Tracks

The term permanent way refers to the ballasted track. This is what is usually called in the UK the railway track and in the US railroad track. It encompasses the rails themselves, the sleepers (or ties in the US), fasteners, chairs and ballast as...

Although both a vertical cutter and a standard one do the same job, they do have different purposes. The vertical track cutter allows you to cut track which has already been secured to your base board whereas the standard cutters allow you to cut...

A turntable is a means of turning your engine around. An example of this would be, if you have several engine sheds at the end of your layout, you would have track coming from each of your sheds leading up to the turntable. When you drive your...

We often hear modellers refer to their "fiddle yard", but unless you already know what one is, the name doesn't really give away any clues as to what it is or what it is used for.A fiddle yard is the bit of a model railway layout that is off...

A double slip is an X shaped crossover with a difference. That difference being that there are point blades attached to it, so the train does not have to just cross straight over the junction in a straight line, now it can turn onto the track that...

Curves are a bit of a headache for modellers. Some of us do away with them by modelling an end to end railway, others hide them away in tunnels or behind scenery whilst a few simply accept them as an unavoidable compromise.The truth is that...

The general advice is that you don't run engines on anything less than a second radius curve (438mm or 17.25 inches) in 00 gauge (double the measurement for 0 gauge and halve it for N gauge).This radius should be increased greater if you plan...

Sharp bends are just about the only aspect of a model railway that still cause modellers a headache with regards to making them look real.Advances in the hobby have meant that everything else from rolling stock and buildings to people and...

There have been many fantastic advances in the world of model railways in the last twenty years. One of these is the ability of manufacturers to create more aspects of our model world to a more accurate scale.The height of the rails on model...

Slips are often used in the real world on the approach to stations where space is limited but there is a necessity for many different routes to be available for trains to take.A slip is your basic diamond shaped crossover with point blades...

It is not really a question of which track is best when it comes to a comparison between flexible track and set track, it is more a question of which track will best suit what you are trying to achieve.Flexible track usually comes in lengths...

If you are venturing into the world of flexible track then no doubt you are discovering that it is not just the track that is flexible, your track plans are now equally as flexible and you can now recreate exactly the bends and curves that you...