Segment transition

[faraway]

The removable segment at the balcony door and at the main door of my room have a problem with the track transition.
The tracks are based on wood and cork. At the end are two brass screws at each end and the rails are soldered to them and then cut. That results in a well adjusted transition at the segment ends.


The problem appears after some month or years. The wood and cork shrinks and the track sinks down but the brass screws keep their level stable. That results in "ski jump". I get a nasty click noise if the track is straight but 6 axis engines are likely to derail if the jump is in a curve.
I know other techniques to do segment transitions but the brass screw method is often used, simple to do and well documented but nobody reports problems similar to my ski jump problem.

[jwb]

It looks to me as if the problem is simply level and alignment that you have anywhere with flex track and cork roadbed -- as you say, over time, it sinks, and often one side sinks more than the other, which means that many locos will derail at random. I would simply try prying up the part that's sunk and shimming it with pieces of cardboard, using trial and error until things work right again. The prototype has the same problem.

This is a big advantage, on the other hand, of using Kato Unitrack or similar -- with the rigid ballast base, it's more stable over time. It's worth pointing out too, though, that 6-axle diesels on local track would be under a severe speed restriction.