A Newbie's Bloody Thumb

[huscarl]

Hi All,

I have a 5 year old train nut and an old Lionel set that I decided to set up for us. I am still working on the benchwork and the table will be ready this weekend! I determined that I needed some new track and have bought Atlas code 100. I figure that it is tougher and better for a youngster.

Anyway...I went to test the engine and power supply and while putting together a small loop to do that - the stock joiner cut the crap out of my thumb. Is there a trick to getting them installed? Or is there a better after market product? I eventually used a small set of pliers and got everything working, but OUCH! Thanks for any responses.

 

[mike8693]

Ahh i have done this many of times. I just am sure to hold the sides.

 

[DCCinstalled]

Another thing to check for is that the rail joiners are cut cleanly... Sometimes a burr will cause them to be difficult to shove onto the rails. They should fit on tightly though...

 

[GrampysTrains]

Hi: I've found that using a small file to break the sharp edges of the rails can take away some of the frustration. When I first started laying track, I had a few bloody thumbs.

 

[CIOR]

The best investment is in Xuron rail nippers to cut the jointers cleanly instead of bending them til they break! This will make them tough to slide on.
Trust me, I'll bet that all of us have shoved several rail jointers into our fingers over the years.
A little time and some effort will help this, but it will still happen occasionally!

 

[Aarons72s]

I use a fine pair of angled needle nose plyers, made for installing electronic parts. My dad got them for me when he worked at att. The fine ones are hard to find but you can find the larger ones avaliable at most tool stores. They might work. With the fine ones I just grip the sharp end and slide them on. As to seperating them 99% of the time I just bend them back and forth to seperate the 4 rail joiners into individual railjoiners. Not the correct way but have done this for the last 18 years.