Flex Track

[Keith Hayes]

Earlier this week, many of us received a note from Scenery Unlimited that Shinohara will be ceasing production of their flex track line. This includes there S and Sn3 products. Scenery Unlimited has a limited supply, and no doubt there are some other stashes around the world.

At the Sn3 Symposium in Dallas, I heard that the molds Micro Engineering uses for their flex track (distributed by PBL) were worn out and ME is no longer making flex track in Sn3. I asked Keren Booth at the show and she advised me they have plenty in stock (I happen to need something like 30 pieces for my helix).

Though I know many of you advocate handlaid track--and I am not here to dispute those of this opinion--I found in my own planning that flex track is (was at the time) less expensive per foot. Also it goes down pretty quickly. We have been fortunate to have a couple manufacturers providing us stock of this resource. Sounds like it may be time for someone to invest in a new mold.

I have been too busy to follow up with PBL--anyone heard any other news on this matter?

[Todd A Ferguson]

I recall a discussion with Bill Peter years ago when they "inherited" or took over the Sn3 track.  I recall that he was not all that excited about it all.  I expect that it probably has to be made in a run of the specific size and it is probably something that has to be made in fairly large quantity which then takes many moons to sell and becomes dead money on the shelf.  I don't know about others but in my nearly 30 years of off and on Sn3 modeling I have probably purchased a grand total of 8 to 10 turnouts and maybe a dozen sections of Sn3 flextrack.  Part of my issue is I don't like the number 6 turnouts and prefer longer ones.

I believe the Sn3 turnouts that Shinohara made were a rather odd geometry although they were to be a number 6 frog turnout.  At least the ones that I have seen.  The Tomalco were much better but only available in number 6 which is OK but somewhat limiting too.

I believe the dies for flex track were often 9 inches long and therefore to make a 36 inch piece of track would take 4 shots with repositioning between each shot.  Larger dies would be possible but would increase costs and require more tonnage and a larger injection machine.  So, I expect that 9 inches was the best compromise.  But making track this way would seem to be somewhat labor intensive and thus the high cost of flextrack.  Precision Scale also did some narrow gauge flex but never got into the Sn3 stuff.  I would be surprised to see anyone investing in a new die anytime soon for Sn3 flextrack.  Maybe the original dies could be refurbished assuming they are steel dies.  There are also some newer technologies such as sprayed metal that can be used to make dies today.  Perhaps some sort of 3D modeled tie sections could be a reasonable alternative that could them be turned into a die molded section.  Something like the CV tie pieces would be the result maybe...  I don't know that Sn3 is a growing area of the hobby though that would justify the investment.

Best,
Todd Ferguson