Model Railroading > Click Clack Sound of Track

A while back I asked a question of filling in a gap in the rail and was answered to solder the joint.

However I discovered that trains running over this joint will make a realistic click clack sound simulating sectional track.

Before welded rail trains ran over sectional track and since many of TO members are likely to run trains prior to the period of welded rail having this sound seems very realistic.

Just food for thought if one were to cut shallow notches/gaps in the rail with a Dremel every few feet your train would make this click clack sound.

Comments?

Hal

This little modeling trick has been around since the 1930's.

-LD

Traditional Rail Lengths are 39', which is about 5 3/8". While I have never done it, I've always thought about cutting the gaps in through the railhead and then getting a bunch of plastic joint bars to detail the track. You can always try it out in a small area and see how you like it.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

I think I would use an Xacto rail saw for a finer cut and metal wheel sets are going to sound better than plastic wheels.

You could start with a few feet of sectional track with a slight gap between the pieces before you try something more permanent.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Just playing devil's advocate here, the one issue I would foresee with doing this at prototypical lengths is that while the trains and wheels may be scale lengths, our ears are not! I would tend to think that doing this every scale 39 feet would just sound too much like a bunch of random overlapping and mashed up ticking noises coming from the train-not the orderly click clack we would be attempting to recreate.
I also would be slightly concerned with marking ticks in the rails with a dremel, since that would be an excellent place for dirt/grease to collect.

Any thoughts about dirt collecting in the "gap"? In the DCC world clean is very important.

DrLoco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just playing devil's advocate here, the one issue
> I would foresee with doing this at prototypical
> lengths is that while the trains and wheels may be
> scale lengths, our ears are not! I would tend to
> think that doing this every scale 39 feet would
> just sound too much like a bunch of random
> overlapping and mashed up ticking noises coming
> from the train-not the orderly click clack we
> would be attempting to recreate.
> I also would be slightly concerned with marking
> ticks in the rails with a dremel, since that would
> be an excellent place for dirt/grease to collect.


Trains would have to run at scale speed, so would sound about right.

One of the Kalmback Layout publications had an example of a Pennsy 4 track main, the owner had something like that going on where he doubled the distance for sight and sound of the trackwork, supports etc. Maybe try 4 x 39 ft, then 2x, then 39 ft. or similar.

Dust and oxidation (that gunk) is a good point, maybe back-fill the gap with ACC but leave it a little low in the center. Paint would be another option, but that gets messy.

Dirt shouldn't be an issue.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

A couple other considerations...

Don't cut the rails all the way through - just use a finetooth saw to cut shallow notches in the railhead, and glue false angle bars ("rail joiners" in modelspeak) to the sides. The effect is the same, but with improved conductivity. I'm with Ted Curphey in not believing dirt to be a problem. I did this on my 0n3 railroad years ago and never had problems.

Unless you are already using snap track, model rail usually comes in 36" lengths - or 72" for larger scales. Most prototype stick rails in 20th century were 39 feet long (5.374" in HO), and 33 feet (4.547" in HO) was common before 40' flatcars became common. Also, 33 foot rails were often made from reclaimed 39 footers by cutting 3 feet off each end, and used for relaying in yards or less important lines.

Neither 39 foot nor 33 foot HO rails divide integrally into the precut 36" segments, so sticking with strict scale length rails would waste considerable stock. Better to just cut the notches in the railhead every 5.14 inches to come out even, as the discrepancy will not be noticeable.

-LD

The notch only needs to be in the head of the rail, but it's nice to add a Details West plastic joint bar as a detail. 39 scale feet works fine, don't worry about the shorter section at the end of three foot sections, there were plenty of cut-short sections of rail on the prototype. An Atlas rail saw is the perfect tool for the cutting, a Dremel is overkill and makes too wide a gap.

Barry Draper

Thank you TO members for all your responses and I agree with Funnelfan that any crud that accumulates in the gap should not be a problem as long as the rails are kept clean.
I only thought this up by accident since I some how due to my expert track laying skills ended up with this gap in the track and I ended up liking the click clack sound.

Hal

Heck I even flat spot random wheels to give a realistic "THUD THUD THUD" I am all for the joints.

Did someone say joint bars? :) These are plasic glued on the side of the rails. Note that the inner rails are guard rails.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/13 08:18 by wabash2800.

---

DoctorThunder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Heck I even flat spot random wheels to give a
> realistic "THUD THUD THUD" I am all for the
> joints.


I just tried it out. It works better with metal wheels. Nice effect.

I cut gaps to simulate jointed rail also on a short sectino of track on my layout. I used a Dremel tool and just cut into the rail head about 1/2 way. One thing I did was to offset the joints in each rail vs. having the cuts directly across from each other. No issues with DCC or dirt.


If I were to do this again I'd make the cuts directly across from each other. With staggered joints, the clickety-clack sound gets cmbined and garbled to my ears.


- Norm