Decided to take a 'break' form track wiring today. Instead I worked on some lighted bumpers plus two Gargraves decoupling tracks.
I purchased two of the newer designed decouplers (the short version). When I read the instructions for the decoupling track I got confused since one paragraph stated no center rail connection and other paragraph talked about extending center rail connection for locomotive/car rollers. I called and talked to a rep from Gargraves who set me straight. There indeed is no center rail connection however one can extend the amount of time a roller connects to the center rail by installing a track pin and butted it up against the plastic enclosure for the magnet. The pin needs to shortened to accommodate the short run.
I took this a step further and did the following.
Below is the track as it comes in the package (I removed two pins)
I took a center rail from a short piece of Gargraves track, glued it in place then cut it with a Dremel tool (cut off wheel).
I then sanded the rough edges with disc sanding attachment
This the final result. I think it looks neater then simply having a pin hanging out in mid air.
I spent the rest of the afternoon wiring up some custom and Lionel track bumpers for lights. I found 18 volt red bulbs from Cir-Kit concepts.
I drilled out the center hole to 1/4 inch then installed a Plastruct SX-4 flange, after which I painted the Lionel bumper black
The bulb needs to go through the flange before the Atlas track rail joiners are soldered on.
Had to trim the wires down to length
Soldering the wires to the rail joiners are easy as long as the wires and the rail joiners are tinnedfirst.
