Crossing baseboard joins

A good practice here is to use pieces of Printed circuit board where the sleepers are milled out but leaving the board in one piece. Screw the bord in place where the join is, solder the rails onto the board and cut it after soldering.

Some pictures are here (sorry for the googelized english, but the pictures show the trick):

Well, you didn't specify the scale...

Check out the way N-Trak does it.

You leave a gap between tracks on each side of the gap _exactly_ 1/2 the length of a piece of set track (In the case of N-Track, it's a 5" piece of Atlas set track.)

Cut the ties back on the loose piece enough to slide a rail joiner completely on each rail. Put the joiners on each rail, drop the track into place, then slide the joiners into place.

You can also use the Kato Adjustable track - one N-Track group uses this to take care of the inevitable slight differences in gaps. They still use the set track, but when they drop it in place they slide the adjustable piece in place to make a perfect fit. The adjustable piece goes on only one end of each module.

True. It's OO.

Using pliers presumably unless your joiners are rather looser than those I have.

Thanks, Mark Thornton

Actually, many use a small screwdriver with a slot in the blade to clear the rail. If using pliers, needle-nose bent jaw works well.

Mark,

Another method is to screw small brass countersink wood screws into the baseboard edges under where the rail ends will be, then solder the rail ends to them. The best way to do this is to place a pair of screws on each side of a rail join and adjust their heights until they will support the rail at the correct height, then solder the rail across them and cut the rail after the soldering is complete.

The one thing you do need is a good wood edge to the baseboards which will accept the screws and hold them - you might need to inlay a piece of hardwood at the edges if you are using chipboard or insulation board as a top for your baseboards.

However, you can re-solder to the screws repeatedly without damage and this can be a great advantage if you find you have to make adjustments every time the baseboards are taken apart and put together again. This can't be said for printed circuit board which can start delaminating its copper skin after repeated heat applications.

Jim.

Mark, May I point out that if you anchor rails on board joints in any of the ways suggested that you ensure that you use a short length of track, say 6 inches, attached to the fastening otherwise you will have problems with uneven rail expansion which will cause bucking of your track. Place gaps in rail joints. Graham Plowman

An alternative to the methods suggested by other posts is to not finish the track at the baseboard edge but 50mm back from the edge of each joint then use a 100mm bridging track attached with 4 rail joiners. This will easily take out any missalignments and reduces transportation damage as the rails are away from the edge of the board.

The main disadvantage of this method is that you cannot balast the track right to the edge of the board. Althlough you might get away withit if the "bridges" were on this plasticard that could be lifted out.

The other problem of this method is that it really only works on straight track and large radius curves.

Rich

I've got a lift-out section which is much the same as a baseboard joint. On this I've just ended the 16.5mm gauge track at the ends of the lift-out board and made sure that the alignment of the board with the abutments is spot on so that the rail ends are aligned. Rail gap, about half a millimetre at each end. This is straight track, and I've never had any problems with derailments at the joins. If you're using fine scale flanges, which I'm not, this method may give problems at high speeds. Regards, Bill.

It will be a few years before we bother with details like ballast --- the track is for my sons who are currently 8 and 5. The main concern at least for my wife is that it be easy to pack away when we need to reclaim the space and reassemble when required. Central heating should reduce thermal expansion problems.

Thanks for the advice, Mark Thornton

I also have a lift out section. The current layout has 3 pieces each 600 x 1200mm arranged in a U shape and a 1200mm x 140mm lift out piece which closes the U making the overall shape 1200 x 2400 with a hole in the middle for the operators. I am contemplating adding some contacts so that electrical continuity is established by just inserting the piece, but it needs some more thought. I think I prefer the approach of using a short length of bridging track; while I think the board joins should be stable they having to cope with temporary loads of up to 20kg.

Mark Thornton

You probably want to make sure you have a good supply of rail joiners as they can be difficult to find on a rainy Sunday afternoon when you want to play trains.

Good luck

Hi I solved this problem by embedding the first inch of track either side of the basedboard in "No-Nails" adhesive, and pinning the track at the same time to hold in place whilst drying.Once set it will not move

Regards Bob