questions about lionel tubular track

[nickt22]

I have torn up my track three times because it comes up uneven. How do you
A. cut lionel track to make fitting sections
B. get steel pins out of the track pieces easily, and
C. get pieces to fit together tightly

I have just finished my new benchwork, and I am going to use the 5 by 9 plan in the May 2006 issue of CTT.

[mitchelr]

nickt22,

Cutting track I use a dremel tool with a cut off wheel. To get the steel pins out more easily, I use a very thin flat blade screw drive to open up underneath the rail a little. Then I use a pair of needle nosed plier to pull put the pin. I use the same plier to close the gap back up before I insert the pins and fit them back together.

Mitch[swg]

[Anonymous]

Nick,

If you don't have a Dremel-type tool here's another way to cut track using a hacksaw and a bench vise. Get two thin pieces of wood and and make a sandwich - wood/track/wood - with the track poking out far enough from the wood to make your cut. Put the whole thing in the vise. Tighten the vise, and now all three rails of the track should be secure - no wobbling back and forth as you cut with a saw. Use a hacksaw with a new blade, it will cut easier.

If you don't have a bench vise you can substitute a large C-clamp to hold the "sandwich" together.

Like Mitch said, removing the pins can be a real pain if you don't pry apart the rail slightly along the seam on the underside of the track with a small screwdriver. Look closely and you'll see a tiny crimp in the rails that matches up with the indents on the pins. That crimp is what makes it hard to simply pull out the pins with a pair of pliers from a piece of new track.

To get the pieces to fit tightly, find the crimp mark and with a pair of wire cutters squeeze the crimp a tad tighter. If you are using a cut section, just make a new crimp mark.

Once you do a few you'll get the hang of it.

Neil Besougloff
editor, Classic Toy Trains

[Anonymous]

piano wire slipped through from the opposite side for removing the pins.

[Anonymous]

There is a variant on a pair of lineman's pliers called track pliers. These have a hole cut in the jaws where the track pin can be placed and the plies closed without cutting or crimping the pin. These can be used to insert pins and crimp the track around them as well as used to lever out pins you want to remove. ST-384 was the original part number for these.

[benw314]

Using a hacksaw? 16 teeth per inch won't do. Even 32 would be better, but still tough for thin gauge metal. Might try a jeweler's saw with a fine blade. It also has a very small saw kerf. But the Dremel or similar sounds best. - - - - !! WEAR EYE PROTECTION, not just glasses !! - - - - Because it's hard to manage a dremel to make a square cut, if you have a bench grinder to trim the ends square. I really dunno, I never have cut tubular rail. I have a lovely cutter for HO solid rail that cuts that and leaves an almost perfect end! - ben

[waltrapp]

Neil said:

QUOTE: To get the pieces to fit tightly, find the crimp mark and with a pair of wire cutters squeeze the crimp a tad tighter. If you are using a cut section, just make a new crimp mark.

Neil, interesting!! I've been using tubular track for 50 years and have a hundred cut pieces if I have one. I never ever thought of putting a new crimp in after cutting.

I'm wondering how you do that. A few questions if you have time:

1. What tool do you use to put the crimp in?

2. Do you put the pin in then crimp or crimp first and then insert pin? It would seem that you would get a 'tighter' crimp if you crimped first. But if one does that maybe the pin won'd fit back in or pu***he crimp back out and render the crimp useless?

I find that I can only get a tight, solid pin connection on cut track one way: I "over-close" the hole and drive (tap) the pin in with a pair of pliers. Even at that, since I lift my track every year and chagne it all around the next, pins tend to loosen up in those cut ends as they re-open a bit.

The reason that I drive the pins into the cut openings is because I've found that if I don't tightly re-close the hole I won't get a solid connection when a track with pins is connected to it.

As always, thanks walt

[lionelsoni]

My method for cutting track: (This was published in CTT long ago, but I don't remember when.)

Using tinsnips, cut straight down through the railhead and the web. This will pinch the railhead together. Do not cut the flange. Instead, flex the rail up and down to break the flange.

Pry the rail open with a screwdriver from below. With the tip of a small pair of long-nosed pliers, flatten the crease that the tinsnips left at the top of the railhead. Put a track pin or a suitable rod, preferably just a little smaller than a trackpin into the head and pinch the web back together, stretching and reshaping the railhead around the rod.

Put the pin in, if there is to be one, and pinch the railhead with the very tip of the long-nosed pliers over the notch in the pin.

Before cutting track, I mark the tops of the outside rails with a Sharpie pen. After cutting the outside rails, I sight across the cuts and adjust the tinsnips exactly in line with them to cut the center rail. Then I flex the track to break the flanges.

[Anonymous]

"1. What tool do you use to put the crimp in?"

http://www.ehobbytools.com/media/10100e.jpg

http://www.ehobbytools.com/media/10100a.jpg

[waltrapp]

chuckn:

First off, thanks for taking the time to include the links.

That tool doesn't look like it would put a crimp in the rail. I've seen that tool, or one very similar, at York. It was for 'O', not O27, which I have (I know, I neglected to mention that helpful little tid-bit ! ). Plus, it only tightened the rail around the pin - it didn't re-crimp the rail.

I may have seen a different tool though. The crimp is the thing that I never thought of doing after cutting track. And I've cut a BUNCH of it.

- walt

[rrswede]

Bob, I needed to cut a few pieces of track and decided to try your method since I had a good pair of tinsnips. A real piece of cake! Thank you. After using a very small screwdriver to open the crease a bit, I used an icepick to partially reform the railhead and then used a track pin to finalize the shaping. No burrs were formed in the process and filing the cut ends was not necessary. I still have uses for my Dremel tool, but will use tinsnips for future track cutting.

Swede

[phillyreading]

I prefer to use a dremel tool or a hacksaw to cut tubular track. To get the ends closed again I use a needle nose pliers and close the opening tighter then the pin and use a small hammer to help re-insert the track pin. I use a pair of electricians pliers to remove track pins after opening up the track end first with a medium flat tip screwdriver.

[David Barker]

Once again Bob Nelson saves us from frustration.