for those who want to restore an old track...

[waaytoomuchintothis]

This track is a lot older than the tracks most folks would fix up, and the storage turned out to have been much more destructive than anybody thought, but there's a few things I learned that I think I should pass along.

First, it takes a close inspection to determine of the slot has altered. I saw sharp edges and thought everything was okay, and I was very wrong. The MDF had swelled enough to make the slot tight, and I didn't see it until a Carrera car with a big keel guide got stuck, wedged in a little kink. The more I looked, the more I found that there were lots of places where I needed to recut the slot.

When the track was disassembled, the pieces of glued and screwed flat plywood that reinforced the joints tore off a lot of the underside of the MDF, making the track extremely fragile right at the joints where the stress is when reassembling. Look out. I was lucky.

The old painted surface had to be repainted, of course, but I wasn't prepared for how much oil had soaked in. I had to treat the whole roadway with acetone (Prep Sol would have been better) so the new paint would stick.

Peeling old copper tape should be easy, but it does leave a hardened residue behind. I should have left it alone, as the places where I could still see it under the new paint were a lot easier to retape because that ridge made a guide that was perfect.

If anyone gets into one of these situations, I'll always be glad to answer questions here.

[ElSecundo]

Rob, I've been wondering about this track. Many times I've thought "It would have been so much easier to try and duplicate the layout rather than rescue the old one". I bet you would have saved many, many hours. It would cost an additional hundred dollars to buy new MDF. You had to buy the tape and paint, anyway. Joints would have fit together nicely, but you'd have had to cut the slots yourself (not that bad).

So, the big question -- was it worth it?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Its still an open question, really. On the one hand, this is the actual track that we all missed so much. Every little kink and shift, the freehand routed chicanes, the berzerker hairpin, and the straightaway that isn't straight, etc. Then again, if I rebuilt it, the routing would be conventional, the track would therefore be faster overall, and it wouldn't be delicate. Then there's the insane episode that just closed, where an experienced woodworker and trackbuilder used solutions to problems that were so oddball, he nearly outfoxed himself.

You are going to run on it soon, and I'll bet you decide it was worth it... I'm still trying to decide. This was one odd series of interconnected problems to solve.

[ElSecundo]

This might go without saying, but if you can get old friends out on the track and having a good time, any amount of effort is worth it. :banana-dance:

I've gone around and around in my head about re-doing my track, which has been a wonderful layout for almost 10 years. But it would take just as much work to re-do this one as it would take to build a whole new challenge. One of the guys has casually threatened me with bodily harm if I get rid of the track. :lol: But I just can't see putting a ton of rehab work into the old girl.

[Ember]

I suppose it depends on how much you value the old track. And how much you fancy your chances of recreating it.