One of my few complaints about Unitrack is how the eye is drawn to the joint between two tracks. If you look at it, there are two ties touching each other, making it an abnormally wide tie. Also, the Unijoiner is obviously a couple of gray spots at the same point, focusing attention. I thought about painting one of the double ties gray, but then it didn't have the speckles that the Unitrack ballast has. Then it occurred to me to put a pointed oxide bit in my Dremel and quickly scrape off the black paint from the tie. It worked like a charm! It took about ten seconds on each section (about 20 minutes for my whole layout). While I had the Dremel out, I also ground down that projection on the side of the feeder tracks and turnouts so that the ballast profile was uniform. It looked sharp but the Unijoiners still stood out. Upon close inspection of the Unijoiner, you'll see that it has several ridges that match the height and placement of the ties. Testor's Military "Rubber" paint is a great match for the ties, so with a small brush I painted just those ridges. The end result is that the joints between tracks is now almost invisible! Some caveats: The speckles on the old style Unitrack aren't all the way through so grinding off the tie results in a gray stripe instead of a brownish-black stripe (no big deal). You may consider grinding the pieces before they are joined, however on curved pieces and switches at least, this locks in the direction of the piece. In other words if you grind of the tie at one end of a curved piece, that piece is forever a right-hand curve (or left, depending on the grind location). If you were to use it in the opposite direction, it would appear that a tie was missing at the joint between two tracks. Unitrack is great for modeling a modern mainline because of the uniformity of the tie spacing and ballast. You could use the oxide tip to make some ties appear crooked, split or absent, and alter the length of the ties for modeling a spur or an older prototype. Always use eye protection with the Dremel, and be sure to vacuum your work so you don't foul your locomotives with plastic fragments. Have fun, Ed Harrison
The biggest complaint I have with unitrack is that it doesn't seem to fit together with the rails at the same height on adjoining pieces. It's especially bad on pieces connected to turnouts. I actually had to file the rails in a few places, just to put an end to derailments.
I too noticed the double tie thing. I have about 55 feet of unitrack going around my room, right above the door way. No one can see the track up there so it doesn't bother me. Also, I have almost all the track solderd and then sanded smooth so that I have flawless operation. But over all, for my situation, it worked out great. ------------------ Craig Martyn BLMA(best looking models around) Custom painting and detailing AND N scale detail parts!!!
