Rail Joiner's

[kf4jqd]

I made a big boo boo on my N scale layout. My 2-8-0 locomotive was derailing all the time on a curve. It didn't on the other side of the layout. It had the same diameter curve.

I picked out all the ballast from the rails. I checked and rechecked. wall1 The 2-8-0 stills derails at that point. So I got out my magnifying glass. I saw the rail joiner was a little high.

Since the track was nailed and ballasted into place. I had to use an eye glass screw driver to gently push down on the rail joiner. I had to do it several times. I test ran the 2-8-0. It ran for 45min without derailing!:thumb:

What did I learn from this? Not to get into a hurray! Next time I will use a pair of needlenose pliars to crimp the rail joiner into place. I did read this somewhere that's what you should do. However, I've been told by expert models use all flex track when ever possible!

Andy

In the picture is where I had to fix the rail joiner.

 

[60103]

Andy: what's also visible in the picture is a kink at the rail joint. The ties on both sides of the joint should look almost parallel, and yours have a decided angle to them. And there is a gap between the rails in the outer rail.
There's no easy cure now, but something to watch on the next layout.

 

[Biased turkey]

Andy, I agree with David that there is an obvious kink at the rail joint.
I'm modeling in N scale too and for even for my small layout reliability was priority #1.
First I made some sub assemblies ( 3 sectional tracks or turnouts ), inspected the rail-joiners with a 2x magnifying glass then soldered all the metallic rail-joiners.
I then painted the rails of each subassembly.
I then connected all the subassemblies together, checked the rail-joiners and soldered all the subassemblies together.
Maybe it's overkill but so far the track reliability has been perfect.
I've seen too many threads on The Gauge started by frustrated railroad modelers caused by poor track reliability.

 

[baldwinjl]

Kinks like that (of even less obvious) can be killers in N scale. That one looks bad enough that it will throw a 6 axle diesel for sure. Don't ask how I know this, let's just say that fixing a joint in the middle of a helix is a real fun way to spend an hour (or more)!

Jeff

 

[kf4jqd]

Thanks for the help. The kink was from a rail joiner that didn't join the tracks together! It never did derail the deisels I have. It did however stop the flow of power to the other side of the block! Everything seems to be running good now. Thanks for the help.

Andy