Large Scale Central

Insulated connectors for rails

Tools and Tips
#1

as i got just a handfull of LGB’s yellow connectors, but need dozens, i had to come up with something homemade. after trying to glue rails together with two part epoxy, and realizing that i would not like to glue my turnouts permanently to the rails, i tried this: cable connectors of the right size, without the metalparts. first i split the plastic on the roundish underside. but if one splits on the side, where the screws were, the connector stays free of the wheels. for separating the rail ends, i will use one “drop” of silicone sealer.

#2

Ya know, Korm, If your rails were just a wee bit longer, you wouldn’t need so many of those things. :lol:

#3

that made me LOL!
have you never heard about shortlines?

#4

:lol: :slight_smile: :stuck_out_tongue:

#5

And he’s only using one rail instead of two!

Must be a reversing loop for a monorail…

Greg

#6

well, the Southern & Gulf is working on a tight budget…

but - psssst! - don’t tell anybody, by accident you have been shown the top sectret test track for earthquake zones.
after the management of the S & G saw the disturbing pictures from christchurch NZ, where the track looked like a snake in a hurry, they began testing.
the short rails are part of a promising system to lay track, that after a quake can be realigned sideways by a pair of drawing horses.

#7

Korm, your idea is damn clever. Way to hop & thanks for posting it.
Steve’s crack had me LOL as well!

#8

thank you John.
i am semi retired, so there is more time than money, and living far away from civilisation means that everything has the pricetag times two, till it gets here.
(just bought 20 newquida flatcars for 150 euro and had to decide to pay 500 euro postage or wait till september to have them shipped by a friend for 50 euro)
so braining over alternatives comes just by itself.

#9

I like that idea, too. But I’d solder several short lengths together using the metal slide joiners, then put the insulated joiners where you need them.

#10

Dick,
i’m not really using such short pieces of track (save where geometry demands it)
for the pic i took cut-offs, just to get two installed homespun “joiners” into one close-up.
until now i never soldered rails together. i just solder the feeders to the rails.
all my normal connections are with the LGB joiners.
but soldering the rails together with the joiners sounds a good idea, instead of soldering jumpers in place.

could you please explain, how exactly you do it?

#11

Wow it was a year ago that I started participating on LSC and this must have been one of the very first threads I found here. But I didn’t know how to watch a thread back then, so I didn’t follow it, and I just found it again now. And your idea is still a good one! Korm, I solder my rails together. I tin the flange and the web and also a bit of brass shimstock which I then bend around the flange and the web of the rail, then I apply the heat. I don’t let the shimstock touch the railhead, though if it did I suppose that I could file any bumps away afterwards. I have converted four or five 1 foot lengths into longer pieces this way. I have also used this soldering technique when making wide radius curve sections from those silly little four ft. diameter pieces that come in the trainsets. I describe this on another thread around here somewhere. I didn’t mention the soldering on that thread though. Now at last I’ve clicked to follow this thread. Cheers!

#12

I was fortunate enough to have a resistance solderer available. I cleaned the ends of the rail about 3/4 inch in from both ends with a wire brush. I fluxed them well and placed the ends into a brass sliding rail joiner. Then using the resistance soldering tool, I soldered the three pieces (two ends and joiner) into a single piece. I soldered three or four one foot sections into the longer piece. Then I used either a rail clamp or an insulated joiner to join these longer pieces together.

BTW, with the longer pieces, I could use a rail bender to make the curves I needed where I needed them – even on the ground!

#13

John, yes, and in that year you posted more, than i did in three.

your way to solder rails together must be very time consuming, i suppose?

Dick, i don’t know, what a resistance solderer is. i got one of these 270W soldering pistols.

untill now i never soldered rails together. where a rail does not get enough “juice”, i just solder a short piece of cable to the rail, pass it through the bench (i’m indoors) and connect it to the feederwire under the bench.

most of my track is in one foot R1 pieces, that i could buy very cheap.

for bending i use hands, hammer and benchedge.

as can be seen in the pic below, i first bend just one rail, untill i am contend with the resulting curve. then i bend the rails for the other side, untill they fit the empty row of “railnails”.

that way joiners on the two sides are not paralell, but staggered. but i got to cut two rails maximum for any curved length of track of any length.

#14

Korm: your picture reminded me of some of my own, on this thread,

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/16221/straighten-out-that-small-radius

one of my first efforts here at LSC, (January 30 last year in fact), and it was my first (failed) attempt to post pictures on LSC!

I remember another member gave me some excellent advice on that thread that I have remembered all this time, but at the time I didn’t know him from Adam. (That’s an English idiom.)

I’ve just revisited that thread, link above, and goodness gracious, that clever fellow was none other than yourself! Ha! Ha!

Remember?

#15

you ask, if i remember??

i’m nearly 61, not 21. i hardly remember, what i had for lunch yesterday - let alone, what i read or wrote a year ago.

on the bright side of things, i got the impression, that bad things are forgotten even quicker, than good memories.