Type of gap in rails

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

there are several approaches, which do you prefer

  1. replace a metal with an insulated rail joiner if that’s an appropriate location for the gap
  2. cut perpendicularly across a rail but creating a slight bump for wheels. Often awkward to do with a dremel tool
  3. cut at an angle which is easier with a dremel tool and which can avoid a bump when the wheels cross it if a sharp enough angle

when cutting gaps, do you fill them with a non-conductor? what do you use? does anyone use shoe goo or silicon?

2

I cut the gap with a Dremel and forget about it. It’s nearly invisible, and the trains go right over without a problem.

I bought the thinnest metal cutting blade I could find.

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3

#3 for me and I don’t fill the gap usually. If I do, I use hot glue from the glue gun and then file it to profile and paint.

4

I just whack a cut with my Dremel, works just fine and is easy. I don’t bother to try to fill it.

5

All of the above at different times and under various circumstances.

So at places like between turnouts on a crossover - definitely insulated rail joiners. I use Atlas turnouts mostly, and they mate up for 2" track center crossovers with no modifications. No point in making that harder than need be.

Being a DC operator, all crossovers get insulated in this way.

Because my wiring scheme calls for some very specific gap locations, I will cut gaps in place and in more recent times have taken to filling them. There are times when I want the gaps directly across from each other, other times they need to be purposely staggered. So methods vary.

Sheldon

PS - I forgot one other situation. On yard ladders I will often install 9" Atlas snap track to the diverging route of the turnout, then use insulated rail joiners there to joint the flex track. Those 9" sections are soldered to the turnout.

All my conducting rail joints are soldered. If I feel a block is so long it required expansion room, I will leave a small gap in a rail joint and solder a jumper around the joint.

Each control bock is only fed at one location because those wires run thru an inductive detection unit.

Sheldon

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6

Using one of these makes cutting a gap at 90 degrees easier:

7

Add me to the list of Dremel tool users without filling the gap.

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8

Ditto.

9

Yes, the Dremel makes sense for creating gaps, but I wonder whether they are really needed for DCC track. I created gaps with DC and used an insulated rail joiner. It works…

10

They are still needed in DCC if you have reverse loops. They are also needed if you power your layout with more than one booster. Additionally, some people like to isolate storage tracks so that locos they currently aren’t using are not powered.

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11
  • reverse loops
  • power district
  • signaling block
  • fault isolation
  • dead tracks for locos with sound
  • programming track
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12

Yes, what an irony. When DCC came out we were told it would work with just two wires.

Little did we know it was two wires every six feet.

Sheldon

13

I use an Atlas Track Saw, because I don’t like the gap cut by the Dremel. A thin piece of styrene glued in and filed to the rail profile, and it’s practically invisible when the track is painted.

DFF

14

Also for occupancy detection, some signaling.

Rich

15

I have never “cut” gaps. I use plastic insulated rail joiners.

Rich

16

I use a pair of feeders on every section of track and all the ends of every turnout.

Rich

17

Rich, I still cannot begin to get my head around that many feeders. I like insulated rail joiners, as explained it is one of the methods I use.

Cutting gaps in place is a carryover from the early days when most track was hand laid. A more reliable alignment was created by cutting the gap after the rail was laid.

My first layout was TruScale wood roadbed track. You needed an isolation gap, you got the Exacto razor saw and carefully cut it where ever you needed it.

Sheldon

18

I get the idea of cutting gaps with a saw or Dremel, but I started out with plastic insulated rail joiners and never got past that practice. I still keep a box of plastic rail joiners on hand for such projects as installing crossing signals att new locations. Some old habits neither die nor fade away.

Rich

19

I know, it seems somewhere between unnecessary and ridiculous. On my first large layout, I had feeders (wired to rail joiners) about every 9 to 12 feet. I had no end of problems. Suggestions were constantly made on the old forums to wire every section of track. One guy even suggested wiring feeders to the outside of every rail. As each new layout got built, I added more and more feeders until when I built my current layout, I soldered feeders to the outside of the rails on every section of track and at the ends of every turnout. A lot of work and a lot of feeder wires, but it was a one-time effort.

Rich

20

Agreed, when I can plan them easily I use the plastic rail joiners.

My average primary control/signal block is about 25’. It has a single feeder near the middle of the run. All the joints are soldered.

The wire run from the rails, to the relay panel for that block is typically only 3-5 feet of #18 which runs thru the inductive detector. The relay panel is fed by a #12 throttle buss for each of the of the 8 throttles.

Each throttle has its own completely separate 5 amp power supply. How is that for “power districts”?

Sheldon

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