Beware of the new 036" curved sections of three-rail tubular track!

Every brand I checked in SCARM uses 2 pieces of O36 to form a 90° arc, so something seems to be wrong with whatever you bought. I didn’t know anyone else sold Menards. Are all 6 pieces the same dimensions? Do the 6 pieces form a complete circle?

I'll check Dave,

Thanks,

Mannyrock

@Mannyrock posted:

I'll check Dave,  Thanks, Mannyrock

Call the shop where you bought the track and see which brand it is.   They may have just bought a case of Menards O-36 pieces to sell in their store.  (Maybe they are selling other Menards track pieces too.)   With that being said, I've bought Menards O-36 before and never had such a problem.

Could some pieces be 031?

Manny if it's designed with six curves to a circle, then each piece is 60 degrees.  So there isn't any way to get a 90-degree curve without (carefully!) cutting one piece exactly in half.  Once you've done that, you'll need 3 extra of the smaller pins to make use of all the track.  Please post back and let us know what you find out.

EDIT: According to Menards website, their O36 tubular track requires EIGHT (8) pieces to make a circle.  If you're finding that two snugly-fitted pieces makes more than 90 degrees, then the website is wrong, or someone slipped you a mickey!

Thanks for all of the comments guys.  I really appreciate them.

Based on your comments, I went to my layout, put two pieces of the track together.  Nailed the end of one section down, and then really pushed the rest of the track into a 90 degree curve.  It took a lot of force, and if I let go of the free end, it wants to bounce back open like a spring (about two inches).   The tubular rails did not kink though.  And so far, I haven't seen the ends of the rails split where the pins join them together.

So, I guess that it really is two pieces to a half circle.  I have never had this problem with new Lionel track or K-Line track, so it must be way the Menard's track is designed or assembled.   

Can't tell whether this means that the specs are really good or really bad.  :-)

Mannyrock

i have about 5 or 6 cases of menards track. it all goes together easy

If it was me, I’d return it because forcing track into arcs can’t be good.

Have you compared each piece to the others?  (I.e., are all sections the same?)  Growing up we had O27.  At one point we redid the layout with a lot of new track, and I remember it being difficult to work with too.

The only way to find out if the specs on the website are correct is to make a complete circle, and measure it.

No pre-fab track that I know of needs only six pieces (at 60 degrees of arc each) to make a full circle.  Even O27, one of the smallest, if not THE smallest, diameter circles requires 8 pieces of track to make a circle.

I agree with some of the earlier posters above; if it doesn't go together easily, return it and try something, anything, else.

Chuck

Mannyrock,

Pictures ?

I have had issues with Menards track. One of the things I have noticed is the last inch of a piece of O-96 is actually straight, which makes sense if you are using a roller bender, but then you need to make it longer and cut off the two straight parts a the end. Or, make enough for say 4.x pieces and cut off x/2 and allow for saw kerf.

Have seen insulators not correctly centered.

I have have also seen the pins wiggle. I fixed that by taking the pins out, giving them something like knurling using an old pair of pliers and my magic hammer of Thor.

The tools sold by tinman (is/was an advertiser) have come on handy, except weirdly enough, not the track pliers, of which that is what I originally bought the kit for. The pliers just can't squeeze the rail enough. I end up with this one set of pliers and I deform the bottom of the tube of the rail. Some mechanical engineer could explain elastic vs inelastic here maybe. The tools that are handy are the block you put under the track and the modified track spike to tighten, and the piece of metal with three holes in it. I use a set of pliers and a claw hammer to take out the pins, he has a jig to speed the process up.

I bought a box of O-72, O-96, and 30" sections. Wish they made something between the 72 and 96, all I have is some K-Line Shadow rail, it makes the other tubular look like crap.

I'd check with the store to see who made them, I wouldn't assume they were Menard's without any evidence. The store owner might have bought some old oddball brand track from an old collector (or their widow).

As someone mentioned, I'd also stack them up to make sure they're really all the same size curve. Could be they have a few larger or smaller diameter curves mixed in. I suppose they could even be European tinplate track, like Merkur track?

You might be on to something with Merkur (although their website is apparently long gone meaning that they're probably no longer in business):

1. 760mm is almost exactly 30".  So, is this Merkur track O-30, or O-60?  This could be the issue that's being seen.
2. But, 22.5 degrees for each piece means 16 to a circle, or 8 for a half-circle (and not 12 or 6 which would mean not breaking on 45 degree increments).

#1 might be an issue, #2 is not an issue.  For these reasons I don't think that Merkur tracks produce the result that @Mannyrock has seen.

Mike

Interesting. All of my Menards  track is individually labeled with a sticker on the bottom.  If your track isn’t then I doubt it is Menards.  Other than needing to tighten a few pins my track has worked well.