Tracks

Most modellers will not dispute that soldering dropper wires to your tracks makes for the best electrical continuity around a layout, but, soldering wires to rails can often be more difficult than imagined and getting the solder to adhere to the...

During a trip to your local model shop, you may have noticed what looks like N gauge model railway track with unusually large spacing between the sleepers and wondered what it's used for. In fact, what you have discovered is 009 gauge track which...

A trailing goods yard was a type of goods yard commonly found at many country and smaller stations during the days of pick-up freights. The feature that makes it 'trailing' is a track layout that meant trains had to pass the yard and then reverse...

There are several types of track pins and nails available to secure model railway track to a baseboard. Generally, a track nail is thick and strong (but by default is more visible) while a track pin is thinner and less obvious but is also weaker...

Point rodding is a system of rods and bars that physically joins the lever of a signal box or ground frame with a set of points. They were a feature of manual signal boxes during the days of steam and could be seen running alongside railway tracks...

When choosing turnouts for your layout, you may have noticed there is a choice between turnouts with insulated frogs (sometimes called insulfrogs) and turnouts with live frogs (known as electrofrogs), so what's the difference?Model railway...

A fan fiddle-yard is a permanent fiddle yard where each track is accessed via a series of turnouts 'fanning' out from the layout's main operating line. But with so many turnouts connected in series, the space required for a yard of this type is...

Sometimes when track laying doesn't go as smoothly as planned, you can easily end up with a slight step or jump in the rails where they join. When that happens, some modellers use a file to smooth out the step, but is that really ok?A suitable...

In real life, the distance between parallel track centres differs depending on factors such as when the track was laid, where the track was laid, line speed and the surrounding infrastructure. Most standard UK railway lines have a distance of...

These days, all main manufacturer's model railway track is fit for purpose, so if you were wondering which track to use, it simply comes down to aesthetics and how much work you are prepared to do when laying the track.When it comes to model...

A rerailer is one of those cheap plastic gadgets that doesn't shout about its existence, doesn't get talked about much, and is never on anyone's must-have list, but, once you have had one, you'll wonder how you ever managed without!A rerailer...

Code 83 track is used to represent North American railway track prototypically used on main lines and for heavy trains.Railway tracks differ slightly from country to country. Even two countries using the same gauge can have tracks exhibiting...