While I doubt this is an original idea, I thought I’d share my experiences.
For what ever reason, impatience, bumped elbow, etc. I was left with a couple of bad gaps where track met on my test layout. The diesels ran smooth, but my steam locos tended to bounce on these, causing derailments on a regular basis.
I was trying to think how to fix this, and having spent a lot of time in the table top battlefield minitures genre, I fell back to some old tricks, namely a two part modeling putty loosely termed “green stuff” (miliput is basically the same).
A small ball, put in the joint and smoothed flat on the top and inside rail solved the problem. Here’s a shot of it before final sanding and painting to match.
As you can see, I have a couple of others to do as well.
I can now run my steam at full speed over this joint with no problems.
While I’ve learned there is nothing better than doing it right the first time, I hope that this may help other new folks to the hobby.
From what I see, the left lower railhead is high and the left upper railhead is low, when you compare the railheads from left to right. The railheads need to be level across the gap. I would shim the left upper and the right lower rails to help the head height match or lightly sand the higher railhead down to closer match it’s mating rail then fill in the gaps. If the joint does not match in height on both rails on both sides the Loco will rock side to side as it crosses over this joint. To see what I mean take a playing card and put it on end on the railheads along the rail and look for gaps on top of the railhead across the joint.
You should be able to feel the miss-match if you run your finger nail along the tops of either rail across the gap.
I use Plastruct gray ABS plastic in whatever thickness is necessary to fill rail gaps. I cut it into small squares or rectangles, cement it in place with epoxy, and carve and file it to match the shape of the rail after the epoxy sets. I paint the sides to more or less match the weathered rail I use, and the gray on top blends in nicely with the nickel silver of the railhead.
I use a two part epoxy filler. I just pinch off what I need, knead it up between my fingers and push it into the gap and trim off whatever is sticking out. Apply a little silver paint and it’s almost invisible.
Lothar, I think the emphasis should be on doing it right the first time. Were this my final layout, I would pull it, but right now, I’m just playing with it as a test bed.
