Dismantling EZ track

[cramsay]

Ok here's what's most likely a question with an obvious answer but I'm not seeing it. 72 x 96 loop layout with a couple turnouts. I used EZ track with double side carpet tape adhering it to board and ballast glued in place. Would like to add a turnout. How do you take up a section of the track? The plastic tabs holding individual sections of track together would seem to preclude a simple pulling up one or two sections of track as it's connected continuously in the loop.

[Flare]

My E-Z track isn't secured in place, but I imagine you're 'on the right track'.

If you want to remove the section with minimal disturbance to its neighbors, perhaps you could try cutting a chunk out of the middle of the section then removing the end pieces.

[cramsay]

Yeah my only thought so far is similar-- to cut a section  out then  remove the plastic tabs on each end of the pieces going in.

[Flare]

You would still need to open the remaining tracks about half an inch to slide the joiners into place...

Perhaps that could be accomplished by lifting the adjacent pieces at an angle?

[cramsay]

Yeah we're figuratively on the same page here flare...I was hoping though there'd be a magical, clean, easy answer that hadn't crossed my mind.

[Trainman203]

There is nothing magic here.  You will have to do some work.

1.  You cut through the to-be-removed section of track all the way to the table top, through the rail joiners and the plastic tongues that connect the sections.

2.  You pull out the old track section and smooth the surface below to tarmac  standards. You may have to smooth the remaining tongue on the remaining  track back flush with the remaining  roadbed.

3.   You pull the cut sections of rail joiners off the remaining track pieces.  This will be hard since the Bach Man has crimped them on......  Normally a good idea in the train set world that this track is intended for.  You may have to spread them wider with a screwdriver blade to get them to move.

4.  You prep the new switch by pulling off the crimped on rail joiners just like before, and cutting off the plastic connecting tongues.  You then slide 4 new rail joiners onto the new switch section rails, all the way on.  You may give to trim back the plastic ties a little to clear them.

5. Drop the new switch in place, line up the rails, and slide all 4 joiners into place on the old track.  The joints probably won't be as tight and electrically as conductive as before.  Be prepared to solder these joints or add jumpers.

This applies pretty much to all brands of track as well.

[jbrock27]

5. Drop the new switch in place, line up the rails, and slide all 4 joiners into place on the old track.  The joints probably won't be as tight and electrically as conductive as before.  Be prepared to solder these joints...

I would not solder to the rails of the turnout/switch as this will make any future maintenance or replacement more difficult than buying tight rail joiners to use for connecting to the turnout/switch.  PECO makes a Code 100 n/s rail joiner that is tighter than any Atlas, Bachmann or Life Like one I have come across.  My old pal JerryHO clued me in to these tighter than usual PECO rail joiners.

*spelling corrections

[Trainman203]

Still..... Be prepared for electrical failure  at these joints .  They will probably  be ok for awhile.

[jbrock27]

Still..... Be prepared for electrical failure  at these joints .

Not sure why that would be a given using new, tight rail joiners.  I don't believe it is good practice to solder to turnout/switch sections of track.

[Trainman203]

Rail joiners "always" have a potential to fail over time, Brock.  You know that.  I know it by learning the hard way, put feeders on the railroad 7 years later.

[jbrock27]

Rail joiners "always" have a potential to fail over time, Brock.  You know that.  I know it by learning the hard way, put feeders on the railroad 7 years later.

You're are right, I have experienced and known joiners to fail.  Would I say "always"?  No.  Reusing rail joiners greatly contributes to failure in my opinion.  And I have made a practice of soldering most of the joiners at regular sections of sectional track (Atlas and Atlas type traditional sectional track).  That said, I have not had failures at turnouts/switches.  Your suggestion to solder a feeder to the legs of the turnout/switch is better (if the joiners themselves fail to maintain current)  than your suggestion to solder the joiners to the turnout/switch, for the reasons I stated above.

[jbrock27]

For example, this fella found he had to replace one of his turnouts (because of malfunction, not continuity issues).  He had not, for all I can see, soldered the turnout to the rest of the track.  It is not EZ-Track but the concept of what I speaking of, is the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E87uGtUCUM

[Trainman203]

Jumpers are probably the better way to solve conductivity issues at this switch, you are correct.  If soldered, though you "could" saw through the bad joiner, pull the switch out, then heat  all 4 sawed off joiners and get them off.  You'd have to clean up the solder on the rail though.

I don't think I said to re use any rail joiners.  New ones are clean  and not oxidized, and cheap enough insurance.

[jbrock27]

I don't think I said to re use any rail joiners. 

Flory, I never said or inferred you did.  I was just offering my opinion/observations on reused rail joiners.  
I myself have never seen an oxidized N/S rail joiner; but I have seen them bunged up enough to be too wide in the groove or bent left or right or up or down.  And, as mentioned here on numerous occasions, replacing joiners on EZ track is a royal PITA.
Whether they are "cheap"? Well I guess at about 12 cents a piece for the little things (and that is shopping of which as you know, some of us make sport of) that can be a matter of opinion.

[Trainman203]

The cost is not in terms of materials, it is in tangible terms of labor expended and intangible term of mental anguish experienced in correcting what a 12 cent  piece of stamped metal could have avoided..