Hello.

It seems that after a few years my c-track layout has probably “shifted” a bit. I’m seeing a few places where the rails are touching ever so slightly thus loosing the isolation. The connection under the track is fine, I use the small red isolators and cut the connectors under the c-track.

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions, tips, techniques to prevent this. I screw down my track and ballast it so when this happens it takes a bit of work to fix.

Thanks!

Some paint or add a tiny droplet of hot glue in between the rail joint. You may also grind the rail a bit shorter.

Hi Garben
The issue you mention is caused by a plastic retractation during the aging: the plastic shrinks and the initial spacing of rail reduces.
When starting a ramp upwards especially the rails may come in contact even if they are insulated.

What to do?
- remove the rail where insulated rail starts and file the rail extremity to extand the gap
- force the rails apart and insert a tiny piece of nylon and glue it in place
- use a disk (Diamond or a plain cutting disk). Drawback: the cut is wide (just below a mm) and it leaves a lot of conducting dust that must be removed with a vacuum cleaner.

On K track, rail sliding is much more common and gaps must be filled with glue
On C track, I never observed a rail sliding lengthwise

Cheers
Jean