Butts and cracks

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I know I’m not supposed to solder rail (Ho Code 100 Atlas) where I’ll have a butt joint on a curve because it’ll probably develop a kink and crack, maybe throwing my beloved NW Class A on my soon -to -be- great scenery. Or worse on the hard tile floor. So just how do you go about getting that outside rail slid back and how far do you slide it? Do you cut and remove some ties or do you leave the ties in place, slide the rail back, slide the adjoining rail into the now vacant ‘spikes’ and then solder it, and try not to melt the ties?
Could someone give me a Butt Joint Avoider step by step?
:slight_smile:
Jarrell

2

Solder the sections of flex track together BEFORE you curve them. One rail will move as you curve the track and you will not have a butt joint.

3

I’ve just laid several HOj kilometers of Atlas code 100 flex, trackage which is going to be hidden when the higher layers of the cake get built. My method for laying curves is:

  1. The non-sliding rail of the flex goes on the outside of the curve. That way, there is no cutting of ties except for the two at the extreme ends of each yard of track, and all of the mounting holes remain available.

  2. Slide the loose rail back from each end and pre-curve the fixed rail ends by forcing them to a tight radius for about four to six inches. Avoid kinking, just bend gently. Pre-bend the loose rail in the same manner. Also, take the sharp corner off the inside of each rail head with a swipe or two of a file. Doing that prevents catching flanges if the tracklaying is less than perfect, and has virtually eliminated derailments on my layouts.

  3. Starting at the tangent end of an easement, lay the flex. (I use caulk, and temporarily hold things in place with track nails that are later removed.) The loose inside rail will overhang the end of the fixed outside rail. I leave it uncut, slide it into the next length of flex, then carve away only the tops of the two or three tie ends needed to clear the rail joiner. As track laying progresses around the curve, the loose rail end will overhang more and more. Once you reach tangent track again, pre-size the last length of flex and cut the ‘flying’ rail end square with the fixed rail end.

  4. After everything else is done, trim and insert ties where the joints fall in the outside rail.

Insulated rail joiners can be inserted where needed for signal detection or DC control in the same manner as standard joiners. I personally solder jumper wires around all uninsulated joiners (and around the one plastic joiner I put in the wrong place!) The cut-off rail end can be used to build specialwork (I hand-lay mine,) or as scenery on a spare rail rack next to a MOW shed.

I’ve been operating my entire roster,

4

Thanks Chuck and Ed. Chuck, I’ve had this all wrong then. I thought the loose rail, the one that will slide, was on the outside of the curve and the ‘fixed’ rail was on the inside. Oh well, back to the drawing board… :slight_smile:
Thanks for the detailed information.
Jarrell