7mm Rail Joiners...?

Colin M

Colin M

Western Thunderer
I need to make several joints between bullhead and flatbottom rail.

I'm pondering on how to make a visually acceptable joint which is still robust. :confused:

PECO style slide-on joiners are out. I have some plastic moulded fishplates, but I think they are more cosmetic than offering any mechanical strength, particularly on curves (albeit shallow radius).

Does anyone know of a source for realistic fishplates that can be soldered? Is this a good solution?

I'm interested to hear others experience and recomendations on approaching this?


Thanks,

Colin
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Personal experience only.

I used brass cast fishplates (H section), but filed them until they slid on the rails nicely. I left a bit of a gap for expansion, and did not use solder at all. All rails on curves were pre bent to the correct radius before being glued down, and did not rely solely on fishplates for alignment (although by their nature they did have some alignment in their design). This is particularly important if using the moulded plastic H section fishplates where insulation is called for as they have little strength.

Just occasionally on very short rail lengths around pointwork, I soldered the joins, otherwise each piece of rail was soldered to the DCC buses via droppers.

Of course in my case it was all bullhead, so the components I was able to use might not be appropriate.

Richard
 
Colin M

Colin M

Western Thunderer
Dikitriki said:
I used brass cast fishplates (H section), but filed them until they slid on the rails nicely.
Click to expand...

This sounds really interesting. I would prefer not to solder. Do you remember who made them or where you sourced them from?

Thx,

Colin.
 
tomstaf

tomstaf

Western Thunderer
Dikitriki said:
Personal experience only.

All rails on curves were pre bent to the correct radius before being glued down, and did not rely solely on fishplates for alignment (although by their nature they did have some alignment in their design).
Richard
Click to expand...

Hi Richard,

What did you use to bend the rails?

Cheers

Tom
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
tomstaf said:


What did you use to bend the rails?

Tom
Click to expand...

Hi Tom

Just 'stroking' between finger and thumb. Where I was using RTP, I removed the last 6 or so sleepers so I could form the exact radius, and often the last couple of cm would need work with pliers, before restoring the sleepers. I didn't lay any lengths unless the curve was right before gluing in place. The fishplates were more or less cosmetic only.

Richard
 
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