Railways begin and end with track. And so too will the T-gauge model railway. Before layout planning begins there needs to be some though about the track construction technique to be adopted - after all, the track alignment will have to fit the track construction.
A full technical specification for the set-track can be found at t-gauge.net. A general comment about T-gauge track is it is not exactly to scale: it's real-sized equivalent rail would be 270mm wide! However, the effect is not spoiled by this inexactitude.
A comparison of purchased set-track and flexi-track has found:
The first thing to note about modelling in 1:450 scale is: compromised detail does not (always) compromise the effect. The second: seriously small things need seriously precise manufacture.
The Options
As of February 2013 there are only two manufacturers of T-gauge track components: The Railway Shop Hong Kong; and you. For most railway modellers, attempting to hand-lay track is not a serious consideration (although check out David K. Smith) so we can eliminate that and focus on the products of The Railway Shop, which offers:
- Set-track; or
- Flexi-track.
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| 1. Set-track. |
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| 2. Flexi-track (brown wood sleeper or grey concrete sleeper). |
A comparison of purchased set-track and flexi-track has found:
- Set-track
- Pros: easy to assemble; no risk of excessively tight radii leading to train derailment; accurate straight alignments; easy-to-achieve parallelism of adjacent tracks; and a useful cavity beneath the integral track bed for installing possible train detection devices.
- Cons: out-the-box plastic look; lots of large bright-gold rail-to-rail connectors due to the short length of individual set track sections; lack of integral ballast texture; gaps between the ballast of set-track sections; fixed range of curve radii to choose from; and no transition curves (which can reduce the visual impact of smaller-than-reality curve radii);
- Flexi-track
- Pros: you can install any track alignment you want, including large-radii curves; the technique you use to ballast the track is your own personal choice; and fewer rail-to-rail connectors.
- Cons: difficult to uniformly bend into required radii; difficult to fix straight; delicate rail supports that are prone to separating from the rails; lots of ballasting to be done; and less-than-simple connection to turnouts (which are all currently of set-track construction with integral track bed).
Another potential concern about the set-track is the track interval (the space between tracks) is not to scale. In the UK the standard track interval is 1970mm or in T-scale 4.4mm, whereas the T-scale set-track interval is 8mm. The 3.6mm difference is explained by allowances for the swept envelope of passing trains around the tight curve radii of the set-track which, due to the lack of transition curves, continues on to straight track. The impact of this compromise is the visual effect of passing model trains having acres of space between them when real trains have very little. In practice, if you plan to use non-scale curve radii with flexi-track, curved track intervals will still need to be not-to-scale and to reduce the visual impact of this you will probably continue this on to the straight track so nullifying the benefit flexi-track offers in this respect.
Selected Option
It probably appears to you readers of the blog that flexi-track wins over set-track. And it probably does. However, for my planned layout out I envisage a two-track railway (as is common everywhere in the UK) and this demands good parallelism between adjacent tracks on curves and straights. On this advantage alone I am going to choose set-track.
Having selected set-track, the challenge ahead is to improve the look of it and overcome some of those cons: plastic look, large bright-gold rail connectors, etc, etc, etc...
