# Rail height question.....



## Mike(^RacerX^) (Mar 15, 2003)

So I'm getting ready to finish up the permanent four lane HO set up I am working on,and I noticed that some of the rail sectons are low,level with the track in a few spots.It causes some of our cars to either stop or run slower.
It's Mattel Tyco track,if that means anything.
Looking closely at the underside of a piece I have,I notice the rail is exsposed every few inches,and if I press on it with a screwdriver blade,I can get the rail to pop back up again.
Ok,so how high should I make them?????Can they be TOO high??????
On the piece I tried it on,the rail is exposed over the track exactly the thickness of a dime.

Thanks..............
Mike


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

Mike(^RacerX^) said:


> Can they be TOO high??????


One of the major complaints I've heard about LifeLike track is the rails being too high, so yeah it can be too high. But I don't know how high is TOO high. The AFX track is guilty of having too much play with the rails, but I never heard of them sinking INTO the track. Sometimes with mine, I have to tap them back in a little after a few bouts with cars with stronger magnets. 

I have heard of guys epoxying the rails via the holes in the bottom of the track to keep them from moving. But there's a potential to screw up your track if you get it wrong. 

Id say try and find an average rail height with the track you have and go with that. TOMY track can be all over the board with imperfections, but there should be an average that you can find. Then build some type of template out of wood and go around the track. I've heard of guys who take these templates and tap them all around the track as a routine part of track maintenance.

I don't have any American dimes, but when I put a Canadian dime beside a rail, I'd say thats WAY higher than the factory intended for rail height. The average on my rails is about a third to half of the thickness of a dime. Don't know if US dimes are thinner or fatter than ours. (I think your dimes are fatter but don't quote me) AFXToo may be able to help with that. 

Just some thoughts.


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

It must be too early in the morning. I thought you were talking about TOMY instead of TYCO. Sorry about that. DOn't know anything about Tyco rail height. I'll leave the previous post cuz it may be relevant to someone out there.

Can someone help this guy?

I'll shut up now.


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

I've seen several pieces of Tyco track that had loose rails....or rails that wanted to float on the ends. Generally I'd toss those pieces to the side and try to find a better piece of track to use. If I do build my planned layout out of Tyco track then I plan to secure the rails in place with some sort of epoxy....AND I will be nailing the track down in the factory holes....as well as in a few other spots to make for sure it is secured down tightly. I also plan on glueing the tabs together so they never sag....and bondo'ing over them so they will be unseen. I also will be soldering each rail connection......and filing those areas down to be flawlessly smooth. Basically I'll be making this Tyco track run as if it's a continous rail track


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## Mike(^RacerX^) (Mar 15, 2003)

TX:
I'm in the process of doing exactly what you mentioned,soldering,bonding,securing the track to the board,etc.
A LOT of work,and I'm starting to think next time around(which isn't too long after I finish this one)I will look into using something besides Tyco track.
Either way,it's a pretty good learning experience just the same.

Mike


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Mike(^RacerX^) said:


> TX:
> I'm in the process of doing exactly what you mentioned,soldering,bonding,securing the track to the board,etc.
> A LOT of work,and I'm starting to think next time around(which isn't too long after I finish this one)I will look into using something besides Tyco track.
> Either way,it's a pretty good learning experience just the same.
> ...


Mike, I know it'll be alot of work....but that's kind of the fun of building a permanent layout. I'm looking forward to building my layout.....even though I know it may take me a few weeks to get the track just right. I'm confident though that my track will be absolutely perfect though once I am done....then comes the landscaping :thumbsup: 

I really wanted to use the Tomy track......but since I have barely any of it.....I'm going to just use Tyco. I've thought long and hard about it......and I figure I'd need to invest close to $300 on Tomy sets to get the track I need.......and for me this would be a step backwards....since I already own most of the track pieces I need in Tyco form.


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## Mike(^RacerX^) (Mar 15, 2003)

Tex.........

I heard that Mattel dropped their HO slot car line.Don't know how true this is,but maybe someone here could shed some light on the subject.

The one problem I've run into using all of the Tyco track sets I bought up cheap is that a shortage of 12" radius curves.Most of the smaller sets I've acquired had few,if any at all.And I'm having a bit of a tough time finding any now,most places I've checked out are out of them.

This layout I'm doing now is about 25 feet per lane,and I would really like to just expand on it,probably close to double it actually,but the availibility of the track I need looks like I might have to build an entirely seperate setup.
Is there any way one could combine two different brands,like say,Tyco and Tomy track???

Mike


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Mike(^RacerX^) said:


> Tex.........
> 
> I heard that Mattel dropped their HO slot car line.Don't know how true this is,but maybe someone here could shed some light on the subject.
> 
> The one problem I've run into using all of the Tyco track sets I bought up cheap is that a shortage of 12" radius curves.Most of the smaller sets I've acquired had few,if any at all.And I'm having a bit of a tough time finding any now,most places I've checked out are out of them.



Mike, I too heard that Mattel has unfortunately decided to drop the HO scale slots.......for now this looks like the end of the long running and successful Tyco slot cars  

As for 12" curves....I might have some.....I'll check out my stash here in a little while and let you know. I'm in need of some 15" straights myself....... :thumbsup:


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## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

RacerX, Mattel has not stopped production according to Dan Espisito. He told me Mattel just closed the New Jersey plant. Personally I think it is just a matter of time until they do stop. They haven't really done any new racing bodies in quite awhile.

Life-Like makes a two piece track adapter. One piece is Tomy to LL and the other is LL to Tyco.


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Mike, I just sent you a PM....I've got some extra 12" turns :thumbsup:


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

*For you guys using Tyco track*

I noticed on fleabay there's a guy selling 6 inch and 15 inch Tyco curves. I'm not shilling for anyone, but I assume these are new and may interest you. The seller is jaysraceplace.


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Shadowracer said:


> I noticed on fleabay there's a guy selling 6 inch and 15 inch Tyco curves. I'm not shilling for anyone, but I assume these are new and may interest you. The seller is jaysraceplace.


Yep, that's the guy who is handling these new track pieces from what I know...... I saw those auctions the other night. I'm in need of 4 of those 6" Tyco turns.....and talked with Capt. Fred last night about splitting one of those auctions with me....since I only need 4 of the turns :thumbsup:


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## Mike(^RacerX^) (Mar 15, 2003)

Thank you guys for answering my questions.I grabbed 8 off of ebay the other day for 11 bucks.Quite a few bids on it,so it must be getting tough to find.

I've hijacked this thread a few times alrady,but back to the Mattel thing for a moment.IF they were to drop the line,one could only hope that RC2/JL would buy up the tooling for it.Would make sense in a way,but doubtful it would happen.It would be like selling ammo to you #1 enemy if you know what I mean.

One more thing.How would you rate Tyco,LL,and AFX track??1 being the best and three the least desirable.

Thanks for answering my newbie questions,and interested to see what you have to say about my question.

Mike


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## rodstrguy (Feb 14, 2002)

A long time ago I remember a article on bluprinting your slot car track by setting up the rail hieght between .005-.007 of an inch using a piece of oak with slots cut into it at that height...


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

always a good place to start when setting up


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## Boosted-Z71 (Nov 26, 2007)

I built a 4 lane Tomy track, its around 80+ feet running length, every rail was set like mentioned with the block, then just a drop of super glue from the bottom on those that were loose, then soldered, and screwed to the table, I then blended any slight mis-matches on the rails & plastic, and used epoxy for any plastic voids. 

What I wound up with after a bit of work was a plastic track that runs very well, while not as silky smooth as routed, but really close, you really have to listen for the clackity clack that most plastic sectional tracks produce.

If I built another plastic I would use Bill Halls goop for voids, or clay, either are way easier to work with than 2 part epoxy. I would still solder the joints, while as painful as it is, it gives you a rock solid track, but the draw back in doing so is your not going to change the layout, ever, the joints just wont come unsoldered & save the track.

Boosted


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