Model Railroading > For those who use kato track ( either ho or n scale )

How many times ( if any)
have you changed your layout ?

Jon Fink
Schenectady, NY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/21 20:59 by Highhood.

A dozen or so members of an N scale group to which I belong got together in a hospital auditoreum about 6 times a year and set up temporary layouts using folding tables.  We would set up on Saturday morning, run trains for the rest of the day and all day Sunday until tear down late Sunday afternoon.  We did this for about 5 years until we lost the venue.  There are photos that can be seen on this website.  http://www.trainweb.org/tomix/  Scroll down on the front page and look for the photo gallery on the right side.  I think it is the 5th one down in the orange colored section of the chart.  Despite what the title says, we ran with Tomix and Kato track.  And we ran trains and trolleys.  The layouts were different each time we set them up.  All of the members of the group contributed track and rolling stock. Track was labeled on the bottom with the owner's initials with a sharpie marker so it was easy to sort out what belonged to who when we broke down the layouts on Sunday afternoon.  We could set up in a little over an hour and break down in about 45 minutes.  We used the track over and over without having any problems.  We must have done this at least 30 times.

 

I have set up and taken down Kato track in both N and HO lots of times and still use that track years later. I have changed out the connection clips called Unijoiners, that include the rail joiners as you can purchase these as seprate parts. Changing these out after years of connect-disconnect, can tighten things back up if the connection feels loose. In N scale it's Kato part # 24-815.
Ralph
 

4x in 20 yrs.  2 of those times were due to moving.

it has been great being able to re-use my track............

66



 

Jon: I built my first N Scale layout with Unitrack in 2000 (after using Atlas & Peco for years) and have since built 2 other layouts (due to moves) using Unitrack and can't say enough good things about it.

Two top features for me are the way it consistently runs the trains and the great electrical connections it makes. (I have a DCC layout).

Each time I have taken it up and then reused it (it was glued down), after cleaning and inspecting I was able to reuse about 80% of the Track and 65% of the switches. The switch number could be better but that is on me for using to much glue on them.

Some folks have said that the limited radius curves limit what you can do with it, but that has never been an issue for me. Kato in N Scale is solving that this summer when they release their new Unitrack Compatible Flex Track. (On their website now).

Northridge Switcher

Posted from Android

The reason I asked the question is this. I got back into model rail roading in April of last year . N scale because I don't have the room for ho like I did in New Mexico. I have changed my track set up 38 times in the past year . This includes 12 total teardowns . 3 changes in the last 10 days . Was just wondering if I was the only one who changed this often.

Jon Fink
Schenectady, NY

I am only back into the hobby for three years now that I am retired, after many years away due to heavy work schedule, frequent moves, and lots of corporate travel for extended periods. Previously I had a small HO, mostly switching layout (Atlas and flextrack), sold it off completely, and came back to the hobby and decided on N-gauge this time around.

Best decision I ever made - I am an absolute fan of N.. Second best decision right behind that by just the merest smidge was to go with Kato N-gauge Unitrack nearly exclusively. (I have a few small, odd transition areas that are Peco,). I have now redone my track layout substantially a total of six times in three years. The Kato track has performed like a champ. No issues with disassembly and reassembly when I did it right (which is very easy to do), and the only problems are areas that I messed up, my fault 100%. The precision, quality and reliability of the Unitrack is excellent, and the precision of the Unijoiner system has worked very well in maintaining electrical continuity for DCC. Where a Unijoiner has gone bad through my mishandling, replacement is quick and easy, and the new one brings things back to normal. I have had only one section of track go completely bad beyond redemption (a switch), and that was due to my mishandling.

I went to sectional track because I want the flexibility to rework, and even completely rebuild my layout. That's anathema to some in the hobby. I am close to finishing a track plan for my seventh rebuild, which will be to an entirely different railroad, location and scenery type. I have no doubt that the Kato Unitrack will continue to perform admirably the seventh time around in three-plus years.

MC

I've been using Kato unitrack (HO) since 2008, for my home layout.  Since I was unfamiliar with unitrack, at the time, I purchased several different radius curve pieces to experiment with different setups for the curves.  Put the curves together and took them apart several times, lost count of how many times.  Once I got the curves dialed in for the layout, I've kept the same configuration for several years.  No changes since that time, about eight years now. 

I did install a number of terminal joiners when assembling the track into its final configuration to head off any electrical drop outs.

That has been my experience.

Bob