Model Forum / General / Railroads / October 2008

Just glue a piece of plastic in the gap and file to fit

A rail-profile shaped piece of PC board (without copper!).
File/sand/carve to fit.

A small dab of plastic body putty.  Molded with fingers, then sanded to fit.

Insert a flat toothpick (quite easy into cork roadbed) and sand or shave
it to the rail's shape.

You can get insulating plastic rail joiners, which are good for
situations where you can pull the two rails apart and side in a
joiner.  The slot down the plastic joiner is not continuous: there's a
sub-mm barrier which separates the two rail ends.  I use Peco joiners.

In situations where I've wanted to cut the rail in situ, I've found
that any small bit of plastic of a suitable shape works well.  The
above-mentioned Peco joiners come on a plastic moulding spine, where
you have to pull them off, and this spine has a collection of small
blocks with thin plastic tabs.  The plastic tab is just the right
shape to slot in between the rail gaps and with careful positioning
and some PVA glue it's possible to make a solid and even construction.

The plastic blocks are quite small and because the plastic and glue
are translucent it's not that obvious either.

(I'm using N but I think the situation will be similar in HO.)

I fill the gaps with epoxy paste.  The stuff that's stiff enough to hold a
shape while drying.

I used a pieces of styrene matched to the thickness of the joint, glued with
ACC, and then trimmed with a nippers and filed to the shape of the rail.

I find that just a little drop of white glue is more than enough.  The
voltage is only 12V and you don't need a big gap in there.

--
Bob May

rmay at nethere.com
http: slash /nav.to slash bobmay
http: slash /bobmay dot astronomy.net