I use Atlas Insulated Plastic Rail Joiners.
I am not real fond of them because they are ugly and somewhat hard to work with. But they do the job and keep the rails aligned properly.
What other methods do you use to gap the rails?
Rich
Hi!
For the breaks in power districts (I have 8), and the programming track (siding), I use the plastic rail joiners. I find that a little weathering with rust/black wash makes them disappear into the attached track.
I did have to make some other “gaps” in the rails, and that was when my plywood finally shrunk and gave me several warps. I used a Dremel cutting disc and just sliced a thin gap - and almost all of the warps straightend out (DON’T FORGET YOUR SAFETY GLASSES).
I did apply spikes to hold the rail ends in place, and after almost two years they are just fine.
So to answer your question, other than the plastic joiners, the only alternative I’ve used is the cut with the Dremel disc…
I have a reversing section where I used the insulated rail joiners. Like you said, they can be difficult to install on the rail ends, but they do work.
I also had some “shrinkage” problems where I just cut and filed a gap. I was surprised to see and hear the wheels aren’t effected by the gap.
Rich I used my dremel with a thin cut wheel attachment.
Just watch that the rails gap don’t close up. You can use some epoxy glue to fill the gap.
LION has a big stack of the plastic rail joiners. (Ergo: He does not use them any more.)
LION did use them when building a double crossover from scratch, just to isolate the hot rails from each other, and if they were not in a control district, that would not have been necessary at all. But how silly of the LION, all switches are by definition within a control district.
For all other gaps the motor tool with a cut off disk is used. LION lays out all of his track, welds the rail joiners, and then cuts the gaps as needed. And LIONS use lots of gaps. Just keep sure that the gaps remain open, if necessary, a little slip of plastic in there works wonders. It is what the 1:1 guys do with their gaps.
When cutting rail, goggles or a face shield please. LION uses a block of wood and uses it to apply pressure to the tracks with his free paw so that the rail will not lift, bind the wheel, and send shrapnel all over the room. LION breaks a lot of disks, mostly from uncareful handling of the machine between uses.
ROAR
And the most important reason to use a block of wood or something other than your finger to hold down the rail as you cut - it gets HOT!
–Randy
I typically leave an open gap for expansion and contraction, spiking into wood ties directly adjacent to the gap to maintain alignment. The only place I have plastic joiners is on my programming track. I don’t care for the looks of them anywhere the trackwill be painted and ballasted.
I generally use the plastic insulated rail joiners.
But in those spots where I find I need a gap where it isn’t practical to use them, I just cut through the rail with a razor saw, insert a small square of appropriately-thick styrene (usually .015), and CA it in place. Trim it down with an Exacto, and maybe do a little cleanup with a needle file so it matches the rail profile. Once you weather it, it’ll be virtually invisible unless you actually look for it.
Since I have no signaling on this layout, the main only has 4 total gaps, to divide it into 2 power districts. So I just used plastic joiners. The break is in the middle of a straight section, so alignment isn’t really an issue, and the newer Atlas HO plastic joiners are clear plastic, not the bright ornage they used to be. With the number of gaps that will be needed for proper signal detection blocks when I built my ‘next’ layout, it will be Dremel time.
–Randy
Eh? Those BIG ORANGE insulated rail joiners are EXACTLY prototypical!
Th IJ is red, AND there is a yellow reflector on the third rail protection board to TELL the motorman where the gap is. (He needs to know this so that he can “key-by” the signal)
ROAR
The 1:1 scale versions also come in baby blue (!) and black. Not manufactured in clear plastic - the MW people WANT to be able to see them.
Since my layout resides in an environment almost guaranteed to cause rail creep, I install plastic joiners as a standard part of the tracklaying process. I lay track with my electrical requirements at the front of my mind. So far, I haven’t had to cut a new gap where there wasn’t one. (I have jumper wired plastic joiners where the need is future rather than present.)
Totally de-burring the rail base makes installing a plastic joiner much easier. Try it, you’ll like it.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - analog DC, MZL = LOTS of rail
That may be what Atlas was trying for, but it was a bright yellowish orange, not ANYTHIGN that looks like a dull color or even a rusty plain joint bar. Not to mention they had a tiny tab in the middle to keep the rails from possibly touching, and on the code 100 track it stuck up above railhead height and made an annoying bump.Those were the days, for sure. The new clear ones, you cna paint whatever color you like, at least, they seem to take paint when I paintedmy rails. So if youw nat visibile, you cna do it, but you can also hide them. Fromt he Atlas web site it looks liekt he code 100 ones and the N scale code 80 ones are white, not clear liek the HO code 83. Dunno, haven’t paid attention.
–Randy
Right. And it also occurred to me that where we want to put gaps and where a real railroad would want to put gaps are not the same thing at all. They gap signal blocks, we gap power blocks. I do not thank that I will model the signal gaps but I will have to model the trippers and boxes that go with the signals. Here is a signal with it’s tripper.
Run the signal, and the tripper dumps your air. Because this signal is clear the yellow tripper head to the left of the left running rail is in the down position. The machine that operates the tripper is in the box between the rails. Actually that square plate looks to cover a drain, but the rounded square box beyond it is the tripper box. The BMT used GRS signals and equipment, and so the tripper is electrically operated, and indeed since it was the weight of the semaphore that provided back-power to the interlocking plant, the weight of the tripper was used to replace that function on this railroad.
To “key-by” a signal, the motorman would come to a complete stop, for if he ran the signal he would be tripped, and then taken out of service. Then when permission to key-by was received, he would place his wheel on the insulated joint which would drive the tripper down, and then he could proceed at restricted speed. Obviously the tripper had to remain down until the entire train passed the signal, otherwise it would just trip the second car on your train.
ROAR
Well, YOU have power block gaps, because you use DC [:D]
I have 2 sets of gaps for electrical reasons, any other gaps I would have would be signal gaps. But I won;t have signals on this layout, the prototype did not signal this branch either. TT/TO operation with a train order station at either end and one in the middle, which means 2 on my layout since I model 1 end to the middle.
–Randy
I use a Dremel with a diamond coated cutoff wheel. Nice thin wheel.
Rich
For those of you who use a Dremel to cut the gaps in the rails.
Assuming that we are talking about flex track, do you gap the rails at the ends of the flex track or somewhere more toward the middle? Do the rails stay aligned once they are cut?
Rich
Richhotrain,
I had to cut mine with the Dremel to fix the warps (shrinking plywood origin), and made the effort to do in at least 6 inches from a track joint - especially if it was on a curve. And then I would spike or track nail as needed - which is minimal if on a tangent section.
One other thing, if the track is well ballasted with white glue or that matte stuff, that often negates the use of extra spiking.
Yes I have used the dremel to cut the gaps on curves. But the section was ballasted already, so no or little movement of the rails happened.
I would be in this camp also; however, I do not use the normal “cut of disk” it is way to thick. I have a thin saw blade that I use. It is as thin as an Atlas track cutting saw blade. I also have an old Dremel with the flexible chuck. That way I can get the cut to be perpendicular to the rail. A normal Dremel tool is too thick to get the blade perpendicular to the track and the best one can do is an angle cut. After the cut I glue a piece of styrene into the gap so the rails don’t expand and make connection.
I gap where the gap needs to be. Actually, if the gap is “needed” within 2 or three inches of the end of the section one can usually fudge a block by that much such that the end of the rail can be used for the gap.
Whether the rails stay aligned or not depends on how much stress they are under. Often the plastic ties from the flex track will keep it in-line. On a curve it is usually a good idea to add an extra spike or nail to the outside edge of the rail to keep it in line. Add one on both sides of the gap.