# Reradiusing curved track



## Nohandles (Jan 2, 2009)

I have 20 boxes of 10 foot curved Aristo rail still in the boxes. Is it possible to re bend it to a 300 foot diameter? I'm just looking for ways to use up what I have eventually in the next year additions to the system.


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## c nelson (Dec 18, 2008)

Yes! 

Get a Train-Li Bender from Axel! 

http://www.train-li-usa.com/ 

worth every penny! tell him Cale sent you!


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## Nohandles (Jan 2, 2009)

Posted By c nelson on 02/13/2009 5:29 PM
Yes! 

Get a Train-Li Bender from Axel! 

http://www.train-li-usa.com/ 

worth every penny! tell him Cale sent you! 

Thanks Cale, I'll be ordering one soon from him. Sure hate to see any of my track not out in the yard over the next 3 years.

Doug


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yes, but bending it to a 300 foot diameter would waste a lot of rail, since that is almost straight. Maybe you meant a 30 foot diameter? 

Use rail clamps to connect the rails when bending, otherwise you cannot bend the ends of the rails. 

Regards, Greg


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## Nohandles (Jan 2, 2009)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 02/13/2009 6:31 PM
Yes, but bending it to a 300 foot diameter would waste a lot of rail, since that is almost straight. Maybe you meant a 30 foot diameter? 

Use rail clamps to connect the rails when bending, otherwise you cannot bend the ends of the rails. 

Regards, Greg

Yes I did mean 30 foot radius. Little typo there.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Just having a little fun! 

There's a couple of ways to do it. One way is to remove all the screws and join the rails together with clamps and try to bend. I thought that was the way to do it, but you quickly find that the section ends do not want to line up with the ends of the tie sections, and you find yourself trying to trim EVERY rail end. 

So, what I did was remove all but the center screw on each rail of each curved section. Then I connected 2 sections together. Now I bend this set of 2. There's enough give to let this work easily, and the screws left in place will keep the rails from trying to slide every which way. 

So, bend up enough "Sets of 2" to do your curve. Now you connect these sections and if the change in radius is not huge, you will only have to cut one rail not both when joining these sets. 

It may sound complex, but it saves you cutting a lot of rail, and speeds up the process. 

Regards, Greg


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

While your at it cut the ties apart on the outer rail of the curve track and it keeps the ties from skewing and also makes bending the rail easier.. Later RJD


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

My ties were already cut apart every so often, but maybe I would have needed to cut more if I made a bigger change. I went from 8 foot to 9.5. 

Regards, Greg


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

We cut every tie for Barry's RR and worked very well. of course we where bending brass and not SS. Later RJD


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

To rebend it you have to remove the little screws that hold the ties to the rail. Then you will have to trim the outside rail to make everything fit. What we did is clamp enough sections together to get around the curve and then trim the remaining ends where the straight section starts. One little problem we had with Aristo's new rail is the plastic ties have been cheapened and removal of the screws let the rail go out of gauge and caused derailments. Fortunately we had a box of their old ties and just substituted them. Otherwise you will have to find a way to put the screws back through the ties and this after they have all moved. Kind of a mess.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By jfrank on 02/14/2009 8:16 PM
To rebend it you have to remove the little screws that hold the ties to the rail. Then you will have to trim the outside rail to make everything fit. What we did is clamp enough sections together to get around the curve and then trim the remaining ends where the straight section starts. One little problem we had with Aristo's new rail is the plastic ties have been cheapened and removal of the screws let the rail go out of gauge and caused derailments. Fortunately we had a box of their old ties and just substituted them. Otherwise you will have to find a way to put the screws back through the ties and this after they have all moved. Kind of a mess. 


(Edit... Sorry, I was thinking making the radius smaller, but you are making it larger so the outside rail would need trimmed.)


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