Transition joiners

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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  1. How do they work if code 83 track is lower than code 100 ?

  2. Will transition joiner track work between manufacturers --Walthers/Shnohara transition 83/100 work with Atlas code 100 ?

I am thinking track maybe more reliable than joiners but a lot more $$$$

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  1. All you care about is that the top surface of the rail between two rail codes is flush. The worst case scenario is that you might have to shim one piece of track near the transition between two code types if one is taller than the other. With Atlas Code 83 and Atals Code 100, the ties are thicker on the code 83 than on the Code 100, so the over all height of the rail is virtually the same between the two. Between other brands of track this isn’t necessarily so, but you can always match the top of the rails by doing a little shimming of the shorter piece so its no big deal to worry about.

  2. Transition tracks should work between brands, but there might be a little shimming or tinkering needed. I haven’t used very brand out there so I can’t guarantee full compatibility. However:

There is no need to buy expensive transition tracks if you are at all handy with track laying. I don’t hadn lay track at this point, but I build with flex track and commercial turnouts. IMO, transition track sections are only needed for those who build layouts from completely modular track components (ie sectional track) like those that come with train sets but just on a larger scale.

On my last layout I used code 100, code 83 and code 70. The commerical transition joiners are simply a standard joiner that had a cut out in the middle so you can step up or down to make the top surface of differing size rail match (while the bottoms of each rail are at different elevations. All you do is bend a step into the transition joi

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When connecting Atlas Code 100 flex to Atlas Code 83 flex, all I did was slip a sliver of styrene under the code 83 side of a standard Atlas ‘universal’ joiner. Rail tops and inner edges lined up - good to go.

Worst case scenario - skip the rail joiner completely. Make sure the railheads come out even, then solder a short piece of solid copper wire to the outside of both rails just under the head. Tweak with needle nose pliers if necessary. Did this 'way back when, joining Code 70 to Code 100 - that joint has been in service for 30 years and has never given an iota of trouble.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

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Are you talking about the transition joiners that Atlas makes? These work with Atlas code 100 and code 83 because the overall height from bottom of tie to top of rail is about the same

The Walthers transition track track should work if you are joining Walthers code 83 to Atlas code 100, but you will probably have to do some shimming on the code 100 end to get the transition track up to the level of the Atlas code 100.

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Thanks for the replies

I will have an outer 24 oval of code 83 and an inner 22 of 100

I am thinking of adding a crossover for appearances sake but alo may want to make it operational o I will need to transition from the outer 83 to a NO 6 100