# Repairing damaged track?



## noela (May 22, 2008)

We just had our first major catastrophe of 1:1 tree falling on the layout. Damage was across 5 tracks, and, effectively, it bent the rail either in, out or down. This is Brass .332 rail, so it is fairly rigid. My question is this. Has anybody experienced this before and found some sort of tool that can be used on the rail itself to straighten it out? I can, if necessary, replace the track, but I would prefer not to as it will take quite a bit of work to do so.
Thank you.


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

yes 
I took the rail out of the ties and straightened what I could over a board and rubber malet.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Unfortunately, a kink is hard to work out, because when bent sharply, the brass gets just a little bit harder at the bend. You try to straighten it out, and the brass bends unevenly. 

I would say the best thing to try is a rail bender, bend the track one way, and back the other, if straight, bend it in a cuve then straighten. Of course the most convenient way is a dual rail bender. 

Regards, Greg


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Bending the track back and forth in SMOOTH bends will eliminate the unevenness, but doing so will also "work harden" the metal, which means is becomes brittle and instead of bending it cracks and breaks.

A dual rail bender (whole track bender) is nice, but unless each individual rail is bent pretty much the same way at the same place, it will be difficult to work with, so I recommend complete disassembly of the track/ties and work with the rails independently. Also, if you have to work the rail back and forth more than twice, I'd recommend that you heat the rail (the section you are work hardening) with a torch until you can see it glowing (don't melt it!) and then let it air cool before working it again. So since you may need to anneal the rail, you will have to remove the ties anyway. (Brass is mostly copper, which does not have to be cooled slowly to maintain softness, but depending on the exact alloy of brass it may get brittle if cooled too fast.)

If you still have an ugly kink that just won't work out of the rail, then cut that section out and have two shorter lengths of rail with a joint.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I've used a dual rail bender in such a situation, I did not find any extra difficulty if one rail was kinked and the other was not... the other rail did not start with a kink nor finish with one. 

It also seemed to me that work hardening of the rail to the point of making it difficult to use the bender did not occur. 

I've also been at many shows where the sellers of dual rail benders have a piece of track for demonstration that has been bent back and forth hundreds of time with no ill effect. 

I'd try the bender first, and if you do encounter work hardening, you can try further measures.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

When I had the LGB code 332 brass in the ground and it was bent, I just removed the whole section and replaced it. As a side note, I used to have about 150 feet of 7 1/2 inch gauge track going down my driveway so my kids could run my Baldwin Electric. Aluminum rail 1 inch tall with a 1 inch web foot width and about 1/2 inch across at the railhead. My idiot water softener truck driver decided to back his duallies over the curved section and really kinked that rail! I had to replace it. I tried a hydraulic press and just could not get the kink straightened out. This was 6061T6 aluminum. After repeated bending to get it right, it DID BREAK. Aluminum and brass CAN work harden.


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## noela (May 22, 2008)

Thank you for the input. I never considered the hardening factor, I might just get more frustrated trying to correct it. Looking at the damage I may go the route of cutting out the damaged sections and installing small pieces 18" long and use Hillman Clamps. On the curves, I may have to replace bigger sections. I knew I saved these odd pieces for something. 
Thank you again.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

When our tree trimmers damage sections of rail by dropping limbs on them, I just cut out and replace the damaged area with another piece of rail. No sense in replacing good track. I'll typically solder on a rail joiner and add a jumper.


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## mgilger (Feb 22, 2008)

I have never had damage caused by a tree falling, but this winter I did have 2 pieces mangled up pretty bad by a deer stepping on it. I removed and used a dual rail bender to fix it. I just kept on bending in one direction, then the other and after 10-12 passes it was pretty well strait, although you could still see a slight kink. I did not have to remove the ties for this operation. The track is now back in daily use. So if you can find someone with a dual bender, give it a shot. You might be able to save a few dollars. I used the AristoCraft unit, but the others will do the trick also. 

Regards,
Mark


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## Axel Tillmann (Jan 10, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 19 Jun 2011 12:49 PM 
Bending the track back and forth in SMOOTH bends will eliminate the unevenness, but doing so will also "work harden" the metal, which means is becomes brittle and instead of bending it cracks and breaks.

A dual rail bender (whole track bender) is nice, but unless each individual rail is bent pretty much the same way at the same place, it will be difficult to work with, so I recommend complete disassembly of the track/ties and work with the rails independently. Also, if you have to work the rail back and forth more than twice, I'd recommend that you heat the rail (the section you are work hardening) with a torch until you can see it glowing (don't melt it!) and then let it air cool before working it again. So since you may need to anneal the rail, you will have to remove the ties anyway. (Brass is mostly copper, which does not have to be cooled slowly to maintain softness, but depending on the exact alloy of brass it may get brittle if cooled too fast.)

If you still have an ugly kink that just won't work out of the rail, then cut that section out and have two shorter lengths of rail with a joint.



Although Greg already mentioned it, but I have to state it here explicitly:

I have bend my demo track over a 1000 times







. If there is a hardening effect







then it must happen after 10000 times or so.

As far as bend in different places, not to worry, bending it against the bend and then bending it into the right direction will definately take care of it. Even the bends that are not left right but up down, will be straightened out be bending several times left/right. However, if your bends are to strong (e.g. 90 degree angle), then take the rails out of the ties, and drive them 90 through the bender individually, turned by 90 degrees. We are using this method to create and upwards lift for cograil layouts. Only you will try to counter the up or down bend.

But with the help of molecular re-distribution, after a few bending cycles your track will be as good as new.


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