This article describes how I hand-lay code 40 rail. "code 40" stands for model railroad track that is 0.040" tall (forty one-thousandths). In N-scale that comes out to about 6-and-half inches of rail height. It may be considered light rail for some mainline track, but I find that it looks more prototypical. I started off creating some small dioramas using that rail just to experiment, however, this became my standard for hand-laying N-scale track.

Click on a topic of interest below, or start with the first one and follow along. Each page has a link to the next topic. The photos used to illustrate the accompanying text may span several layouts and dioramas. I have tried to improve these pages as I learned more.