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Joining Flex Track With EZ Track – Can it be done?
Stan asks readers:
“I I notice there is all kinds of track out there – Kato Unitrack, Bachmann EZ track and Atlas Flex track to name a few. My N scale layout under construction has Bachmann E Z Track, but a friend offered me some unused Atlas flex track and a small section of Kato Unitrack for a cheap price. I think he picked it up at a garage sale. The Atlas is code 80 so would it be ok? Any advice would be a help. Thanks.”
18 Responses to Joining Flex Track With EZ Track – Can it be done?
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Joe: I personally prefer Atlas flex track for my layout, I know that Bachmann EZ track is made in code 80 so the Atlas flex track that is code 80 would be fine. As to the track it is really your personal preference but as I said before I like the Atlas flex track. Although a lot of people (including myself) recommend Kato uni track, just for the sole reason that not all people are experienced I. The work with flex track, and some people may not have even touched a piece of the stuff.
I hope this helped!
joining flex track and ez track can be done but it is not going to look very good,
Stan, the best advice is the simplest answer, find a track type that works best for your layout and stick to that brand. Trying to mix and combine several different types of track can be done but is very likely to cause problems with operation of trains. Further, you should select a rail code, and use only components of that code, again you can mix rail codes, but will experience problems. If you have a chance, give me a shout and i would be glad to help whnever i can. Jim
Track – now there’s a minefield.
When in N scale I used Peco flex track and point work exclusively. Great products. Now in HO I’ve kept the loyalty simply because I know it can be trusted even though its configuration is nothing like track work found here in South Australia. I am currently building my version of the North West Bend line from Freeling to the river port of Morgan. This was a 5’3″ gauge line that was very busy taking goods from the river boats at Morgan to the capital, Adelaide. Most of the line was lifted in the 1980s, but by that time tonnage had collapsed making it no longer economical. Bloody road transport!
Broad gauge sizes out at 18.37mm in HO, and I had initially considered hand laying it but as I was looking at some 500 metres of track plus modifying the gauge on all my locos and rolling stock, like a coward and the lazy bugger that I am, I finally buckled and stuck with 16.5mm. This is a similar compromise the running 00 on HO gauge as is done across the old Empire world. I will be spreading the sleeper centres a tad and cutting their length about a mm off each end. This has a magical affect of denoting broad gauge track until a train is sitting on it, then the subterfuge is discovered by the observant
Atlas is also a good product with finer sleepers but their points are a bit clunky compared with Peco.
Mixing flex track with some of the “easytrack” arrangements is not difficult however when it comes to ballasting it is difficult to get a consistent look, but if your track is in good condition and is cheap, go for it. It’s your railway anyway and you could develop a back story to explain why “the Company” went down this road.
Regards
David
So much is goint to depend on the wheels on the rolling stock and the locomotives that you are using as well as curvature.
My first thought woul be to run X amount of this track with your locos an longest rolling stock to see how well they behave over a short distance/low curvature loop. I all else fails you could use it in sidings if you have not laid the track for sidings down already.
The major issue is wheel guage and the 80 track especially on slope curves if you have them.
One advantage of flex track is that it is usually longer than “snap” track. Many people prefer to have an electrical feed to each section of track or at least every other section, so flex track reduces the number of electrical feeds. If you depend on rail joiners for electrical connectivity, flex track reduces the number of joiners. On the other hand, obviously you will have to create your own roadbed with cork and ballast, a considerable chore. Joining flex to snap track will require shimming and possibly also abrasion to create a smooth transition. Snap track has fixed curves that only approximate real RR practice. In practice real RR curves are not constant, they start gradually (easement ?) to get the massive loco and rolling stock moving in the correct direction and gradually become sharper. This is impossible to emulate with snap track. Most snap track has a limited number of curves with different radii and most, if not all, of those curves have radii that are too small, not at all like prototype practice. Of course, few modelers have the space to emulate RR practice in this regard.
Atlas Flex-traack can be mated to the E-Z Track. The only difference is the codes. The code being the height of the rail from the top of the ties. If you were to connect code 80 to Code 55, a shim would be needed to raise the height of the two different sets of rails.I have never used Uni-Track, but I believe there is an adapter made to connect the different rails.
I know that KATO makes a conversion piece, http://www.katousa.com/N/Unitrack/g-single.html. Here is Bachmann’s site http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/index.php
Yes it can be done. I did it with my N scale layout in progress.
I had to use the track road bed to help with the height and had to sand some from the height of the joining rails to ,make them level. I also had to sand down a couple of inches so there wouldn’t be a drastic dump.
Hope this helps!
It should just slide right on. If not you should be able to remove some of the ties from the Atlas track so it slides onto the plastic on the ez-track.The rest will be trying to hide this transition when you add your ballast. You’ll diffidently need to add cork or foam road bedding to help support the rail joiners though.
Intermixing track all with the same code rail shouldn’t be a problem as the same rail joiners will compatible with them all (some trimming using a sharp craft knife may be necessary). Visually, I wouldn’t mix trackage that differs significantly in appearance. If you wish to use finer section rail, I don’t know if any ‘N-gauge’ adapters are available, but in 00/HO Peco do short adapter tracks and adapter rail joiners for connecting Code 100 to Code 75 rails. It might be worth surfing th Internet to see who makes what. Hope this info is useful to you.
Code 80 is generally considered light rail for siding. Mainline track is usually code 100 because it takes a greater pounding. Truth is, unless you have a visitor with a calibrated eyeball, once a track is laid and ballasted, it is hard to see. The beauty of uni-track and EZ trak is that the road bed is built in. The flex track will need subroad bed and perhaps shims to bring up to the level of the other track. None of this is difficult, and if you ballast along the EZ Trak as well, the differences will disappear. Generally, I stick with flex track because of greater flexibility and lower cost. I think, however, that there is a basic rule of model railroading of using what you have. When you look at all the beautiful things created for layouts using odd bits and pieces, you discover the real fun of the hobby.
The question is about N gauge track.
The “standard” N scale rail is code 80. It represents very heavy rail. Today many N scalers are using code 55, which is closer to scale.
Code 100 is used for HO gauge. It represents very heavy rail in HO scale. Today many HO modelers use code 88 and even code 70 rail.
This can be done. Use foam roadbed under your flex track to bring it close to the level of your EZ track rail. You may have to shim it slightly.
I know it works because my own model railroad uses both types of track.
Les Foran
the track to use is soly up to you. but Im into H.O. layout and I found out the hard way that if your locomotive is a 6 axle engine, put in the mind that you should use 22” radius track no matter what gage or track name you use.
Yes you can link the various tracks together but why would you want to? sectional track has a lot of connections and through these you will loose power the farther away you get from the power source. I use flex track and use sections of sectional track to connect from one module to another (or where the layout breaks so it can be carried to shows or to move to a new home).
You can go from different codes of track. They have converter sections to change to the different codes.. Flex track has better performance as it allows less connections and better power down through the rails along the way. But you should run main bus wires under your layout and make wire drops to connect to your rails every 4 to 8 feet or so just as you would with a modular layout.
Take a look around my layout and you will find lots of flex track. a sectional track to cross over to a connecting module and plenty of wire drops to the buss wires below for little or no power loss (Buss wires usually # 16 gauge trailer wire or better and wire drops made of phone wire that is usually a 20 to 24 gauge wire which I have soldiered to connectors between the rails. connecting with easy track can be done but you will be much happier to to just go with flex like I said. Eztrack is really something to begin with for a small layout. Whenit is time sell the Eztrack and press on. Someone setting up a simple track or occational loop of track will get plenty of use out of it. Hope this helps from Newman
My staging level has over 200 feet of track all flex and some sectional sections to but you will not see me changing to EZ track. I might as well use only sectional track which is a lot of connections and is a lot more work to maintain. Also flex track is like running on welded rail. very few connections Newman
If you’re mixing codes, you can file down the bigger code so it smoothly transitions to the smaller code. Keep in mind if you do this, the rails have to be filed down evenly. If they aren’t this could cause many problems. Also make sure the transition is suttle. If the transition is abrupt, this could cause the front wheels to lift off the rails and gives them the chance to derail, especially on curves.