To help line up the rails I thought of modified sections of the lift out section where one lever could slide the pins in and out to connect to the land sections. Another idea I saw at a private layout was where the land sections of (027) track was slotted open at the top of the rail. Basically the tubes of the track were daylighted.
I’ve seen this without pins. Wire from both (opposite) sides of the lift out section. The structure below the tracks aligns the tracks, and a minimal gap between the rails can be maintained.
Kurt
My solution, and the one that Lionel uses, is to reshape the end of the moveable rail into an inverted V, which fits over the protruding pin from the stationary rail.
Boyd,
I have seen these used: http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=344
They ‘powered’ the cleats that were attached to the layout by running wire from the track to the cleat, then ran wire from the liftout cleat to the track, two cleats per side. To hide the joint the lift out section’s top was a little longer than the frame and the track a little longer than the top. The cleats keep everything aligned.