Simulating rail joints...


Scordicus

Scordicus

Member
What's the best way to simulate the top of the rail joints in flex-track?

I've got some 4 bolt fishplates in order to simulate the joints on the side of the rail, but what is the best way (best tool?) to simulate the break in the top of the rail without actually cutting the rail in two? Does anyone know of a fine enough tool to put a small groove in the top of the rail? I was thinking of using a heavy scriber but I'd like to know what other peoples thoughts are or if anyone's done anything similar before I attack the track and potentially ruin it! lol...
 
The scriber idea would work good. Just deep enough to make a noise, and you could run some black paint in the area to make it look like its separate rail pieces.
 
a decent utility knife will score NS rail easily if all you want is a slight scoring of the surface. If you want a more visible (and audible) break a kiss with a dremel cutoff wheel would do it. The potential for damage however is greater.

edit: Josh's idea of some black paint is good. Wipe the area with black ink/paint (sharpie?) and clean it off quickly so that the black stays only in the gap. (isopropyl alcohol cleans up Sharpie btw)
 
One of the guys here in town placed "joints" every 39ft. in some of his rail using a razor saw. Said it was the dullest and most boring job for little effect. It also took several hours to do about 10ft of his track. In about 15yrs, its all the track he did this way. He has a LOT of track, (about 1500ft just on the mains).

Personally I'd try a jewelers saw.
 
kenw said:
If you want a more visible (and audible) break a kiss with a dremel cutoff wheel would do it. The potential for damage however is greater.
Click to expand...

My thoughts were the same, also the cutoff discs are a little wide (over scale) for rail joints..

kenw said:
Wipe the area with black ink/paint (sharpie?) and clean it off quickly so that the black stays only in the gap. (isopropyl alcohol cleans up Sharpie btw)
Click to expand...

Excuse my ignorance, something may well be lost in the US/UK translation but what's a sharpie??

Cjcrescent said:
One of the guys here in town placed "joints" every 39ft. in some of his rail using a razor saw. Said it was the dullest and most boring job for little effect.

Personally I'd try a jewelers saw.
Click to expand...

I am intending to do the same thing every 39' however, because I only have quite a small shelf layout (7'x18") and am using the 4 bolt fishplates on the 'supposed' joints, I'm hoping the detailing effect will be worth while..

A jewelers saw might be just the thing, I didn't think of using one of those! I think that will definitely be plan B if the scriber doesn't do the job...
 
Ah OK, something similar to a Fineliner I take it!?!

Thanks for clearing that up, not something I can honestly say I've seen over here, maybe they only keep them in specialist art shops?!?
 
They're everywhere over here, never heard of a Fineliner. :)

An art shop might have them. Really though any black marker that'll stick to metal will do the trick.
 
Chris Roy said:
Here a great tool for little cuts in the top of the railhead:

Super-thin saw blade for a Dremel, from Ngineering
http://www.ngineering.com/other_cool_tools.htm
Click to expand...

Unfortunately these blades are made of a softer metal than the rail itself and although great for cutting plastic or wooden ties, wouldn't really even score the rail let alone put a small slot in it.. The teeth would be worn off/down before it made any sort of real impression..
 
I used a razor saw to notch about 2' of mainline on my layout; I'm glad I didn't do more. It produced a pretty loud clickity (HO is too small to produce the 'clack'. lol) sound as the metal wheels rolled over the small notches. This caused no problems with derailments, cleaning, but it was visible...too visible for me. The clickity sound is a bit annoying to me after a while - it's not a 'scale' sound to me.

My current free-mo layout will have joint bars, no notching of the tops of the rails. If you can score the tops with a sharp edge of anything, abrasive blocks might wear this down over time, then all that time spent might be 'erased'?

Track is one place I choose to keep as 'whole' as possible - it is more important for my trains to track correctly than a tiny 'scratch' in the railhead...will these joints be visible in photos, etc?

I enjoy hearing what others' are doing/trying, please continue and let us know what worked and how you liked it (or don't like it; it could save someone else the trouble, or encourage them to do it).
 
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