Aristocraft vs LGB tracks

Mainly aristo at Winton with some lgb that has the rail ends drilled and tapped for aristo joiners. The aristo screws have been replaced with stainless steel ones that sit nicely on a 1.5mm allen key for fitting. Points are aristo 10 foot and lgb radius 5, I have started replacing the aristo switch mechanism with lgb ones, much
neater. Never had a problem with the sleepers and track conductivity is great with only one feed point to the outer circuit and from there to the inner circuit.
 
I have never noticed the screws rusting - I assumed they were stainless in the first place?
 
I have always used whatever is available at a good price so I have Aristo, LGB, USAT and Accucraft. All fits together and all looks pretty much the same after a few years outside.
Personally I get on better with Aristo points than LGB. The only reason is that my wagons are less likely to derail when backed over Aristo points. My track has been down between 10 and 20 years.
 
stockers said:
I have never noticed the screws rusting - I assumed they were stainless in the first place?
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As far as I know they are Alan, it's the variety of heads that gets me. The deep ones are fine for fixing and tightening but the shallow ones and the ones in between are not so I decided to replace the lot. Every track joint is now nice and tight and whilst I was at it I got new bolts for the Hillman clamps as well!
 
Eaglecliff said:
All my rail joiners are Massoth-type and I wouldn't use anything else. If there is a downside, it's just that they "spread" the adjacent sleepers when they should be closer.
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Not sure if you are aware but the Massoth Joiners come in two different lenghts. So this may help if you are fussy about sleepers being closer at rail joints. I only found this out when I was joining Aristo 4ft Curves and the fishplates were too long leaving massive gaps in the rail joints.
JonD
 
Greg Elmassian said:
hmm... the stock aristo screws are stainless steel, but as Kim states, the socket depth is all over the map... poor quality... but I believe they were 2mm screws to begin with.. so you went to 1.5 mm hex socket head?

greg
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Think 'it depends' what you are referring to as '2mm'?
Diameter of thread.
Length of thread.
Or,
Size of Allen key required.
???

I have some 'alternative' bolts..
These are 2x3mm cap-head but need a 1.5mm Allen key..
 
dunnyrail said:
Not sure if you are aware but the Massoth Joiners come in two different lenghts. So this may help if you are fussy about sleepers being closer at rail joints. I only found this out when I was joining Aristo 4ft Curves and the fishplates were too long leaving massive gaps in the rail joints.
JonD
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I am aware of the longer version but couldn't see their use unless to hold a few millimetre long offcut of rail to close a gap where adjacent lengths of rail are just too short to meet?
 
Eaglecliff said:
I am aware of the longer version but couldn't see their use unless to hold a few millimetre long offcut of rail to close a gap where adjacent lengths of rail are just too short to meet?
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I use a pair on a three-foot length of track.. Has 4mm sockets / binding posts for use on the bench.. programming / testing etc.
 
Greg Elmassian said:
hmm... the stock aristo screws are stainless steel, but as Kim states, the socket depth is all over the map... poor quality... but I believe they were 2mm screws to begin with.. so you went to 1.5 mm hex socket head?

greg
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I did Greg, my local nut and bolt shop owner glanced at the aristo sample and knew exactly what I needed, ditto the clamp bolts.

I now have a bag of aristo bolts if anybody wants them.........

P_20170909_120400_1_p.jpg P_20170909_120517_1_p.jpg
 
Message sent Kim.
 
Greg Elmassian said:
I have a big bag too, since I converted to rail clamps.

I went through them and threw out all the "shallow" ones and then have a good stock to give to friends.

Greg
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Daft as it seems, I never realised that there were differences in the depth of the socket - I just thought it was me not inserting the hex key correctly.
 
trammayo said:
Daft as it seems, I never realised that there were differences in the depth of the socket - I just thought it was me not inserting the hex key correctly.
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Me too. I also discovered that the cross head screws were Reed Prince, not Phillips. I learn, then forget.
 
Hutch said:
Me too. I also discovered that the cross head screws were Reed Prince, not Phillips. I learn, then forget.
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Cross head screws make me cross! Having to keep sets of screwdrivers for each type of screw head - and always picking the wrong driver!
 
trammayo said:
Cross head screws make me cross! Having to keep sets of screwdrivers for each type of screw head - and always picking the wrong driver!
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Yes, I remember when the Pozidrive screw came out and all the hype about only ever needing two screwdrivers in future, a small and a large (although you quickly also needed an extra large for heavy duty screws). That was years ago and you can still buy flatpack stuff where you need three or so different screwdriver sizes and two types of screwdriver.
 
Only just got around to reading this thread all the way through. Went outside to check what I've used. A real mixture - LGB, Piko, Tenmille, USA Trains, Aristocraft and whether Euro or US spacing not important. It's all been naturally weathered (although the purer brass stuff is still somewhat yellower) but the pea shingle ballast does a good job of making the differences less noticeable. On the subject of screws/hex bolts I purchased a pen shaped 'screwdiver' set from Poundland with 10 interchangeable bits inside the body which has a screw cap. There were Allen keys to fit both fishplates and Hillman clamps as well as a flat blade for Massoth and Trainline type. Handy to have them all in the same place and the diameter of the 'pen' enables a bit more pressure to be applied. Have since bought a couple more, but the selection of bits inside has not always been the same.
 
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