uneven rail joints

[Jimbo]

un even Kato rail joints any way to get rid of them??  I've tried filing them in the past with not much luck,  I'm wondering if i may have actually bent the section of track? yes i can feel the edge,, lol it sounds like a real road bed but not as smooth,, thanks

[cteno4]

Jimbo,

 

first thing to try is just pressing down hard on the joint, sometimes this just pops the rail joiners and rail ends back into proper alignment and the stay there. Next the if still a problem is to pop off the unijoiner on the offending joint and replace it with a new one. This fixes most all the remaining. Once and a while you are still left with a bump and then it’s probably a bent rail end or the rail is not seated in the roadbed right or it’s sitting on an uneven surface and the joint is being kinked. Even uneven track geometry can sometimes kink a joint funny.
 

On the old set up on the fly JRM club layouts we usually would end up with a few bumpy joints and find them running a small loco that would jump up a lot when they hit them. We would then proceed to push on the joint and wiggle surrounding track to make sure is was not pushed into an odd geometry. The if still an issue replace the joiner. If still an issue replace the piece of track and that usually fixed it all. 
 

if the rail is all fixed down then you are left with using the Dremel to try to even it all out. If it keeps popping out you could solder the joint then file to fix the joint in place so it can’t move once tuned.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[katoftw]

Yup press the metal piece of the joint down. Use pins or similar.

 

Also check you rail ends are not bent up a little. They easily go back into correct position with a little pressure.

[Jimbo]

thanks   that's the problem running a small loco on it Jeff you just gave me a thought!!  seeing how its mass produced track it also might be a bit long?? an its only on three or four sections of track   you made me think   thanks

[Jimbo]

i found its a couple sections of new straight viaduct track, took them out of the equation no noise no sharp edges,  i thought they might be binding up? also tried with different wagons, two passenger wagons made a hollow sound when going over the joints,  like they do going over points,  ha the goods wagons make no noise at all?? an my ef66 runs fine over the joints,    maybe its ocd?  lol kicking in,,

[cteno4]

Jimbo,

 

the sounds and even some of the bumping around at joints is going to be dependent on a large number of variables from car lengths, trucks, weight, axle number, rolling resistance, flange size, coupler type, coupler length, etc so it’s never going to be a universal sound. I am usually happy if I can just keep them all running well! 
 

always good to find your few cranky trains to use as your test trains and if they can run then most everything can run! Swapping out track sections if you can can help figure out what’s going on but I’d say many times on the club layout ive fixed a track issue poking and fiddling at a show and got it working but never quite sure why it started or exactly what I did to fix it for sure! While I like understanding problems and solutions I realize at times it just won’t happen and good to just be happy it’s working and move on. When it’s been a bad recurring issues then I’ve spent a lot of time observing and carefully doing one thing at a time methodically to understand and fix it. That was the case with the shinkansen platform ends that if at the proper placement as made at times when shinkansens go thru the divergent route at speed some can rock and nip the end of the platform and cause a wheel to jump off. It took a couple of hours with my eye down on the track to figure it out finally, I’m sure folks at the show thought I was daft! But taking out 3/4” from the platforms solved it! So ocd is good when it’s a real problem to track down! 
 

jeff

[brill27mcb]

Have you tried pushing down the metal rail joiners within the Unijoiner, as Jeff suggested and katoftw seconded? Unlike traditional metal rail joiners you may be used to, these only squeeze on the web of the rail, not the bottom base too, so they can lift up and allow unevenness to occur. You can push down on them with a small screwdriver or just your fingernail (if it's not too short).

 

The only filing of rail you should ever need to do on Kato track is to slightly smooth and round off the end of the rail head with a very light stroke or two of a model file. It seems that the production machinery used chops the rail sections to length, and sometimes that seems to leave a slight distortion or lip at the very end of the rail section that can benefit from being smoothed down.

 

Rich K.

[Jimbo]

brill        I'm working on my outer loop,  i have found some binding of the track, so I've been changing the alignments slightly. which has seemed to have help some, but the alignment doesn't seem to stay constant ( that was the before problem) an my not thinking things through lol  yes I've tried pushing down on the rail joiners,  that fix only lasts about 3 or 4 circuits an then the track springs back??  granted my table is not perfectly flat,,, its warped,,  jeff had talked about wheel or truck bounce, which i was having with a small locomotive,  it is interesting that my inner section is 99% double track  an i have no real problem with it other then a  picky passenger wagon that doesn't like backing over one of the points,   ha like i told jeff must be my ocd kicking in or over thinking the problem,   I haven't done any model railroading since i was a kid an that was ho scale, an i don't remember having any of these issues then??  i got back into this a year or two ago for something to do in the winter months,,   lol I guess i shouldn't complain much have watched some of the vids of some of the advanced layouts using kato uni track an mine seems smooth in comparison to them,   yes i have a touch of ocd an i have a tendency to over think things at times,   Thanks for the info  

[cteno4]

Jimbo,

 

how do you detach your Unitrak? It’s meant to be popped apart by rocking side to side while flat on the table, just push one piece of track like 1” to the side until you hear the unijoiner pop and then slide opposite way back an inch or so and the other pops and then pull apart. But some pull one track up vertically to snap them apart — this works but can do a lot of bending to the track ends. Side to side uses one rail as a fulcrum to pop the other rail unijoiner and doesn’t put a lot of stress on the rail. But that then said I’ve seen a few rail ends bent sideways some, but mostly I’ve seen ends bent upwards some, I think the track was, at one point, being pulled apart vertically... worth a look and, a straight edge on the top of the rail to look for vertical (and horizontal on straight pieces) bends at the ends. Also look at shimming any loose track in places it looks like the track is not laying flat. We use to have this issue some with module intersections where there may end up a mm or so difference in track heights once modules joined and a tiny bit of shimming with strips of 010 styrene did the trick.

 

yes ocd can take you down the rabbit hole, at some point divert it to something else that needs work!

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

jeff the straight edge ha never thought of that,,  after some tweaking last night its working fine now,   yes i am guilty of lifting the track up an not side to side to disconnect them, i have to watch an catch myself,  I've used some of that foam rail bed to shim up a couple of low spots which has worked ok,  So on to the next issue ha,,  sadly my table is warped it has a high spot in the middle an drops at the ends,, thanks for the info 

[cteno4]

Cool, glad t9 hear you are working out the issues!

 

Just have a mental picture of me slapping your hands with a ruler like an old school teacher when you go to lift up on the track to take it apart! 
 

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

thanks Jeff lol great movie!!