# has anyone 'bent' track to make elevation changes



## purple66bu (Dec 18, 2013)

has anyone ever tryed bending sectional track to make elevation changes smoother? seems no matter how hard you try theres always a bad section going up or down


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## Black Oxxpurple (Jul 3, 2011)

make your elevation change more shallow, less incline per foot.


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## guinnesspeanut (Sep 25, 2009)

If you're using SCX, there's a bridge section that's flexible.. Maybe a bit of bondo to smooth it out and make it look like normal track.. or, some of the older tracks like Strombecker and Aurora made humps/lifts/etc.. Again, it'd be a bit of work, but you could probably glue a few sections together.. OR, and the best for last, grab a few sheets of styrene or thin wood veneer.. Even laminate countertop scraps if you have a local lumber store will work. Whatever elevation change you're trying to make should be cut out of 3/8 or 1/2 inch thick plywood.. You can nail them together with 2 x 4 scraps between them. When you do these plywood pieces, you'll need a top and bottom.. If your sectional track is 1/4 inch thick, then make your layered section 1/4 inch thick.. I was able to make an 'up curve' with old style SCX connecting tabs out of veneer years ago. It wasn't an exact thing, but darn close. I made a set of tiny tab clamps to hold the sections together underneath, as my tabs were the correct shape, but the thickness was off. This meant the track would line up perfectly, just not lock together. I've been thinking of doing another corner, modeled after the big hill on the Laguna Seca tracks, as seen on the Playstation Gran Turismo game series.. But, if I make it, I'll be severely limiting what cars I can race on my home track.. Email works better for me if you want any more info on this. It's a bit of work, but worth it to make a few of your own risers.. When I do it again, I'll cut off the tabs I need and glue them on to thin sheet metal so everything locks..


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Here's a "how to" for a hump track. The process would be similar for a bridge track. Just keep in mind, modifying track like this makes the track shorter in length, and the difference will have to be made up in the rest of the track's joints. If you make 2 of them, and go up, through a 180 degree curve and then back down, there won't be as big an issue. There can be 1/2 a table's worth of track between the bridge tracks, as long as the down side is in the opposite direction of the up side it will equal out.

http://www.howorld.net/archives/howto/brdglemn/bridge.html


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## guinnesspeanut (Sep 25, 2009)

Very good point.. If your bending an existing section, you'll need at least 2 of them, sometimes 3 or 4 depending on where you put them.. The ones I make with plywood jigs are always the exact table length as an existing piece, this way I can place them anywhere without worrying about balance.. When I get around to them, I'll do a how to..


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

One other option (if you're using Tomy track) is to make "Frankentrack" pieces. Yankee3B (where did he disappear to anyways???) did an absolute bang up job making a mishmash of Tomy into L&J track. His track, if you've never seen it, graces the Racemasters home page. I hope his track thread is still here... If I can find it, I'll bump it back up... Check out his "hill" tracks.


Thread is bumped.. See the "Castleburg" thread...


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## purple66bu (Dec 18, 2013)

Thanks...ive been drooling over that track for a long time...lots of ideas now to get busy


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

There was another guy down under in Australia that made an extreme track. Hopefully someone knows where to find pix of it. I think his name was Cam. It's been a long time since he's been on the boards.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Here's a few links I dug up from the library...

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=224225&highlight=bending+track
This is the track I was talking about. Sadly, the biggest track bending isn't in the pix. The supplied link in the thread (in post #2) works, but the pix links don't work. 

I also found this:

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=205678&highlight=bending+track

which has a bunch of good and bad techniques listed.


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