Friday, May 20, 2011

Warning: Deady flexitrack

On30 TrackA few days ago I purchased some very nice On30 flexi-track from EDM Models. It look great with code 70 rail (you can have code 83 or 100 as well) and nice fine sleepers. 18ft of it, probably enough plain track for the entire layout, costs just over 30 quid which isn't unreasonable for a specialist product.

I know the same thing can be made from nickel silver rail and copper-clad sleepers but it's deadly dull to make and probably not that much cheaper. Interestingly (well I found it thus, which probably says something about me) is that the rail itself comes from Sheffield. This is then shipped to the USA, sleepers are attached and then sent back to blighty.

In fact it appears that pretty much all model railway rail comes from Sheffield where it is made by one man. I'd assume that Marcway (based in Sheffield) us him. Kalgarin do for their new range as well. Worryingly, he's approaching retirement age so maybe I should stockpile the stuff ?

Anyway, once the track has come back from the new world, it has a sticker on it. Apparently if you use this stuff in California, the track can cause infertility and birth defects. Presumably you could be born a Great Western modeller. Which would be pretty bad.

 

Mind you, simply being a railway modeller is likely to harm your chances of reproduction - no matter what you do with the trackwork...

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