Very cool davidbross! I am a big fan of wire guided vehicles and AutomotionFX's roadway and cars. I understand about the problems fitting AutomotionFX road pieces on an existing layout as I faced challenges fitting my Country road onto my layout several months ago. I have had to take a break from AutomotionFX as I rebuilt part of my attic and make changes to the layout benchwork to accomodate them, but plan to get back to it as soon as i get repairs to the attic walls done. I love the system . . .
There is a way to make an entirely satisfactory road section at home, without laser cutters, etc. I made two pieces for my country road, one was a 26.5" diameter curve 45 degree section - a curve that slotted in between the 23" and 29" super O diameter sizes. I wanted the widest radius possible for my big rigs and while 23" would fit, 29" would not, so I made my own curve section to the get the extra 2.5 inches of radius. The second piece was to solve a conundrum. I had all but one final piece in place on my country road, and despite careful planning no stock piece, even cut carefully, would cleanly fit into that "hole" in the otherwise completed loop. While I planned my Country road carefully, I had over 90 pieces in that one lane's loop and "drift" while was building left me needing a section that did not exist. I made apiece with a variable radius that was just the right size and that had a wire that cleanly, smoothly matched the wires in the ends of both sections it fit between perfectly.
Sorry but I made no photos when I made the pieces but I hope this is clear: this is how I made the pieces.
- I made the pieces out of three sheets styrene of three different thicknesses: .01 inches, .0625 inches (1/16 inch) and .05 inches, and coathanger wire. Alternatively you could pull the wire out of a AutomotionFX straight section if you prefer to use the factory wire. The coathanger wire was 1/16 in diameter. I used Plastruct General Purpose Plastic Solvent Cement to assemble the road section. I bought the Evergreen brand sheet styrene and the glue on Amazon.com
- I first made a cardboard template of the piece size I needed to fill the gap. Once I had that cut to fit perfectly, I used it to mark and cut out a piece of .0625" (1/16 inch) thick styrene sheet to that exact shape and made sure that piece would fit by fitting it in place in the gap where I needed the custom piece. With it in place, I carefully drew the exact route I wanted for the guide wire onto the piece using a pencil.
- Then I used a bandsaw and cut the piece along that path.
- I turned the two pieces over so their underside was up, and glued those pieces down on the rectangular .01 inch thick piece of sheet styrene using a bit of the coathanger wire as a spacer to make sure they were separated by 1/16 inch along the line where I had cut. After the glue hardened, I trimmed the edges of .01 styrene and had a sandwiched-piece of styrene that was .0725 inches thick, with a 1/16 inch deep and wide trench in it along the route I need for the wire. I inserted the wire, pressing it down into the trench, then glued a .05 inch thick sheet of styrene on top of it. When the glue dried I trimmed the edges of that piece.
- When the piece was turned over, what I had was a three-layer sandwich of sheet styrene that was .12 inches thick, just 5 thousandths of an inch thinner than the Automotion FX roadway, that fit perfectly, and had a guide wire only .01" below the surface of the road. (Near as I can determine Automotion FX roadway has the wire .02 to .03 inches below).
I did experiment with a test piece before making the two pieces I ultimately used. that helped me understand and perfect my technique of fitting and assembly. Both final pieces I made fit perfectly and have worked with no problems. When fitted, screwed down, sanded with the crackes between pieces filled, and painted, you can't tell them from the Automotion FX pieces. I strongly recommend using a Primer on the styrene before painting it with the road colored paint, as latex paints and some fillers you might use won't stick well to raw styrene. I used Rustoleun gray spray-on primer.
This worked well enough that I plan to use the method to make four manual turnouts this way, but it will be four to six weeks before i am back running my roads and building a new section of roadway.
I hope this was clear enough to understand . . .
