03-13-2016, 12:51 PM
Some members of the modular club I belong to have multiple modules that always go together in a certain order. They bring the rails right to the end of the intermediate modules and avoid using joiner tracks at all. The danger is that the rails can easily catch on things and be damaged. What has worked very well is to bolt a board to the ends of the intermediate modules for transport to protect the rails at the ends. Another trick I've seen used is to ballast the sides of the cork all the way to the end of the module as well as install wood ties and ballast around them and then just use bare rail to connect modules together. Of course if your are building to NMRA module standards where the joiner track is a 9 inch section of snap track, you probably are going to be stuck without ballast or having it just on the sides of the cork. Our club was formed before N-trak existed and our module standards call for 4 inch joiner tracks between modules. Our set back for the outside main is also only 4 inches instead of the 5 inches that the NMRA calls for.
If someone joins the club with a module built to NMRA standards, they will join up, but the front edge will stick out about one inch and the individual needs to make up custom 6 inch joiner tracks. The reason that the set back was set to 4 inches and the joiner tracks were made 4 inches is that we could do a 36 inch minimum radius on the main lines and put a fully eased 36 inch radius curve in a 4x4 module.
If someone joins the club with a module built to NMRA standards, they will join up, but the front edge will stick out about one inch and the individual needs to make up custom 6 inch joiner tracks. The reason that the set back was set to 4 inches and the joiner tracks were made 4 inches is that we could do a 36 inch minimum radius on the main lines and put a fully eased 36 inch radius curve in a 4x4 module.