The Atlas track comes out perfectly fine if you remember the key rule: the side of the track with the continuous strip should correspond to the outside rail in a curve.

Hey Larry, a very nice well done tip about the car weights of train cars. Railroad engineers of the past allready find out this prototypical problem and discribed it into reports of over 100 years old books about of railroad engineering. At european countries where mostly two or three axle cars were in use than boogie cars the railway engineers gave the tips to couple trains with heavier cars into the front and less heavy cars into the rear but boogie cars into the rear of thr heavier cars. Cars where the freights do connect two boogie trucks shall be placed into the end of trains like cars loaded with rails or long wooden beams or loggs. At europe in the past not even all cars had been equipped with breaks, too so at some railways all six axles were breaked by breakmen and it was a nice puzzle to place breaked and not breaked cars together in addition to their loaded freights and weights. Every 6th axle needed to be breaked by a breakman. Air break systems came up in middle of 1920's onto europe continental railways. It gave for different air break systems but each two of them could be worked together. Vakuum Breaking and Pressure Air Breaking are different Systems. The Westinghouse Breaking system allows single release breaking only untl all breaking cylinders are empty before it could be refilled again. A second breaking was not possible. Dramaticly Accidents were the result of the Westinghouse system, like what happened by passenger trains at Ireland and at the Garre du Montpernasse at France when a loco run over the bumper and hit through the Station walls onto the lower street level ahead the station. The Knorr Air breaking is a more release braking system what allows more breaking times and gives more breaking security.

Great, thanks. Code 100 exchanges some realism for easier dexterity for older and younger modelers. One of our best modelers used it so he could more easily rerail in place when necessary.

Thanks Larry! Have not bought any flex track yet ... so I learned a lot from your video.

Thanks for those great tips Larry.

👍👍👍great tips ,looking forward to the walthers turnouts review

Thank you for sharing. Great tips. Enjoyed.

Very fine tips and insights. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Larry, that’s really great advice especially regarding the Train make up to stop straight lining. With regard the rerailing Units you could always disguise them as Grade Crossing, especially in Yards. Keep safe.

Great video lots going on like and share thanks DD.

Larry As always some great tips. I have added weight to all my cars so when they go on curves I do not have that issue. In the past I did have some cars leaning so I added the weight I have a chart I use based on NMRA standards. A nice little scale and all good. On my Helix project I also ran out of track mine is on order also. Happy Memorial Day

Great ideas on using the rerailers. Thanks.

Nicely done Larry. Thank you

The Atlas code 83 flex track is built the same way as the code 100 but the ties are much smaller and look much better. Not quite as good as ME though. Likewise Walthers flex track is built just like Atlas but looks much better. I actually prefer the way Atlas flexes over ME but to each his own. I model car float operations and my prototype uses a flat car as a handle. I discovered string-lining quite soon using an unweighted flat car to shove a line of cars! Consequently I disguised a bunch of car weights as loads and put them on the flat car and things work much better now. I actually saw this in a video of a real life car float operation where they used a gondola full of concrete waste as a handle. I won't spoil your next episode but I'm in the process of replacing most of my old switches of a certain manufacturer with the new Walthers switches...

definitely would like to see how u make the re railer. 😀

Very helpful hints Thanks Larry Nick Australia

Good tips.

Good morning Larry. As you know I am modeling On30. I have read so many comments by other modelers in On30 on how Peco SL500 O-16.5 track is bullet proof. I have laid a lot of it over the years. I do remove one or two ties from the ends of each section. I do the straight solder joints between sections as you do and then bend the track ass well. I use a box knife blade to remove the spikes and tie plate on the removed ties to later glue back into place in the gaps. Just hold the ties vertical and press downward towards a board to cut off those details. The track looks great once I spray the ties and rails in a matte camouflage. The code 100 rails do not look out of scale after painting. One tip I do recommend, not valid on a helix, is to find the mid point or apex on your curve, mark it, then lay the flex track so that the mid point of the flex track is on the mid point of the curve. That way you will have a smooth curve without joints/ bumps in the apex of your curve. A lot of time I will lay out my curves first with flex track and then join the tracks and turnouts between the curves. I get a smoother run through the curves that way. -Den

Very nice ❤️🚂😎👍

👍👍👍👍👍

Larry, Thank you for providing a brief change from the extensive coverage of "helix construction".

Many thanks Mr Larry, you have solved my problem with the cars turning down or overshooting the turnout while negotiating the turn. Just for advice, I wanted to know, to bring the centre of gravity down, what is the ideal material, steel plates or ball bearings or something else to be kept inside cars or attach them below the car in-between the wheels?

Hi Larry waithing to see how to make our rerailer

During the section about freight cars, you touch on car weight. Have you done a topic of how to add weight to meet NMRA weight guidelines?

Great video Larry ! I never knew that about car configuration. I will definitely try that and see how that works out. As far as Atlas flex track. I know what you are referring to when you say how it bends. Do you think cutting out some ties on the rigid side would improve the flexibility ? Chuck

I was watching your video 29 and you mention 7ml Pipettes. Bought my own 500pcs of them. Also found Kapton tape in different widths and micro brushes in different sizes. Do you have a opinion on hot glue guns and between mini(.27) or standard(.43) size of glue sticks? Your are a wealth of information for source of modeling supplies!

I missed you actually laying the track up the helix, did you stagger the joins to reduce kinking when both rails are joined at the same point on a curve?