Bendable corded curtain tracks

[John Rumm]

Anyone know of a good source?

I need one where I can take it round a corner on one side of a bay window...

[tabbypurr]

Last time I saw one of those it was 1950s or 60s metal track.

NT

[PeterC]

Any use, John?

[DerbyBorn]

The cord will want to to take the shortest path when pulled. Can you consider those "pulling Rods" attached to the first runners?

[DerbyBorn]

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh just put a bit of OO gauge track up there and a model train engine and make a feature of the whole thing using the locomotive to draw the curtains

[Mark Allread]

+1 we've used swish in our places and they are reliable IME.

Other places will probably also stock them if you wanted to run a price comparison.

[Brian Gaff]

Do these curtains need motor control or are they for the armstrong method? If the former, then all are rubbish, get stuck break teeth off their gears etc. Brian

[T i m]

I am sure there are good and bad automatic curtain system and ours has been running pretty reliably (twice daily) for over 30 years now. [1] That said the track is straight and the curtains are only down to the windowsill, rather that the floor (although they are lined and weighted).

You are right though in as much as they can sometimes get stuck and that is generally down to humidity and dust in the track making the sliders create more drag. Next day or later the same day and without any other intervention, they work perfectly again.

Cheers, T i m

[1] I have had to replace the main unit reservoir capacitor because the unit lost any real torque ... and the LCD display no longer works (so we can't change the opening / closing time (not looked into that yet as it's item 1,638 on my 'to do' list)). ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

John Lewis used to make them to order. They are mandrel bent, so not really DIY. But dunno if they still do, since curtains are so out of fashion these days.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've got motorised curtains in my bedroom. Just a straight track, though.

Installed it some 40 years ago and used at least twice a day. Only things that have been replaced is the cord, one switch on the motor, and a couple of drive rings.

[John Rumm]

Don't think that is corded is it?

[John Rumm]

Yup that looks plausible... thanks, I had missed those.

I found some ali "silent gliss" ones that had fully enclosed cording and could be forward and reverse bent, but it seems you have to order those bent to your spec.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes. There are tracks that can be bent by hand and corded - like the sort used round hospital beds. But don't look very attractive, and usually need a very gentle bend.

The purpose bent ones look very good - with the cords all concealed.

[PeterC]

Oops - no, I missed the corded bit.

[Phil Addison]

I still have a Harrison Drape rail doing excellent service bent around my double-bay window. It's been up some 25 years so don't know if its still available. It's manually operated by a cord each side, but motors were available.

Phil

[John Rumm]

Thanks Phil.

I got a Swish superglide in the end and that does the job. It can only bend into a corner, but that is not a limitation for my application. The only annoying thing is the rather too short length of cord they fit thee days. Sure it might make strangulation less common, but its a PITA if you have 10' high ceilings!

[tabbypurr]

easily replaced, I get mine from a haberdasher.

NT