Which is better to use on breaks in the tracks plastic joiners or just cut a gap and fill in. If the ladder fill in with what. Help!
I personally use plastic rail joiners, especially since I found a prototype for the big, ugly things a few years ago. My layout room conditions are conducive to rail creep, so I need positive separation.
Other modelers cut a gap, then insert a piece of styrene or squirt some acetate cement into the space to keep it from closing up. This requires some cleanup with a fine file to assure smooth wheel passage.
Still others simply either cut a gap or leave one, trusting to a benevolent diety to keep the rail ends apart. I prefer not to be so trusting. Where I have left open gaps (at the borders of removable sections) I have anchored the rail ends by soldering them to flathead brass screws, which absolutely, positively will NOT move.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with trackwork as bulletproof as I can make it)
As above, I've stayed with the insulated rail joiners. It's easy to figure where to put them when planning the track layout, and the clear ones aren't glaringly visible. And if you're more operation minded, it helps with the learning curve if you use the yellow or orange ones, which are very easy to see, especially in hidden staging yards.