I read something here a while back about smoothing the joints on Tomy track, What can be done to smooth the joints and reduce the clickity clack, and especially the hopping of the cars?

Thanks for any help.

If you look at the end of a track section, right in the middle is a locking tab that slides under the next track section.
(Or over if you are looking at the other end...) Often these tabs do not line up 100% and this pushes the upper tab up a bit.
I use a razor knife and gently cut the "bump" off the lower locking tab so it doesn't interfere with the "bump" on the upper locking tab.
Other people simply cut the entire lower locking tab off the track.
That can help take care of smoothing the joints...
Something that is done to reduce the "click-clack" is to mount the track on some sort of sound deadening board instead of straight onto the table top...

Scott

If you're talking about the bumps you get in the middle of the track joints, between the lanes, check http://www.horacingworld.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6&PN=1


:)

Thanks for the quick responses. I'm going to go give it a try.

Worked. Thanks.

I guess now I have a nice lunch hour project.

I just removed the bumps from all the track pieces in my layout. It really made a big big difference in the smoothness of my track. The clicks and clacks don't even bother me now. I think they were bothering me before because I always associated them with the car jumping.

I just removed the bumps from all the track pieces in my layout. It really made a big big difference in the smoothness of my track. The clicks and clacks don't even bother me now. I think they were bothering me before because I always associated them with the car jumping.

There are a couple of things you may try to get your cars even better:

#1 leave your guide pin long for tomy track, and bend it FORWARD as far as you dare.

#2 Try A J.L. guide pin and do the same as the above

#3 Make shure ALL the joints have been "smoothed". This entails pushing down the "Squigly" section of the rail, at the tag end.

#4 With a dremel polishing wheel, sligtly chamfer the sides of your pickup shoes. This will help with the "hang up" in the center of the small radius turns.

Tim Leppert

afxgns, can you give details on dremeling the shoes?

This is a sore subject today for me. [ literally]... I sanded and sanded with various and assorted implements of disaster all day. :freak: In February I ripped up my old layout and knocked out a new one while the wife went on a quick vaca with family to Florida for 4 days. Scenery and all...permanent like. Did I remember to remove the damn niblets off the track pieces BEFORE making it permanent?... Like I did with my last layout?? :drunk: DOH. That's what I get for hurrying I guess. Needless to say it's been "interesting" smoothing out the clickety-clacks and bumpity-bumps. The first thing I did was carefully knock off the shiny finish on everything. If I was gonna smooth the joints out on the top side, it would have looked pretty terrible having scuffs every 9, 15, 6 inches etc. So then I just carefully sanded every high spot I found. If that wasn't bad enough I also found that a lot of the slot junctions were off from piece to piece. What was also a surprise was some of the Tomy track being less than flat to begin with. Imagine that, mass produced in a foreign country, and brand new too. ;) ...Anyhow, for the slot junction imperfections I just folded up fine sandpaper until it fit the slot snugly and ran it through the joints that were off kilter. It's been a workout, but I'm too far along with the layout to go back and start it all over. I've really got nothing to lose. It's actually coming out pretty good, the track is fast, and by accident I kinda like the matte finish better than the shiny new looking surface. Tim is right about guidepin adjustments and those metal squiggles too. It makes a difference to try all these things. Certain tjet setups make your track seem better too. I notice a Tuffy-type wheel set seems less sensitive on my layout. I'm glad to try and fix this as it sits, instead of a rip out and more $$$. Live and learn... errr better make that try to learn).

afxgns, can you give details on dremeling the shoes?

If you are looking at the car from the front, You want to get the contact areas FLAT.
I call this "camber" This is acheive by twisting the shoe longways. After you have them flat, you want to chamfer the sides of each shoe, on the stepped down portion.
You don't need much, but if there is a sharp edge here, it will catch much more easily on the joints, most likely on the inside edges of each shoe depending on the direction of the turn.
Like anything else, this takes some practice to master, but if you hit it, WOW, what a difference. :wave:

Tim

I'll try this one too.