DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Prior to my cardboard pieces for the black narrow gauge track, the last time I recall trying to make custom track was in 2018 (when I bought irrigation drippers thinking they looked like rail wheels). All I did was cut some thick wooden skewers for rails and sleepers and mount the rails temporarily with Blu-Tack, and I found the "flanges" were broad enough to keep the wheels on. In hindsight, that alone didn't mean much since I had no idea how to make curves (where the challenge is to ensure the wheelset always reaches the rail on the other side).



With all the different techniques and materials for track used by the YouTubers I showed in my latest thread, I noticed many of them have long strips of cardboard for rails (ranging from one to two layers). I remembered having a bunch of old zip ties I kept with their pawl ends cut off and thought: surely zip ties could be a better, quicker and stronger alternative. After all, they are equally flexible despite being hard nylon and manufactured to the exact shape; saves having to cut a bunch of perfectly drawn lines from a huge sheet. I started out with a smaller gauge than my usual track to see how it would go for me. I initially used cardboard sleepers and followed two spacer designs from Quazar's tutorials, which use angled spacers for curves and give fairly impressive radiuses. No wonder they're not the only one who uses that method.



After the cardboard sleepers proved to be (somewhat) effective, I decided to reuse one of them for a new spacer and use zip ties for the sleepers as well. While I know the cardboard looked more like actual wood, I made the sleepers too wide and using one material gives a better finish (for my liking). Not to mention, it could make them less vulnerable to conditions like damp surfaces. However, the curve radius turned out too tight and I had issues with misaligned sleepers and gauge loss near the ends. Likely due to the angles of the "curve only" spacer being too sharp/inconsistent. The "curve and straight" spacer didn't help either despite the different angle.




I tried a new design for the sleepers by gluing two layers and laying them sideways, rather than one flat strip. The rack sides were glued to each other to make the smooth sides visible (the "plank" effect didn't look the same anymore). Apart from raising the track, it makes them look thick enough but better than two next to each other (laying flat). Having a "half" sleeper at each end could make perfectly seamless joints like LEGO track has, though I have yet to add connectors. Either way, it's quite an improvement and I already love how they're shaping up. Continued below.