Hi R Nelson,
ROW's cast nickel silver code 148 rail joiners do slide on nicely however they come on a spru and each needs to be cut off and "dressed" a bit. Both ends of each of the two sections of rail one is joining together also require a little prep work but it really isn't very difficult or time consuming. The first few joints I did took a bit longer but it's pretty easy to get the hang of.
This is the way I dress each end of the rail sections. These are code 125 joiners but the same process applies to the code 148 joiners. I use a dremel with their standard #409 cut off wheel to notch the rail as shown in the following photo.
I also use the same cut off wheel to remove the joiners from their spru's and to dress them. Each rail joiner needs some material removed from their center top and bottom sections to accept the notched rail shown above. I've found the Dremel works very well for these tasks.
It takes me around ten minutes or so to dress the respective parts required to join two sections of track together. I think the track joint looks really nice when installed. The following photo is of a nearly completed joint using one of Lou's code 125 joiners and rail.
Chris is also correct, the ROW code 148 NS joiners will not work well at all with Atlas code 148 rail as it's profile is too thick, however the same joiners do fit ME code 148 rail/flex track very nicely.
John
