Atlas code 83 12.5 degree crossing pieces

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi

I’ve just bought a few Atlas code 83 12.5 degree crossings and in each pack there is a little bag containing the rail joiners and 4 tiny pieces of rail(or at leaast that’s what I thnk they are). Can someone tell me what the purpose of these pieces are?

Thanks

Dan

2

I looked on the Atlas web site’s code 83 track listings, thinking that they may show the pieces you’re referring to, but they don’t. All they have is a picture of the actual crossing, with no mention of the rail joiners or any other parts.

Could they possibly be metal pieces to glue over the plastic frog so short wheel based locomotives don’t stall?

3

I seem to have misplaced my Atlas Custom Line track book, but there is a specific configuration where that crossing is used and the fitup doesn’t come out quite correct without those pieces. It might be where one of three parallel tracks crosses over the middle track to get to the third parallel track. In any case, you can make this crossing using either left or right hand turnouts. Those little railpieces fit in the rail joiners where the crossing connects to the turnouts. They make the crossing either right hand or left hand.

And no, I’m not making this up.

4

The Atlas track book that I have says:

“Early Atlas 12 1/2* crossings were made in both left-and-right-hand arrangements. Later 12 1/2* crossings are packaged with four short filler rails which are to be installed at the ends of either pair of rails, as shown by the little squares in the drawings, to make a crossing of either hand.”

Hope this helps.

Have fun,

Richard

5

Hmm, well that makes sense, thanks. Not sure I totally understand it yet though. Maybe I should buy the track book!

Thanks again

Dan

6

Atlas makes and sells all sorts of short “filler” track sections. They are, first and foremost, a sectional track manufacturer. They expect many of their customers to be novices or once-a-year Christmas tree modelers, so they try to provide everything you need to set up a track layout without needing flex track or rail nippers.

So, they include these little sections to fill in the gaps. They let people create a layout without the track kinks caused by “making it fit” when a curve is just a bit short.