Can superglue be used to join lengths of flextrack?

[West Virginia Midland Man]

Can I successfully join lengths of flextrack with ACC (SuperGlue) rather than solder?

 

[Selector]

If you were able to pre-curve the rails so that they wanted to stay in the radius and were able to get the four ends perfectly aligned and abutted, it would probably work.

You would be much further ahead to use joiners and solder them.

Second best is either small drywall screws driven in tight beside the foot of the rails on either side of the ends to be aligned, or use track nails the same way.

Best method would be to use pre-curved flex and soldered joiners.

-Crandell

 

[West Virginia Midland Man]

I was going to put rail joiners on one piece, fill them with ACC and then join the second piece, let it dry, then curve as I need it. Does ACC conduct electricity?

 

[MRLdave]

No, ACC doesn't conduct electricity, and as Crandell says, unless you can keep the rails touching, it wouldn't work, and even if you could, it would be an inferior connection. The only way the ACC would work is if you are soldering feeders to every piece of track, so that the loints don't matter.

 

[West Virginia Midland Man]

Well, good news, I tried on a piece of scrap track and found out it wouldn't work, so I laid the track the regular way and no problem, except my 44-tonner (the one loco I thought would do the best) hates the grade. Fortunately, it's not assigned to that run anyway. It's only about a 2% grade, but the little one just spins its wheels with 4 cars. A GP-9 handles the run just fine.