Plastic rail joiners

[Anonymous]

I know to use them to insulate track blocks but I have been told to put insulated joiners between the bumpers and the final piece of track. Why?? A clear explaination I have never gotten.

[Anonymous]

Some bumpers are made from soldered rail and would short out the spur.
Atlas bumpers are insulated side-to-side and don't need the insulating plastic rail joiners.
Eric in Doylestown

[Anonymous]

I wondered about that too since I bought Atlas bumpers and didn't need to do this.

It might also be worth mentioning, if you have lighted bumpers, isolating them from the spur will obviously keep them from lighting unless you supply power some other way. I guess that may be desirable if you want the light to be on whether the spur is energized or not. If you power the light separately I'd suggest cutting it's supply wires off the rails so you don't energize the rail at the same time.

Stan