestions, but I had a lot of problems when I tried to follow his method. It was my first attempt at building track and I cannot recommend his way for a beginner, but for someone more experienced it may be appropriate. If you want to read through what happened, then see the "Elmleigh" postings under "Standard Gauge Workbench".

Everyone seems to have "their" method that works for them, so I recommend just having a go - this forum has a wealth of advice and suggestions although you do have to dig for it as a one-liner that answers the question you have been trying to answer may be hidden in a totally unrelated topic! (Using the search is a good way) And if you are stuck, then asking a question here will always get at least one good answer, something I much appreciate.

Dave Harvey

[Winander]

Jim,

As said definitely worth a read, but not essential if you have difficulty getting a copy. There's a wealth of information on this forum to get you started. Of the two methods, ply and rivet, as detailed in the Scalefour digests is the original method. Keith Norgrove (grovenor-2685) has a web site that has clear explanations of techniques (that apply generally not just ply and rivet) and lots of photographs. His site is definitely worth looking at, here's a link to pointwork from which you will be able to find the rest http://www.norgrove.me.uk/points.html. The more recent method is to use functional plastic chairs glued to ply sleepers. Howard Bolton (JFS) is the exponent of this (others are available ). A good introduction is here viewtopic.php?f=78&t=1342. Don't get too depressed looking at his work, I'm sure he had to start somewhere! His advice and methods are very pragmatic. He has posted information on the Templot forum http://85a.co.uk/forum/view_topic.php?i ... g+jigs+jfs, although it may be here also.

I don't find the forum's search facility easy to use, preferring Google and prefix the search expression with site:scalefour.org. By doing it this way, I get hits from the entire site, not just the forum e.g. this http://www.scalefour.org/history/p4trackcon.html

As you are modelling LBSCR pre-grouping remember that it will be markedly different in design and practice to what most here model e.g interlaced timbers in pointwork, 9 foot sleepers. Terry gave you a link to Barry Luck's site and I found it very informative, even though I am not modelling that company.

regards