Carlin yard has been slowly but steadily progressing. Additional turnouts had to be made for the spur tracks that will come off the siding along the front of the scene. Now work has begun to lay that siding with the turnouts.
While assembling this section of track I have been using a little tool that I made up a while back that I thought would be worth sharing here. This tool has been making the handling of the rail joiners much easier for me.
Starting with the small screwdriver that comes in one of those eyeglass repair kits I cut off the flat blade end. A scrap of code 55 rail was soldered into a scrap of square brass tubing of a size that both the rail and screwdriver would slip into. Then the other end of the tube was glued onto the screwdriver with ACC. I also filed the end of the rail just a bit to make it easier for a rail joiner to slip onto.
It’s easy to get the rail joiner onto the tool and then use this to hold the rail joiner while pushing it onto the track rail. I keep this tool in the same small zip lock bag that I keep my rail joiner in. This idea could also work with other codes of rail and other scales.
This will be the last post for 2021. Wishing everyone a happy new year holiday.
Nice work Brad. I made a tool like that out of half inch dowel many years back. I added a small length of rail and bent it up at the end so if the turnout was in position it would give the correct angle to allow the rail joiner to go onto the rail. Worked a treat and saved a lot of sore fingers.
ReplyDeleteHave a great 2022.
Regards
Rod.
Yeah, sore fingers for sure. Happy new year to you too Rod.
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