I watch a lot of how-to videos and read a lot of how-to articles and magazines, most of them multiple times (I’m not a self-directed learner). I won’t trouble you with citations here, but even though the consensus of experts seems to be that nipping rail should be done with the tool cutting up and down (i.e., railhead to base, vertical orientation), I also see some of the same experts nipping side-to-side across the rail. My own experience is that the latter is sometimes the only choice because of awkward access to the rail being shortened, but I can also testify that the top-to-bottom cut with the correct tool requires almost no further effort.
Am I missing something, or is it one of those things that only us OCD-ish types care about in the first place?
I have not really thought about it, and I have laid over 600 feet of flex on my layout! The ‘trick’ is to use a Xuron rail cutter. The cut is very clean on the finish side, and very little ‘burr’ cleanup needs to be done.
top to bottom has always worked best for me. and in the future, if you want to save some $$$, try grinding the back side of a pair of diagonal cutting pliers down flat and use that instead of the specialty model rr cutting tools. I did that with a pair on a bench grinder over 12 years ago and they still work fine.
The instructions that came with my Xuron rail nippers say to cut N and Z scale rail from side to side, and HO scale and larger rail from top to bottom. In terms of rail codes, cut code 80 and smaller rail from side to side, and code 83 and larger rail from top to bottom. After cutting, a few strokes with a small file will remove any burrs and leave a nice flat end.
I have a xuron rail nipper and I can instantly tell the rail that I “nipped” vs. rail that I cut using my Demel with a cut off disk. While you can nip rail and join it, and it will be ok, if you are picky like me and want a nice flush even “end of rail” a Dremel with a cut of disk is IMO the best way to go. I found after using my new Xuron, I gravitated back to my trusty Dremel for track cutting. The 11 track staging yard I just completed involved a lot of rail cutting and fitting for the ladders and curved flex track.
If you use the thin cut-off disc’s rail cuts quickly and cleanly, but the discs are very fragile to any twisting and will shatter. I’ve taken to using the thicker cut-off disc’s and they almost never shatter but it take longer to cut through the rail and it dose heat up the rail very hot to the touch but I’ve almost never seen any ties melted.
Sometimes I have cut rail first with the Xuron and then go back with my thick cut-off wheel to quickly “dress” the end of the rail to make a nice flat end as the xuron, while it does a pretty good job, isn’t perfectly flat - but maybe thats just me being picky! Those of you without a dremel can use a file too, I just like the speed of the dremel. That 11 track staging yard had a lot of cutting so it made sense. I also found when I had to fit rail between two sections of track and wanted a precise fit, the Demel allowed me to cut tiny bits off the end of the rail allowing me get it nearly perfect. I imagine a Xuron would be a bit difficult to get shorten the rail by tiny amounts.
I imagine N and Z scale it’s much harder to see the effect of the Xuron on cut rail, but HO code 100, its easy for me to tell the difference between Xuron cut rail and Dremel cut. And yes, I have the Xuron rail nipper (Xuron makes several differnt cutting tools) and it’s in good shape, only ever used to cut NS rail and nothing else as rec
Try using two cut-off disc’s together, more forgiving, in shattering and breaking. I use them that way, also with a flex-shaft, rather than the bulky tool itself. [:D]
My flat-faced dikes were bought at Ronstadt’s (in Tucson) while Linda was still Jerry Brown’s squeeze. I don’t know what I’d do without them.
My technique is to cut vertically with the railhead squarely against the cutting edge. A gentle squeeze, a twist of the wrist and I have a clean fracture. The ‘good’ rail end only requires a couple of touches with a file (mostly on the side of the rail base closer to the hinge of the dikes.) The other rail end needs a bit more, but nowhere near as much as a rail that’s been squeezed all the way through.
A comment about rail cutting. Since I ‘pre-lay’ track, then cut where necessary before re-laying in final alignment, I almost never cut a rail that’s already anchored to the roadbed. Rails that aren’t readily accessible to the cutting tool are better cut with a cutting disc and a flex-shaft tool. The ends will still need to be de-burred, which requires a delicate touch.
I recall seeing a layout where the owner had clipped all his rails side-to-side, then laid them unmodified. His rail ends looked like something gnawed off by a scale model beaver - and he just couldn’t figure out why he had so many derailments…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with trackwork as bulletproof as I can make it)