RobinofLoxley Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 Does anyone know if there is a large pack of these sold anywhere? As I'm going to build with them between almost every piece of track I'm going to need a decent number, at least 100. For what they are they are already expensive and sold in very small packs, is it possible to do better? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Holliday Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 A hint at scale and type of rail might be useful. C&L do plastic joiners in 4mm for bullhead rail. (£10 for 48 joiners) Do you really need so many working joiners, or could cosmetic ones suffice in most places? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinofLoxley Posted October 31, 2020 Author Share Posted October 31, 2020 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Nick Holliday said: A hint at scale and type of rail might be useful. C&L do plastic joiners in 4mm for bullhead rail. (£10 for 48 joiners) Do you really need so many working joiners, or could cosmetic ones suffice in most places? Up until now I have found the alignment with plastic joiners to be a useful feature. I know I could use plasticard to separate tracks as an alternative. That price, when individual packs of 12 can be had for 2.50, is what I am trying to avoid paying. Just seems a lot of money for very little. No much in the scheme of things of course but my perception is poor value. Oh yes I model OO. Doesnt seem to make lot of difference tbh Edited October 31, 2020 by RobinofLoxley Addition Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zomboid Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 You could stick all the track down with normal joiners and then take a dremmel to the places that you want gaps. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium dhjgreen Posted October 31, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 31, 2020 Hold the track in alignment with 2 of these while you fasten it down. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derekl Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 Strikes me as a false economy - when you are paying a fair whack for track, locos and stock, a few quid on rail joiners so that it all works properly seems reasonable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheatley Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 Out of curiosity (ok, noseyness), what are you building which requires almost every piece of track to be insulated from the next ? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Chimer Posted October 31, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 31, 2020 I'm equally nosey ..... Apart from anything else, you've told us elsewhere you're using lots of Set-track, which (a) doesn't give up it's built-in joiners without a struggle and (b) doesn't generally need IRJs anyway ..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinofLoxley Posted October 31, 2020 Author Share Posted October 31, 2020 I'm a dab hand at removing joiners from setrack. I am building the layout on the premise of DCC with block detection/automation to follow, which requires the majority of the track items to be powered separately. Hence a lot of insulated joiners. There will be 53 points at the last count and they need minimum 106 joiners just for the frog rails. There will be quite a lot of flexitrack but I have some situations where I will have setrack reused from previous layouts. The bulldog clip is a nice trick. No doubt I will have a shot at aligning track without joiners but its one of things where I dont feel the need to take what I see as a risk. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheatley Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 3 minutes ago, RobinofLoxley said: I am building the layout on the premise of DCC with block detection/automation to follow, which requires the majority of the track items to be powered separately. Ah ! Thank you. I had visions of a massive DC loco shed with dozens of isolating sections. C and L do some plastic fishplates for finescale bullhead track which are just glued either side of the joint and have a half peg on the inside which can be used to make a functional IRJ or trimmwd off to make a cosmetic joint. I never got on with them but you could do something similar in styrene strip glued into the rail web on setrack, one strip either side should hold it in alignment. Fill the gap with epoxy or gel cyano to be sure. Evergreen strip seems to be a bit more rigid than trimming strips from sheet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinofLoxley Posted October 31, 2020 Author Share Posted October 31, 2020 2 hours ago, Wheatley said: Ah ! Thank you. I had visions of a massive DC loco shed with dozens of isolating sections. That was the last layout!!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyID Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 9 hours ago, Zomboid said: You could stick all the track down with normal joiners and then take a dremmel to the places that you want gaps. You can also solder a small piece of copper-clad PCB to the bottom of the rail then gap the rail (and the copper layer) with a cut-off disk. Doing that will maintain the alignment between the rail ends better than plastic IRJs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinofLoxley Posted November 1, 2020 Author Share Posted November 1, 2020 (edited) 18 hours ago, Zomboid said: You could stick all the track down with normal joiners and then take a dremmel to the places that you want gaps. I didnt think of that. I dont have one but you never know..... Also it didnt occur to me at first that although I need to power individual track sections I can leave the original fishplates in place a lot of the time. Doh. Edited November 1, 2020 by RobinofLoxley addition Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Largechris Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 Like any tiny little packet of even tinier plastic bits, no they are not value for money. However compared to the absolute cost of everything else on the layout they’re small beer in the scheme of things. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold RFS Posted November 16, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 16, 2020 On 31/10/2020 at 14:32, Zomboid said: You could stick all the track down with normal joiners and then take a dremmel to the places that you want gaps. Sometimes this is not a good idea with plastic-based track. As the temperature rises and falls (especially in lofts) the rails can move, and if you're not careful the gap can close. How do I know? I did it this way to start with. Played trains with my DCC system in the morning, then went up to play again in the afternoon and got a DCC short as soon as I switched the layout on. A "no-cost" IRJ had closed up. Plastic IRJs have a tab in the centre that stops the rails from making contact if there's expansion. Hopefully your rail gaps elsewhere can take the expansion in hot weather without letting the track buckle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinofLoxley Posted November 17, 2020 Author Share Posted November 17, 2020 The question of expansion was discussed on another thread. I have a loft with big temperature swings, which I catered for by leaving expansion room in the conventional fishplate joints. I had no problems with track going out of shape. Plastic IRJ's have some flexibility to take up expansion but I would be leaving security gaps, especially as the power is always from a bus underneath, in most cases I wouldnt need power continuity at the fishplates. Anyway, back to the original topic. I found a seller on ebay offering 2 packets for 3.49 free postage, better than a kick in the teef Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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