PF trains on 4.5V points

[whosscruffylookin]

Hi,

I just bought some old 4.5V (grey-era) points on eBay as I want to build a small shunting yard and want the tracks close together than the 9v/PF standard of 8 studs between sleepers. I will probably end up with one or two studs between sleepers by using some hacked up flex-track. Anyway, I just wondered if any of the modern trains will have trouble with the older 4.5V points - when I searched most results were about 12V, where the conducting rail can cause issues; shouldn't be a problem with 4.5V, but I was worried about s-curve type problems with Emerald Night (which I have yet to acquire)...

Thanks!

[hoeij]

PF trains work fine with 4.5V track (crossings, switches, etc.), including the Emerald Night. There are also some tricks that let you go from PF track to 4.5V track and back (you need 2x1 plates with just 1 stud on the top, because you have to create a 1/2 stud distance to close the gap).

The 4.5V track is flexible enough so that you can, if needed, add a little bit more distance between the sidings in your 4.5V-track train yard (if you park two E.N.'s next to each other, then the 4.5V sidings might be a little bit too close to each other. But this problem is easy to solve).

[whosscruffylookin]

Thanks hoeij!

I was thinking of just hacking the the clips off the end of a piece of flex track (so no half-stud offset) and using a normal 2x8 plate instead of the clipped plates at the end of the 4.5V piece. That way the only bricks to suffer are the flex-tracks, and I don't have to use up any other bricks to complete the transition.

[hoeij]

I was thinking of just hacking the the clips off the end of a piece of flex track (so no half-stud offset)

Actually, that's a good idea. We probably have way more flex track than we actually use, so it's no problem to modify a few of them.