Joe,
Now that is a proper piece of engineering join, no doubt about it!
PCRR/Dave
Dave:
Yep - users that I have talked to seem to like them a lot.
Joe
So Joe, Which railclamp would you be using? I like the idea of not dealing with soldering/drilling through Atlas O Solid NS Rail. It's a real PITA!
Also does it matter[ brass, SS, Aluminum] material to use in the clamp? Will not the different metals react with each other in the long term?
Originally Posted by prrhorseshoecurve:
So Joe, Which railclamp would you be using? I like the idea of not dealing with soldering/drilling through Atlas O Solid NS Rail. It's a real PITA!
I have purchased two types:
I am trying the power supply connector (standard) in SS for the middle rails. I think this will work better than soldering wire to terminal joiners and hopefully as good as soldering wire directly to rails. I will rely on the joiners for ground since I tend to connect to both outside rails anyway.
I am going to try the split jaw insulating clamps for my non derail track. I am keeping my fingers crossed they will fit w/o having to cut into the Ross tie bar. I am going to use them on the one end of the rail where Ross connects to Atlas O. I will rely on the Ross plastic pin on the turnout side. I am also going to try them on isolated sections of track where I want to turn middle rail power on and off.
Pictures of both are below. Both will be Code: 250 - 5.0mm
The web site is http://www.railclamp.com/
Also does it matter[ brass, SS, Aluminum] material to use in the clamp? Will not the different metals react with each other in the long term?
WRT SS versus Al versus brass I doubt material incompatibility will be an issue. With that said I know from my microelectronic days Aluminum is the best conductor followed by brass (1/2 as good) followed by SS (not so good). I think for model RR's the SS will be fine but next time I will probably go for the brass or aluminum.
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Just got this from an O scale customer who tried the split jaw connectors. I have some on order so will post an opinion once I play with them. The other customer who liked them is G scale.
I don’t like them and I’m sending them back.
- They are too wide and do not fit in between the Atlas ties. I had to grind them down about 1/16” to get them to fit.
- There’s a plastic bar that runs underneath each of the Atlas rails. I had to cut them off in order for connector to fit. Doing this on a track section with switches on either side was a pain. I had to unscrew all of the track and surrounding switches in order to cut them out. It would have been easier to just dismantle everything and install the Atlas Joiners.
- For the center rail connector, I could not tighten the cap screw because the outside rail got in the way. I had to cut the short side of an Allan wrench down (a bunch) in order to get it in between the track and tighten the connector up.
After all that work, it’s a neat little connection but I think soldering would have been a lot easier
Just got a photo - looks like a tight fit.........
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I just received my clamps. I noticed the following (by the way the rep from split jaw is a real nice man to do business with).
1. The power supply clamp won't fit inside the ties on Atlas O. It is a 1/16 inch too long
2. The clamp will fit inside the ties on Ross and the allen wrench will fit in between the tie and the wood support making it easy to tighten the clamp down.
3. The clamp will also fit inside the ties on Gargraves but due to the flange design of the track (Gargraves uses an extended flange to fit the rails into their wood ties) the clamp is too shallow.
4. If you are using Atlas O track for open ended sidings the power clamp will work at the end of the track but you need to clamp it to a joiner or the clamp will not tighten straight.
I bought some standard clamps (these are used to connect track together) with the insulator on one side. They were obviously way too long to connect any track system together. I got the bright idea and cut the plastic in half to make a single clamp with both sides plastic but did not realize the plastic is a slide one fit so there is no way to tighten it down.
The rep did say that at one time he did make the shorter versions but they did not sell so he stopped producing them.
Joe
