I am building my layout with Code 83 nickel siver track. Not all of my rails connect to one another flush. Is there any reason I cannot drop some solder in the gap and file it down until the gap is cleanly filled? Will it eventually seperate? Is there a better product for filling in these gaps? Thank you.
Dan
Dan,
Is the gapping between rails even on both sides of the rail or more pronounced on one rail than the other? If one side is more pronounced then you have a kink somewhere. Is the gapping due to environmental changes (i.e. humidity, temperature, etc.) in your layout space? If you can, spend the time to fix and adjust the track before “filling gaps”.
Tom
You might want to leave a few small gaps here and there ato allow for thermal expansion. If they’re big gaps mainly on one side, it sounds like you didn’t butt the sliding rail on your flextrack all the way up to the track you were connecting it to and you’ll probably need to pull some sections up and relay them.
I think least likely is your benchwork has dried or contracted from cooler temperatures a lot.
The gaps are present soley to my poor measuring of the tracks prior to my cutting them. I guess I’m not as good at "eyeballing: as I used to be!
Dan,
I’d encourage you to do whatever you have to to make your track as trouble-free as possible. That may mean tearing out a section and relaying it again. You’ll be happier in the long run when you aren’t experiencing derailments and dead spots in your track while running trains. The old adage is still true:
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Tom
Dan, Tom is right in that poorly laid track can lead to real frustrations later. However, I also found myself in this situation where I did not notice the gap until too late and used a couple of “filling” techniques to smooth out a gap and have had no problems with running. I have glued styrene into gaps and then shaped it and sanded it. I used solder in a couple of places and if you use some good files it is quite quick to shape and smooth out. Be particularly careful of the iniside profile of the rail, you don’t want anything that wheel flanges can catch on. I also used some plastic wood filler and shaped it when it was dry. Once the rail was painted and weathered you could not tell that I had corrected for some poor cuts.
No reason other than your track will be soldered together. The only problem with this I could see is if you needed to put a feeder in nearby and that operation caused the filled in spot to melt.
Not if it is done properly.
When I have had this happen, I cut a sliver of a rail and thread it onto the rail joiner before sliding the second piece in place.
I have used solder to fill over-large gaps once or twice. If one does the soldering carefully, and files it down so that it represents a smooth surface mated to the rail top and flange paths, one or two should not lead to problems.
Best avoided, in other words, but perfectly fine if you decide to do it once or twice on a layout.
I use “evergreen scale models” styrene to fill my gaps. Its simple, easy and fun. Boy oh boy. The styrene comes in different thicknesses. I use .040 because thats how wide my cutting wheel is when I gap the rails. You can use larger size. Just crazy glue it in place. An hour later take an exacto knife and cut it flush and around the rails to match, and there you have it. It will last a long long time.
I was in your shoes a couple of months ago, I had cut a section of track about 1/8 inch to short. It did not cause any problem except that it went click click as the train rolled over the joint. I did a quick and easy fix with JB Weld and worked great. JB Weld will not conduct electricity, and it is easier to do than soldering and it is easier to file. Hope this was helpful. Mike
In two words, why bother?
If you have knocked the sharp corners off the top inside of the railhead on both sides of the joint (the one thing that has made my tracklaying derailment free,) a reasonable gap of two millimeters or less has zero effect on tracking and can be ignored. I deliberately left gaps that wide in track I layed last winter (looking forward to the 120 degree temperatures in my layout space two months ago) and had no problems with any of my rolling stock, even on a sub-minimum radius curve. On the other hand, some track that had been laid with no gap between rails, perfectly straight in February, looked like sidewinder tracks in July. Contrary to some allegedly “scientific” testing, nickel silver rail DOES expand with heat!
Chuck
I’m finding this interesting, seeing as I have lots of gaps. Please forgive the dumb question, but what is JB Weld?
Mike
edit - I’ve just read Tomikawa’s post. Maybe it’d be better if I waited to see what our summer heat does to it.
It comes in a plastic bottle, and looks and feels much like white glue. It claims to be much stronger than carpenter’s glue.
I do not mean to critize your comment but JB Weld is a 2 part epoxy, one is called the metal and the other part is called the hardener. when mixed together it forms a grayish black paste that can be put in a rail crack with a small spatula ( or the tip of a knife) allow this to set for a few hours then carefully trim the excess, leaving a littlle above the rail head. When completly dty ic can be sanded or filed like real metal.
The reason I went with this method is that the gap on my rail was at an insulated joiner so solder was out of the question. You can get JB Weld at most auto parts stores or Wally World.
Here is a pic of the package you will be looking for:
And here is a pic of the repair:
Hope this will help Mike
Oops. You are perfectly correct…I must have had a senior moment. I was actually thinking of Weld Bond.
I am sorry for my misinformation.[:I]