[vee8]

Hey all,

I noticed that I never saw a routed wooden track using copper tape for HO.

Is there a particular reason for that because I think it would work. Or not ?

 

[LeeH]

Some cars struggle with the connectivity on copper tape that is why. Plus makes traction mags redundant.

 

[vee8]

OK, thanks LeeH.

I run HO non-mag anyway.

So better stick to the usual plastic stuff I have ?

 

[Julian_Boolean]

I've made a copper taped track and no cars had any connectivity problems, I built it to test cars without any magnetic effect, SG+ was the best running at 14V.

 

[vee8]

OK guys.

Maybe the best thing to do to figure it out is just trying it, right ?

I just do not want to waste all my copper tape for nothing. But wood looks so much better and You can decide of the turn radius that suits You best.

And perhaps a little weight in front of the car can fix the connectivity problem.

 

[Julian_Boolean]

There is no connectivity problem, I built my copper tape track out of some old Marchon track I had laying around, pulled the steel rails out with a pair of pliers and put 6mm wide copper tape where the rails used to be, it works well and is a cheap way to make a non magnetic track, I was actually surprised how well it works.

 

[RichD]

I have never run HO cars on a track with copper tape, I have run them on routed tracks with both Magnabraid and tinned copper braid. If you run modern high downforce cars on regular track with rails if the pickup shoes are not properly adjusted to start with they will quickly wear in. On a taped or braided track you need to be more careful about adjusting the shoes. The braided tracks that I have run on were all ovals, two of them had steep banking and one of those had Magnabraid. We ran inline magnet cars on that one, you had to be careful getting on the power as you exited the turns or your car would swap ends. We only ran pancake cars on the high banked track with copper braid. The pickup shoes tended to burn if you did not increase the shoe spring tension and pay special attention to how the shoes were adjusted. The copper braided track with only a slight bank was not as much of a problem, we only run pancake cars on that one. Back in the mid '60s I had some Marx track, which had brass rails, no downforce there!