How to bend small RR track?

[Chris142]

I have a chance to get some used Ore car track. Looks like RR track but only about 3 inches tall.

The pieces are curved and I want to straighten them out and put an old Ore car on them as yard art.

How did the miners bend it 150 yrs ago? Put it between 2 pipes and push? Heat with a bellows?

It's pretty heavy so it will be a little tough to deal with.

 

[spasm3]

I guessing here but an acetylene torch?

 

[The_Eric]

How much bend are you talking about?

 

[Chris142]

Did they have Acetylene back then? It's about 30 ft long and curved from one end to the other. Shaped like ---------> )

 

[simple_gifts]

http://cprr.org/Museum/FAQs2.html

'Splained down the page, with picture.

Methods back then appear different than today since the material was malleable.

"By hand" appears not to be anything done recently.

 

[JHZR2]

yeah, if it is shaped like ), Id find a way to prop it up on its ends so is is up like the St Louis arch (withboth ends on something that will let them slip down, like a few pieces of plywood), and then start hitting it all over with a flame. It will likely take a LOT, so Id buy some professional bottles of gas, real big ones.

 

[Chris142]

I wonder if putting it between 2 large pipes and pushing on it would work? Somehow they had a way to bend it around turns under ground.

I assume they bent it while under ground.

 

[The_Eric]

What do you have access to that's big/heavy? Tractor with loader, semi tractor? Block it up at the ends and weigh it down in the middle.

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric
What do you have access to that's big/heavy? Tractor with loader, semi tractor? Block it up at the ends and weigh it down in the middle.
62 Peterbilt

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
What do you have access to that's big/heavy? Tractor with loader, semi tractor? Block it up at the ends and weigh it down in the middle.
62 Peterbilt

That should do nicely...

 

[MNgopher]

If its steel, you'll likely need heat - steel rail is usually brittle. If its iron, it may be more easily persuaded to bend without breaking with some "gentle" persuasion.

 

[Shannow]

Something is banging around in the back of my head about hammer stretching the outside flange to force it into compression, and creating a long radius arc, rather than trying to bend a strange shape around a point other than its centroid...might be an article that I got about 15 years ago about creating the perfect camber on a corner for not wearing the rail/wheel sides.

I don't think rail is very brittle, it usually has quite a bit on Manganese, and not much traditional alloying stuff (Cr, Mo, V, etc).

Might be able to swing heat shrinking the outside of the arc, but I'll bet that's a lot of heat/energy, and not much benefit...hammering isn't either unless you have a chain gang

 

[Shannow]

Haha..."notes on curves"

This is almost a direct rip of the article "notes on curves" that Ozzie O'brien gave me 15 years ago.

http://www.wiki.iricen.gov.in/doku/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=notes_for_curves.pdf

 

[eljefino]

Find a full size railroad, lay your toy rail between the rails, and use a jack or hydraulic ram against the other rail?

Note for the sarcastically challenged, DON'T DO THIS.

 

[Kestas]

Frame shop?

 

[Chris142]

I got the rail today. It's 15ft long so I had to cut it with a sawzall.........Easy so it must not be high strength steel.

I was able to put one end in the reciever hitch on my pickup and with a jackstand and piece of pipe I got it straight enough in about 10 minutes.

 

[Trajan]

Sherman's troops would heat it and bend it around a tree.

 

[ethangsmith]

What are you doing with these rails?

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: ethangsmith
What are you doing with these rails?
I'm going to put an Ore car on em for yard art.