Fitting on functional chairs

[John Bateson]

File the end of the rail to a pointy bit and then thread them as per threading a needle - wives are a good help here ...
John

[Martin Wynne]

Just a quick question, but is there any jig or quicker/easier way to thread plastic chairs onto the track, having had half of them disappear into the carpet I can't help but think im missing something. The best way I found so far is to bend them slightly to open up the gap?

Hi Mike,

Try doing it in a bowl of hot water with a bit of soap added. The heat softens them, the soapy water lubricates them, and the bowl catches the ones you drop.

But only for nickel-silver rail. You would be degreasing steel rail and it may rust rapidly.

Martin.

[grovenor-2685]

I have taken the liberty of amending your title. The convention is that chairs threaded on the rail and used to support and fix the rail in place are known as functional chairs, cosmetic chairs are fitted after the track is built just for decoration and have to be cut in two and glued either side of the rail.

My experience is mainly with the cosmetic arrangement, which is why I looked at the above post. I have only done a very small trial with the functional variety. When I did that I filed the end of the rail the thin the web and put a taper on the foot so that it would enter the chairs more easily, then I tried to slide into the chairs while they are still on the sprue.
If doing a lot some sort of jig should help, maybe the regular users will be able to advise.
Which brand of chair have you got? The C&L are from much older moulds than the Exactoscale variety and probably harder to use. At least that is very much the case with the track bases.
Regards

[RobM]

I find it slightly easier threading from the non key side with the rail filed….watch your fingers though…….
R

[Dave K]

I found the easiest way to thread Exactoscale chairs was to clean the end of the rail throughly then to run your fingernail through the chat to ensure there was no flash and then to thread the chair whilst still attached to the sprue before cutting it of with a chisel shaped scale blade.

Dave

[David Thorpe]

I found C&L chairs much easier to thread on than Exactoscale. In any case I found it best to file the end of the rail square and clean, then take a little more off the bottom section of the rail (I'm sure there's a proper technical term for it, but I can't remember it offhand) and the base of it. I know there have been comments about the qualty of the C&L moulds, but I found their appearance every bit as satisfactory as the Exactoscale ones although they're not quite such a tight fit on the rail.

DT

[Tim V]

Agree with John, clean the end of the rail, remove any burrs, look at it under a watchmaker glass. You'll find the chairs slip on easily.

[Chris Mitton]

although they're not quite such a tight fit on the rail.DT

The chairs shouldn't be too tight a fit on the rail anyway, otherwise you'll have expansion problems in hot weather if they can't slide longitudinally. For the same reason, don't forget to include expansion gaps at intervals in your track - over the length of a four-foot baseboard, with a forty-degree temperature range (which I get in my loft ), nickel silver rail will expand by nearly a millimetre. That's a good reason for using several short lengths (say 480 mm maximum representing two sixty-foot panels) rather than a whole metre rail - several small gaps are quite unobtrusive and won't disrupt the ride quality so much as one big gap.

Regards
Chris

[FCA]

Take a small block of wood or paxolin and fix a length of double sided tape close to the edge(s). Press down a row of chairs onto the tape and then cut the chairs free from the sprue. You now have a row of individual chairs ready for the rail, slide the rail into the chairs and ease them from the tape. This method ensures the integrity of the chair's web and keeps everything under control whilst fitting. The tape will need renewing after 20 to 30 sprues have been dealt with.

Richard

[Albert Hall]

Press down a row of chairs onto the tape and then cut the chairs free from the sprue. You now have a row of individual chairs ready for the rail, slide the rail into the chairs and ease them from the tape. Richard

If I am reading this correctly when you cut the chairs from the sprue they are 90 degrees out to accept the rail linearly so you have to thread and lift one at a time. This applies to both the C&L and Exactoscale ones.

I find it slightly easier threading from the non key side

If you do this don't you end up with all the keys at the leading or trailing edge of the chairs? In practice keys were alternated to mitigate the effect of rail creep which tended to occur in the direction of traffic flow. By alternating the keys, half of them will be loosened by rail creep and half will be tightened. Permanent way men were constantly walking their lengths tapping them back in with their long handled hammers. If you look at the sprues of either type you will notice that the keys are orientated in two ways. I'm reluctant to call them left hand and right hand as this could cause confusion in believing that this refers to the left and right hand running rail. I'm sure someone pointed out in an earlier thread to ensure that the keys end up on the non-four foot side of the rails.

[grovenor-2685]

If you do this don't you end up with all the keys at the leading or trailing edge of the chairs? In practice keys were alternated to mitigate the effect of rail creep which tended to occur in the direction of traffic flow. By alternating the keys, half of them will be loosened by rail creep and half will be tightened. Permanent way men were constantly walking their lengths tapping them back in with their long handled hammers. If you look at the sprues of either type you will notice that the keys are orientated in two ways. I'm reluctant to call them left hand and right hand as this could cause confusion in believing that this refers to the left and right hand running rail. I'm sure someone pointed out in an earlier thread to ensure that the keys end up on the non-four foot side of the rails.

Check out the digest sheet on keying practice. Generally alternating only applied to single lines, the left and right do refer to the running rails, but which is which varies depending on gradients and whether it is an acceleration or braking zone etc.
Regards
Keith