Sodering Atlas flex track.

This Atlas flex tract is not user friendly.

You aren't kidding!

I would appreciate any advise that anyone would have regarding their experience sodering this type of track.

For O-72 curves or any other radius for which sectional tract is available I recommend using sectional Atlas 3 rail track. 

Use Atlas 3 rail flex track only where needed for wider radius non-standard curves.  Attach the track to your roadbed with screws and try and create as stress free a joint as possible before soldering. 

I can see from the joint pictured that the difficulty in bending the Atlas flex has resulted in the ends not being curved. That joint is two straights at angles.

have you tried making a jig out of plywood to bend the track around? How are you bending it?

I concur with Ted. Use the sectional curves.

The slickest track bender out there for Atlas went away with the untimely passing of Norm. Flex Track bender

Perhaps a call to Atlas would be helpful. They may have a recommendation for a bending procedure.

On our layout, we finally wound up soldering 3, 4 or 5 sections of Atlas Flex Track together, prior to trying to bend it. Then, with at least four guys, we anchored one end and began forcing it, and I do mean FORCING it, around the curve.

I have about 330 feet of Atlas and 80% of it is flexttrack, every joint is smooth and straight.  What I did was, scrap and sand each side of each rail at each joint.  Install the first piece, then solder the joint (all three rails, well), then flex it into position and screw down every screw hole on both sides to locate it will.  Never had a problem.  

Thanks everyone for your reply's.

Lee, I actually did what you suugested twice and after I screwed down the track it slowly started to deform. The soder does not seem to be holding. Maybe I need to sand and clean the ends more? Or, stick with sectional track?

Thanks again.

JohnJr

Are you using flux? I apply flux paste lightly to all joints and about 1/2 inch on both sides. Then I solder with a solder station on high. The solder just flows beautifully. Then I use an acid brush dipped in iso alcohol and clean off the connection.

George (G3)

Stagger the rail ends at least one foot (12").   The rail will easily slide through the spike heads.

I then use a Dremel to relieve the top of the ties near the new rail ends for rail joiner clearance.

Atlas 3 rail flex is a royal pain.

Like Lee, I find soldering the joints first, then bending works best. If you look on the bottom you'll find not all of the screw holes are opened. I use an 1/8" bit and clean them out, then put screws in every hole.

I also use a 'hard' silver solder, rather than straight lead/tin, as it seems to handle the side pressure better. And I use a Weller 45 watt/1000deg glass caning iron to get a good solder flow temperature very quickly.

The easy answer is that you don't need to solder the joints.

We use Atlas flex and sectional track on the G&O garden railroad.  None of the track joints are soldered across the tie plates.

We use sectional track for most of our curves.  The reason for this choice was that we needed to make certain that no curve was less that O-72.  We used a combinations of sectional track to vary the radius.  Also, we can't fasten our track down because we need to allow for expansion and contraction outdoors.

We did use flex track for some curves.  We offset the rail joints  prior to laying the track.  You do this by sliding the rails in two pieces of flex track through the ties.  All three rails are offset by about 12 inches.  This makes one long piece of track that will bend into a smooth curve by hand.

We did solder wires across the track joints to improve electrical conductivity.  (Again, the joints are not soldered - just the wires.)  The easiest way to do this is with a resistance soldering iron.  We use a soldering iron sold by Micro-Mark.  I highly recommend getting a resistance soldering iron if you are going to work with a lot of Atlas track.

Here is a photo of wires soldered across the joints.  We have found the wires will actually hold the track in alignment and that the tie plate is not needed.  Note that the wires are soldered on the outside of the running rails to avoid contact with rolling stock flanges.  The center rail can be soldered on either side.

Here is another photo of wires soldered across the joints:

This entire upper level curve (supported by the T shaped stakes) and all the straight track is made with flex track with offset joints.  This photo was taken during construction in 2013.  This scene is no longer visible in this form because we have added plants and scenery.

Here is a photo of the same curve taken last Saturday.

 "They start out looking OK and then go out of alignment"

    Looks like they definitely need to be better secured to the road bed. As was stated earlier the solder should not be necessary if the track is well secured. A couple of tricks I've used in the past. Nail thru every tie near the joint with thin finish nails, you can drill a tiny hole or just drive the nail thru the plastic tie on most brands of track(experiment on a piece of scrap track and see if these ties are soft enough to not split) . It's also possible to add a short piece of plywood cut to the desired curve radius on the outside of the ties to keep them from springing outward, use plywood a bit thinner than the tie height and cut the curve to end of tie radius.Push the track back into alignment and glue and nail the plywood tight against the tie ends, the plywood can be painted ballast color with some sprinkled on later to hide it......DaveB

I expect so.  I used 320 grit sandpaper and cleaned well both sides of all three rails, in particular getting off all the blackening on the center rail.  I then installed shiny (not the black), clips on all three rails (not sure solder will hold to the black type), then used a 260W Weller gun to really cook the joint and soldering it well.  Fantastic results.

Whole hardly agree with Lee's methods. In fact, when I soldered my Atlas track together, I use a rotary file with a narrow point in my Dremel, to really grind both sides of all three rails. Even drilling a small hole through the web of the rail works well too.

fellows let me ask this

would staggering the joint on each rail help with this like Rich Battista did on his layout. that way the joints would be staggered.

I found that once you start to bend the soldered-together sections of Atlas flex track, the joints will automatically "stagger".