What are the pros and cons of adding a little adhesive (CA) to secure the insulated rail joiners?
I have used insulated rail joiners to isolate blocks and turnouts. I am using PECO code 55 flextrack, turnouts and insulated rail joiners. As I continue to build the upper deck of the layout, some of the insulated rail joiners will be in difficult to service locations on the layout.
Would CA help to keep everything in place?
-Don
I doubt CA sticks to the type of soft plastic used in those joiners. The joiners can’t move unless the joint moves first I should think. If the track is secured the joiners can’t move. The joiners usually gave a little vertical tab which fills the gap in the rails and that prevents the insulating joiner from moving along the rail.
I find the main problem encountered with those plastic joiners is in curves. They aren’t as rigid as metal joiners. There’s a technique of fastening the actual rail ends down to your roadbed using spikes rather than track nails. Two or even four spikes on each end of all four rails at the point where the plastic joiners are would probably prove more reliable than gluing the plastic.
I’m using HO. It may be different for N although Peco says their Code 80 joiners work for their Code 55. These have the vertical tab I refer to.
Hello All,
Sounds like you are modeling in N scale.
I use the Atlas code 100 HO plastic insulated rail joiners. They fit the rail snugly because of the material they are made of.
When installing them if they stretch or become damaged I simply use another.
I used them to isolate both rails on my programming track and all four rails on the wye with an Auto Reversing Unit.
Once properly installed I have had no problems with slippage like metal rail joiners.
I don’t see and advantage of using an adhesive on the plastic rail joiners I’ve installed.
A disadvantage of using an adhesive would be if you need to replace the insulated track section. You would have to trash the insulated rail joiner and possibly, in the process, damage the rail(s).
Hope this helps.
I have pulled all but one of my insulated joiners out. I now just cut the rail with the Dremel and put a bit of glue gun glue in the crack, file to match the rail and paint it and the insulator is invisible.
I have never glues an insulated rail joiner in place.
Like Brent, I have finally warmed up to the idea if cutting a gap and filling it in. That process took 30+ years.
-Kevin
I don’t see the difference between removing an insulated piece of track by applying a couple of drops of acetone or ‘remover’ to CA applied to an insulated joint vs. removing the panel from a non cemented one. By definition, sliding these insulated joiners destroys them, and perhaps bending them up to pull the joint apart does, too.
The one caveat to the Dremel-and-filler method of gapping is that there be no stress on the joint area bending the rail-ends out – as with unrelieved bending springback in forming flextrack curves, or extreme temperature expansion concerns. Is there any insulating material of ‘rail strength and stiffness’ effective in such a gapped butt joint? Is not additional reinforcement to the rail on either side advisable as indicated before the gap is made?
I put a cut in the rail and CA glue in a piece or .20 or .30 styrene. Works for me.
You could remove a tie from each side of the gap location, insert PCB ties, solder, and then cut the gap.
Shane
Thanks, Alyth.
You are correct–PECO joiners fit Code 55 and Code 80 and have the divider in the middle.
I’ll secure both tracks securely to ensure there is no pressure on the joiner itself–a better long-term strategy
I’ve not found this to be the case with Code 100 or Code 83 HO insulted joiners. They seem more or less infinitely re-usable.
I agree. I don’t find insulated rail joiners destroyed when used. In some cases I’ve had to trim them so that may limit re-use. Occasionally some can get mangled, but overall I’ve saved most of them for re-use.
I have never felt the need to secure them or glue them. The track is usually held in place by spikes or track nails so everything stays put.
I cannot even imagine plastic joiners on curves. An absolute invitation to kinks.
Rich
There should be no stress at the joint. If you curve the track properly before you lay it down then it should have no kinks whether joined or not. Then you glue or nail it down. Then it cannot move.
There are various viewpoints expressed about these joiners, metal or plastic. Material physics dictate the method I describe. Nothing else will work over the long run.
Next we’ll have posts stating that you should never put curves on drop in or lift up sections. Or joints in table tops. Or at ends of modules.
I used a small bit of styrene plastic to fill the gap for that very reason. My concern was expansion of the rails might pinch the soft plastic of insulating rail joiners or hot glue possibly making contact. Easy enough to shape to the rail profile with the dremel and paint.
Maybe it all depends upon the brand of flextrack being used to make the curve. With Atlas flextrack, much as I like it, you cannot make a long curve without kinks when using metal rail joiners. So, with Atlas flextrack, you sure cannot make a long curve without kinks if you try to use plastic rail joiners.
Rich
Joints are fine, wherever you find them. Kinks are not.
Rich
I have never experienced this defined inevitable destruction.
I try to only use insulated rail joiners in between two pieces of sectional track, usually at the frog ends of turnouts.
No stress on the joint.
-Kevin
This was only in the context of ‘removing a panel of track secured at one end with insulated plastic joiner’.
A usual way for getting this out involves sliding joiners laterally under the joint one way or the other so the section lifts straight out. Naturally if you did this with a joiner with a ‘pin’ between the rail ends, whether or not you had glued it you would shear the pin by sliding.
The alternative removal of an in situ panel would be to slide normal joiners at the ‘far end’ and lever the track section up just enough to pull the other end off; I agree that this would not be a concern virtually all of the time, with care in lifting just enough to clear, but wondered if it might be if the removed track panel were (mistakenly) lifted to a steep angle before disengagement.
When modifying track I try to work from a curve back to the point actually requiring work. Curves separate laterally.
I’ve also found it fairly easy to exploit the inherent flexibilty of insulating joiners when separating track joints, often breaking the joint there is easier than trying to slide metal joiners back and forth, especially if at a curve allowing lateral displacement of the joint as you separate it.
Those plastic joiners seem to be made of some sort of vinyl or polyurethane and can withstand multiple events of distortion before becoming useless. The one thing they don’t like is a vertical distortion which makes refitting them a real challenge.
Of course you have to secure the track/rails apart from the plastic joiners. I often use ME spikes for that - they do the job, or track nails.
Interesting
What my Brother and I did years ago in N scale was basically the same concept.
Where there were Kinks at track connections on curves, we would gently push the Kinks out of the rails with a small screwdriver and stick small sewing needles down through the cork into the buildrite sub roadbed to hold them. Then we used some Goop on the added ties to hold it all permanently. It worked good. We never had a problem after that.
TF