Information on Kato Unitrack

I am considering the construction of a small layout using the Kato Unitrack system. (It's a long story on why the usual, more realistic, flexitrack would not be best in my circumstances.) I cannot find any detailed discussion about the use of this track. I have questions such as:

1) When connecting two rack sections, do you need ONE connecter which covers both rails or do you need TWO connectors, one for each rail?

2) There is a special 9" track section with wire connectors to the tracks already installed. Can you install feeders on other kinds of track? I can imagine drilling small holes in the roadbed, solding wires to the tracks, and feeding the wires through the holes. BUT, will the heat of the soldering iron melt the plactic roadbed and allow the track to work free? An alternaative would be to somehow insert wire feeds at thepoint where to track sections are attached to each other. This may eliminate thee need to solder, but there may be no waay to insert a wire there. Would either of these two methods work? OR, must we feed only through the 9" feeder sections?

3) Is there any publication available that covers details such as this?

Thanks, Mark Schupack

Reply to
Mark2149
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Unitrack comes with connectors, one at each end, just like regular sectional track. Just click the tracks together. Extra Unijoiners are available as spares. You should get one package, just in case.

You can solder feeders to the rail, but to do so you must use the same precautions as with regular track. Even so, I would not advise it.

Kato offers Terminal Unijoiners with feeder wires connected. Just replace the Unijoiners on the track sections with these.

Not that I know of. Have you searched Kato's website?

Actually, Unitrack is very intuitive to use. It's just sectional track with a few refinements to make it more reliable and reusable, and better looking.

HTH

Reply to
Wolf

Each Unitrack rail joint uses two connectors, one for each rail.

The Unitrack feeder track is a 62mm (2-7/16") section of track with the power feed provided by a connector under the track. You can also get track connectors with the feed wires attached. I use both on my layout, and on the club layout.

You can find more information on Unitrack here:

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Click on Unitrack at the top of the page, and then select items of interest from the left side menu.

Click on the Catalogs & Brochures link for more information in PDF format.

Reply to
Ken Rice

I have always soldered wire to the rail joiners before installation.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Reply to
Dan

It would be a waste of time and effort to do this with Kato. Their joiners are much more robust than Atlas's.

Reply to
richard schumacher

Good point, however I was not clear in that I meant soldering leads to joiners to supply power to a section of track.

About a gazillion years ago I came across some brass joiners that were fabulous. I haven't a clue who made them.

Japan had a huge N gauge layout at the 1964 New York World's Fair. I can just imagine debugging that thing in the very short time they had before the fair opened.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Reply to
Dan

That certainly works. Kato sells a pair of joiners with soldered power leads plus one of their connectors attached.

Reply to
richard schumacher

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