Do you mean to conect the flex to the TO's?
I've seen some people do it by putting a railjoiner on the code 100 rail, smashing it flat with some pliers, and then soldering the code 83 rail on TOP of the joiner... I don't know how good of an idea this will be for TOs though.....
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
cacole wrote:I've read other messages here about smashing one end of a rail joiner and then soldering the code 83 rail on top of it. I've had to do that one time to match a Shinohara code 83 turnout to Atlas code 100 flex track, but there was still a slight difference in rail height that required some filing, and keeping the rails lined up during the soldering process is rather tedious. I've also tried the Atlas code 100 to code 83 transition rail joiners, and found them to actually be more difficult than the soldering.
Ditto on the Atlas joiners. What a pain!
Anyone know how they did it in the real world? We know there were multiple weight/height rails in use, and they had to meet up somewhere...
I work a railroad measeum and there are spical rail joints that fit the sidewalls of the two rails and are "usually" (exc EX-wherhouser) cast in one pice (Wherehouser had ahabbit of cutting two different sizes of railjoiners and welding them together)
The prototype uses specialized angle bars, either purpose-cast or homemade (a la Weyerhauser.) The purpose-cast type have the specifications of the rails they are intended to connect molded into the steel.
One trick I've used is to use a standard Atlas 'universal' rail joiner with a .017 shim on the code 83 side. I don't solder my rail joiners, so the shim can be filed-down .020 styrene. I hand-lay specialwork with code 100 rail on wood ties, connected to code 83 rail on concrete ties. (I also cut out two concrete ties every nine inches and replace them with wood - simulating the appearance of my prototype during my modeling period.)
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September 1964)