Best way to create insulated control track with tubular track / and gargraves

[cruikshank]

Working on wiring up our club layout and creating blocks, and control rail sections etc.  The Gargraves is easy because the outer rails are already insulated from each other.  The hidden staging areas are tubular because we already had lots of it, so to keep down cost we are using it.  Here's the questions.  What's the best way to insulate one outer rail from the other with tubular track ?  One member suggested we use Gargraves for the control tracks, but then you would need an insulated pin that goes from Tubular to Gargrave's style.  Looking to create blocks and control tracks where the wheels will connect one outer rail to the other to control power or a relay etc.  Is there a simpler way that I may be missing ?  Thanks,  Dave

[trigtrax]

You can buy "fish paper" from Small Parts Inc. You need to cut this to 3/4" squares and pry off an outside rail with a screw driver. Insulate with fish paper similar to the center rail and install pressing the track tabs back with a needle nose pliers. You repeat this process for each track you want to insulate. Install fiber pins to insulate the section

A second method if you only need a trigger is to buy thin brass shim stock .005" from a Hobby shop.  cut into strips and apply masking tape to one side. form this tightly over the outside rail.Solder a wire to the brass sheet to activate your relay.

[bfskinner]

cruikshank,

One way is to purchase a few sections of Lionel tubular insulated track. Part numbers are 6-12841 for 0-27 track, and 6-12840 for 0-gauge.

Lionel makes steel and "fibre" pins for both sizes of track, but some modification may be needed to mate with GarGraves. Check with Gargraves for insulating pins that will mate with Lionel tubular track. Some folks have been known to use toothpicks....

If you really want to make your own insulated tracks you  can sacrifice a few pieces of Lionel tubular track and save the insulators from the center rail and re-use them on an outer rail. Or you can probably find a suitable insulating material around the house. I have used matchcovers and pieces of the binders that you get at Staples or Office Depot with good results if not great beauty.

Be advised that if you decide to make your own, you are quite likely to stab your hand with your screwdriver while trying to pry the ties open; and you also run the risk of deforming the track in the process -- particularly the all-important gauge dimension.

[chuck]

You could buy a section of insulated tubular for each leg of the yard you want to isolate. NOTE: section of insulated track has to be long enough to fully isolate any powered car (illuminated passenger car) or loco that will cross into it.  You will still also need insulated pins to get this to work properly.

You can also disassemble a section of tubular and make your own insulated sections. This isn't hard but I find it to be a pain in the *. You have to gently pry up the tabs on the side of track you want to insulate, insert cardboard insulators, then re-assemble the track section. There is a "device" to assist in doing this and it might make sense to look into the gizmo if you need to make up a lot of these sections. If you only need a few, do it by hand. If you need a lot, buy the gizmo. If it's somewhere in the middle, aka price of purchased section vrs price of gizmo, vrs price of band aids, the members of the club may have to vote on it.

[lionelsoni]

I use squares of black pasteboard cut from a report cover.  (I am still on the first one.)  After you pry up the tabs, squeeze them with pliers to take out the corrugations, to reduce the chance of puncturing the new insulation, just like you see on the center rail.  (You might be tempted to do the same to the corrugations on the rail flange; but squeezing them out distorts the rail.)  I find that placing something narrower than the tie under the joint to serve as an anvil lets me push the tabs back harder without distorting the tie.

I wouldn't worry too much about insulating pins.  If your track is reasonably secure to the table, a small air gap (1/16 inch) works just as well.

[jkerklo]

Commercial isolated outside-rail track sections are useful but can be limited. Any tubular track section can have an outside-rail isolated using the technique described at this link:

Insulating Outside Rails of High-Rail Track

Especially useful if you are using track you already have. Train stores carrying Lionel will have the nylon pins used to create track blocks.  (By the way, nylon pins for "S" gauge track works for Gargraves.)

"Fish paper" is is the best material to use for isolating rails from metal ties. It is broadly used for electrical insulation. It is also known as "Fibroid Fish Paper," "Natural Hard Fiber," and "Vulcanized Fiber." A .010 inch thickness seems to work well for isolating high-rail track rails.

Use a square a little smaller than 3/4" x 3/4" for O gauge. It needs to cover the metal tie and clamps, but not interfere with wheel flanges on the inside of the rail. Cut it into strips with a paper cutter, then use scissors to make the insulator.

Mouser carries a tightly-rolled (inconvenient) sheet 10" by 24" which can make about 400 rail insulators. It is Mouser part number 524-560, $4.05/sheet. McMaster-Carr has a variety of forms. Their product 8490K11 is a 12" x 12" sheet of .010 inch thickness for $2.36.

The isolating technique can be used to a short track block here-and-there or for an extensive block-controlled automatic layout.

K 'n G RailPlex

The link describes the construction of a portable, automatic layout that has 238 feet of isolated rail tubular track.

[phillyreading]

Lionel makes steel and "fibre" pins for both sizes of track, but some modification may be needed to mate with GarGraves. Check with Gargraves for insulating pins that will mate with Lionel tubular track. Some folks have been known to use toothpicks....

GarGraves makes adapter pins for O and 027 but NO insulating adapter pins.  Lionel makes insulating pins for O and 027 track.

Lee F.

[cheech]

a toothpick ...wood or plastic...works well to join a GG and o/o27 track. It also provides a filler so 'stuff'' doesn't get in the gap and unintentionally give you a connection. It also helps make the joining of the tracks tighter and simplifies pulling them together.

Creating your own insulated tracks are a time/money/quality consideration. Depending on how many you need, buying the straight sections may be the easiest, spending the time on insulating a curved section or two.

Ralph

 

[joeyj1575]

I used green file folders to make them and a paper cutter to cut them, 3/4 in. sq. With the cutter I made about 500-600 in 10 min. On my layout I use dc relays with a capacitor across the coil and this will give you a time delay when the wheels cross the insulated section. This means your insulated section only needs to be 1-2 inches long with a 220 uF cap. the relay operates for 1.5 seconds or with a 470uF cap. for about 3 seconds. No need to insulate the complete side of the track just one tie. You would need a small DC power supply to power the relays. With this setup I use a 2 in. insulated section to operate 2 crossing gates and a gateman and with the 470uF cap on the relay everything is powered for about 3 seconds after the train leaves the insulated section.

Something to think about!

joeyj1575

[lionelsoni]

Joey, I couldn't help thinking, if your control rails are only 2 inches long, whatever did you do with 500-odd insulators?...;-)