Streamline / flexitrack is meant to be curved and cut to suit where you want it to go. If it had chairs missing or reduced like set track there'd be nothing holding the rail to the sleepers would there.

When joining flexitrack, I cut off one or two entire sleepers at the ends of each part, then when they are joined I take the chairs off from where the joiners are and slide them back under. Doing this prevents you getting a hump in the track where the joiners sit.

 

For streamline track, I simply remove the chairs from each of the end sleepers with a sharp scalpel.
Also remove any cutting burrs from the underside of the rail with a needle file.

 

QUOTE (Tony Cooper @ 19 Aug 2012, 00:45) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Can someone please explain why Settrack is moulded to accept fishplates but Streamline is not?
Surely there is a risk of distorting the height of the rail.
The flexitrack, fair comment already made; a sharp blade to slice off the entire chair to provide the clearance.

But the points, well there Peco are a little naughty. The plastic is a different formulation than on the flexi and more difficult to cut.

The metal rail joiners need to be deburred before use and even then the gap between rail base and the moulding can be so scant that the rail is wedged up noticeably. This affects code 75 rather more than code 100.

Matters are yet worse with the insulating rail joiner which has too thick a base to fit in the gap between rail and timber moulding and always disturbs the rail top profile.

When you know this solutions offer. With the metal rail joiners, as required I use a soldering iron to heat the rail joiner enough to melt the rail back down to the correct position. Very carefully, and only once the track formation is fully secured, with rapid cooling to set the track dead right. Really feel this shouldn't be necessary, but there it is.

As for the insulating rail joiners, I don't buy them. If Peco cannot be bothered to make a satisfactory product, the only reply is to abstain from it and make one's own arrangements. Plenty of good materials for the job now readily available.

I tolerate Peco product because used carefully it is very reliable and robust in long term service. But any competitor who cares to offer a superior appearance RTR product with equal or better robustness and reliability has my custom. Already switched on plain track, just the points now...

 

I recommend peco rail joiners, I certainly never bother with the extent to which 34C bothers, in regard to Peco streamline points, clearly no issues for any setback product which is supplied with rail joiners, for me using code 100 I use peco rail joiners which slip onto everything including Flieschmann track, Bachmann, Hornby etc, I use the black plastic Hornby rail joiner for insulating use. I find these slide in OK without difficulty.

As above when using them on Flexi or Hornby Semi-Flex it is necessary to trim back a bit of the plastic

 

Thanks for the replies
I was beginning to think I had missed something obvious, or even that you weren't supposed to use fishplates on streamline.
just as well I didn't just rely on the response from Peco, which I quote -

" Thank you for your Email.

Streamline points have slots in the sleeper moulding under the rails to allow the relevant fishplates to fit onto the rail being used. If you have any questions please phone us on 01297 21542."

One of the main reasons for tearing up my HD 3rail track was to improve the quality of ride so that I could run "scale" locos, so I don't want to get the track wrong.

 

Use Peco carefully on a good evenly graded support , paying attention to smooth joins and transitions and the rail top profile, and it can deliver very reliable running performance*. But this doesn't come about automatically from using the components as supplied. Expect to have to adjust and improvise to get it 'just so'.

*With the standard of tracklaying I can achieve, by using a 30 inch minimum radius on plain track and only the large and medium radius points, essentially perfect running reliability is attainable using my mix of current RTR and much kitbuilt 'finescale' OO items from the past. The couplers, wheel standards, rolling and drive quality of the stock are crucial success factors in this. No amount of care on the track compensates for misaligned couplers, off-standard wheelsets, draggy vehicles, or a jerky drive. You need to see the whole thing as an integrated system, and get all the critical success factors right. It sounds rather forbidding but the reward in reliable running is well worth it in my book.

 

If I could just add some advice.

Always check, by ruler (Ruler on the top of the rail and then the side of the rail) and by eye and then by rolling stock to align each section of track you lay.
Also when a curve meets a straight with streamline, I find it best to give the curved section a small length of straight, only an inch or two, where it meets the adjoining straight to ease transition and align the wheels for the joint.

 

This looks like a gap in the market to me (Richard?) instead of toy rail joiners how about something really nice -

If you are modelling to finer tolerances than "toy" but still want to use them (I know some don't) then an ideal would be -

-shorter joiners (both insulating and non- insulating) - perhaps half the length of those from peco
-sides to be imitation prototype fishplates (I realise won't suit modern imagers)
- thinner material on the insulating fishplates

I'd certainly pay more for something like that I use the peco ones but I hate them!

 

QUOTE (TimP @ 20 Aug 2012, 11:52) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>This looks like a gap in the market to me (Richard?) instead of toy rail joiners how about something really nice -

If you are modelling to finer tolerances than "toy" but still want to use them (I know some don't) then an ideal would be -

-shorter joiners (both insulating and non- insulating) - perhaps half the length of those from peco
-sides to be imitation prototype fishplates (I realise won't suit modern imagers)
- thinner material on the insulating fishplates

I'd certainly pay more for something like that I use the peco ones but I hate them!

I find the Peco ones too long also. I cut about 3-4mm off each end although it does make them more awkward to fit.

 

QUOTE (34C @ 19 Aug 2012, 18:07) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>As for the insulating rail joiners, I don't buy them. If Peco cannot be bothered to make a satisfactory product, the only reply is to abstain from it and make one's own arrangements. Plenty of good materials for the job now readily available.

I tolerate Peco product because used carefully it is very reliable and robust in long term service. But any competitor who cares to offer a superior appearance RTR product with equal or better robustness and reliability has my custom. Already switched on plain track, just the points now...

34C - did you ever find a solution to Peco Insulating joiners; I have resolved the metal fishplates by carefully slicing some plastic under the rail but the insulating ones are not very pleasing ie too long

I have also run out of them so any other solution is welcome so I can press on

Apologies for the thread resurrection but it is spot-on my issue.

Cheers

 

My 'insulating break' solution is extremely simple. Lay the track with a millimetre gap between rail ends where the break is required. When a mix of Milliput (or Araldite, but less convenient) is made up for 'other modelling', use the leftovers to fill the insulating gaps so that they cannot close up. Being a bear of small brain, I leave myself little markers in coloured tape to show areas that need attention.

QUOTE (34C @ 19 Aug 2012, 19:07) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>...any competitor who cares to offer a superior appearance RTR product with equal or better robustness and reliability has my custom. Already switched on plain track, just the points now...
...and here we are with a competitor bidding fair to take a bite out of Peco's long enjoyed near monopoly for decent RTL OO points. What's that about all things coming to those who wait?

 

Thanks. Shortly after posting my note this morning, and having had a good night's sleep, the obvious hit me when I re-visited the situation this morning.

I was able to rationalize some of the insulating joiners where the SMP meets the Code 75 Finescale points ie I used the N scale insulating joiners I do have and cut them so they butt up to the Code 75 rail. Basically doing the job you have mentioned. This reduces my need for so many Code 75 joiners now ie only where the slips meet each other.

I concur on your comment re finally an alternative to Peco turnouts...Cheers

 

I mix streamline and setrack code 100 using whatever is most convenient. Setrack comes with joiners that have a curved end and I cut these of with an ancient huron track cutter. I don't have a problem with insulated joiners because I don't use them, using battery power means there is no electrical trickery in the rails!.

 

I cut track joiners in half. I hasten to add that this is not to save money (anyway, you lose a few halves while cutting them if you are not very careful). The idea is to make them less obtrusive. Also I don't use them to make electrical continuity as each piece of track has its own pair of droppers. They are only there to provide alignment vertically and horizontally.

Having said that, I know one contributor to this forum who never uses joiners, just glues the track in place very precisely.

Robert

 

Hi all,

I know that I shall probably cause some raised eyebrows but, over 40 years of modelling, I have always relied on Peco rail joiners for electrical conductivity and have never had any problems with current going between track sections. My latest layout is now over seven years old and two of the sections are nearly 10 feet in length with three joints in each section and I have had no problems. As mentioned above, I do cut off the chairs at the two sleepers either side of the joins and find that both the metal and insulating joiners fit and work fine. Have I just been lucky?

Regards,

Richard

 

The problem I find with Peco fishplates is that they are very tight. The slightst burr or twisting of a rail end after using my Xuron cuttrrs and they won't slide on. The problem gets worse with some unbranded Italian Code 100 rails I got cheap on Ebay.Two solutions I ave found are:firstly, I recycle old joiners off steel Hornby sectionl track. Rarely do I get any conductivity problems. Rather more elegantly, I have gone over to Gaugemaster joiners. They come in short strips, and they just that tiny bit more generous in the tolerances, but they still join things up just great with no electrical problems.

 

When I restarted to build a layout 10 years ago I determined to only use RTR everything. I travelled and modelling was just too difficult. (I have had to modify that approach just a little with DCC and scenery). I have found Peco rail joiners to be tight but they can be opened out and then re-tightened if necessary and long nosed pliers can help place them on rails where they are tight. I have used the fishplates for electrical connection without any problems, also droppers from fishplates but I now use droppers on every rail section. My soldering equipment and skills have improved considerably. I have used Peco insulated joiners and they do not offend me, though they seem to do so for some. I have never had a problem with electrical connections but I have never had a layout that lasted more than 2 years. It seems to me to be horses for courses and what turns you on or off. If the layout is ballasted then most fishplates become virtually invisible against the background of everything else. However if good looking rail is your preference then Code 100 should not be for you and fishplates can be dispensed with.

 

Yes - it seems to be quite a subjective / application matter. The Peco plates have worked well connecting Code 75 to SMP as their tightness becomes the benefit with the SMP; I also had to solder some droppers onto these due to optimizing the feeds on some of the runs and pleasantly surprised myself. I am now on with connecting the DCC Concepts AD-8FX decoders to the Fulgurex but that is another story.

 

QUOTE (RichardPugsley @ 9 Aug 2016, 18:00) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>... over 40 years of modelling, I have always relied on Peco rail joiners for electrical conductivity and have never had any problems with current going between track sections. My latest layout is now over seven years old and two of the sections are nearly 10 feet in length with three joints in each section and I have had no problems...Have I just been lucky?
No, that's well within what well fitted rail joiners in a temperate indoor envirionment will do. Go for ten rail joiner linked pieces of flex track, and you should observe a slight speed reduction at the far end from the power input.

I learned this operating OO in the garden. Relying on rail joiners was impractical for the 50 yard run so I ran round copper wire with connections to one length in five, and that worked well. Until restarting operations the following spring after a miserably wet winter. Then I made connections to every length of rail. But warm and dry indoors where the railends and joiners don't get a bit of electrochemical corrosion going between their contacting surfaces, no trouble.

 

QUOTE indoors ... warm and dry
Those are key words. My loft doesn't fulfil the "warm" part which probably explains why I experienced a couple of dodgy connections within a few years. I found them extremely irritating so now I wire up every rail and never rely on physical contact to make a connection.

David

 

Yes, I would say that Peco rail liners are a tight fit, but this tight fit is a big advantage to get the current through. Hornby rail liners are OK but they don't seem to take the abuse as well as Peco. Both work fine though and I would not hesitate to buy either brand.
What I really miss though is the old Lima rail joiners. My aunt bought me a packet or two back in the early 1980's and I believe I still have a few. They do connect to track other joiners don't, like the old Hornby Dublo 3 rail. Also if ballasted well the way the joiner goes up the edges of the rail they can be passed off as fishplates where both Hornby and Peco do not cover the area that prototype fishplates did. (On the rail sides). I am aware one can buy model fishplates or make some, but the tedious work involved... Such a shame Lima joiners are no longer with us? Or are they? Anyone know?