Learned something today (hand laying related)

jkristia Mar 2, 2003

  1. jkristia

    jkristia TrainBoard Member

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    This is related to hand laying track on pc ties without rail joiners.
    This is probably well known to everyone who has done hand laid track before, and it’s pretty obvious (now) that it would happen, but at the time I laid the track I didn’t think of it.

    What I learned. On curves, never never have a join on both rails in the same place, but stagger the joins. I had a rail join on a curve, both rails in the same place, and everything was fine until today whan I started adding some ballast. What I didn’t think about when I laid the rail is that wetting the ties dissolve the glue (only while wet of course) which causes the rail to straighten out a little bit and get the join out of alignment, so, from now on I will always use staggered joins on curves.

    Jesper
     
  2. Colonel

    Colonel Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Jesper,

    Thanks for passingon the tip even with flexible track it is wise to stagger the joints as well of install atransition so the rail joiners are actually on a straight section.
     

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