Welded rail

Hi 

Do you want to display actual continuously welded rail or the point at which two sections of c.w.r. meet?

In the case of the former, there's actually nothing much to see and you could probably weather the track to represent the weld point:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Geschweisster_schienenstoss.jpeg

I'd do what you suggest - butt join two pieces of rail leaving a tiny gap, fill that with solder and gently file the excess solder away. 

If it's the latter, you'll need to file the two facing rail ends at matching angles, like in this photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3074/2584239732_9aebb38ef0.jpg

Ian

Solder joint

The rail joiner would not look good as welded rail

I'm not sure a soldered butt joint would be strong enough to even handle when placing it on the layout.

An angle joint is an improvement, but I would go with a vertical lap joint which would give a lot more area for solder and subsequent greater strength. 

Terry

Welded rail

If you want to put lengths of rail next to the track a 3' piece of flex track will provide 2 270' HO scale rails. The actual weld would be almost invisible but could be duplicated with a piece of fine thread glued and painted at the appropriate locations. A true-to-scale mile of welded rail ( 65 actual feet in HO ) will make the whole layout look smaller IMHO.

Since distance is selectively

Since distance is selectively compressed anyway, One piece of 3 foot weathered rail would probably do the trick. If you want a longer length, hide the "splice" under a road at a crossing.. I have seen where they bury the rail in the road. This way it would look like a longer piece of rail. Not sure how you would bend the rail to follow the contours of the land. A piece of rail laid along the side of the roadbed bends with the curves of the land, almost like a piece of string.

Vertical splice

I agree that:

1. 3' would probably look good on most layouts, and
2. You can probably hide the splice in longer sections

If you really want a longer section of rail, though, I'd do as suggested above and make a vertical splice.  File away 1/2 the width of the rail for at least 1/2", maybe longer.  Do the same on the next piece of rail, but of course remove the opposite side.  Lay the two rails on a block of wood, and solder the joint.  It should then be strong enough to stand the handling needed to place it on the layout.  I do not think a butt solder joint will be strong enough unless done in place - and that would be difficult to make look right.

thanks for the hints and comments

Thank you  all who help me out on this one...I was thinking too about using a few three foot sections...I will post some pictures once they are in-since I have yet to start it will be a while lol

Welded rail

You might try a scene with a loco pulling a section of rail used to make welded rail. I have seen a loco coming out of the CSX yard in West Springfield, MA dragging a piece of this rail. No camera at the time and no idea on how far they pulled this piece of rail.

Rich

Funny, I always wanted to go the other direction

It seems like the flextrack, using selective compression and soldering joints served in much the same capacity as welded rail.

The bigger trick seems to successfully model jointed rail. Proto87 makes some believable fish plates. I just did not seem to get the wheel click from "joints" cut with my cutoff wheel. '' Anyone done this?

There are a couple of you tube videos out there of HO scale performing flawlessly on undulating, lightweight and  jointed rail. The effect is outstanding...

Flextrack

Soldering flextrack that is laid on Homasote is a no no when there is variation between humidity levels. Been there, done that, have the T shirt.

Ricch