Clubs do this when they get together and connect all their modular layouts together and run trains..... persision alignment and connections! I will have 2 tabletop layout secitions that need to be connected together for operation. Reasons being as at some point it will have to come apart and moved out through a 3ft doorway when it comes time to move to a new house. This 8ʻ x 6.5ʻ layout will have 6 tracks that cross over the "dividing line" when the 2 sections connect up. What alignment guides etc. do I need to use so when they are reconnected all 6 tracks align perfectly? Ides? Thoughts?
Our newer modules use pegs made from dowels. There are no fitter sections of track, the track on the two sections just butts together.
The old ones have no alignment pis of any sort, but use fitter pieces of track. They get lined up by hand and clamped together.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Look for "pattern makers dowels". These are metal dowels employed to precision align dies and patterns in precision foundries.
http://www.lanarkshiremodels.com/lanarkshire%20models%20and%20supplies%20website_138.htm
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
Unless this ''some day'' move is in the near future, I wouldn't worry about it.
There a good chance the layout won't fit in the new house, and a better chance that by that time you'll be wanting to build a bigger,better layout.
Shounds like needless concern.
If you must: Mel's idea is simple and would work. Just bolt the tables together. When someday comes just cut thru the tracks, unbolt.
Same as Mel and Uncle Butch. You seem to be talking apart once, and back together once.
They way they made them was to clamp the tables together all aligned, and THENM drilled the holes through both at the same time.
Some may express concern about the accuracy of the alignment - we don't have problems with these sections, and there are always trains running across them - visitors want to see stuff moving, all the time.
My previous layout, I built in sections, and bolted them together, then laid the roadbed and track continuously over the gaps. It was an easy matter to cut through when I moved. And then the old layout sat stacked in my basement for 3 years, at which point I stripped off the electronics and then trached it all, it was going to have no use in a new layout.
These work fine for me.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Easy-Fit-Brass-Baseboard-Alignment-Dowels-Pattern-Makers-Dowels-Model-Railway-/222534535660