UniJoiners attached to track
In this photo I have attached the UniJoiners to the ends of the rails but have not yet connected the track sections.
Unitrack made by Kato consists of sections of rail and crossties mounted on roadbed and easily connected and disconnected by their patented UniJoiners. This series of photos shows three kinds of UniJoiners. All three kinds of UniJoiners connect the rails and hold the sections of roadbed together but otherwise serve different purposes. Please look at all three photos of this series: UniJoiners by themselves, UniJoiners attached to the rails, and track connected by the UniJoiners.
The basic UniJoiner shown in the top view has a gray plastic body for connecting the plastic roadbed of two sections of track and a metal rail joiner for connecting the metal rails of two sections of track while allowing electric current to pass along each rail. The metal rail joiner itself is similar to those made by Atlas, Peco, and other brands of N scale track. Clips that are molded into the plastic body of the UniJoiner snap into recesses at the ends of each track section and are what securely holds two sections of track together. Each piece of new track from the factory has a regular UniJoiner already installed on the right rail (as you face each end of the track), but you can remove it with a special tool. On all but hidden track, I color my UniJoiners with a Rail Black marker and then scrape away paint from the conductive metal rail joiner surfaces.
The bottom view shows Insulated UniJoiners. They are molded from black plastic and are designed to lock the roadbed of two track sections together and keep the rails in close alignment without allowing the rails to touch each other and conduct electric current. I use a pair of Insulated UniJoiners at each end of a segment of track I wish to electrically isolate from all the other power blocks. Each track of both of my staging yards contains an electrically isolated segment that is long enough of hold a complete train of 10 passenger cars or 18 freight cars plus engines.
The middle view shows a pair of Terminal UniJoiners (Kato item 24-818). They are constructed like the regular UniJoiners but have built in power wires already soldered in place. At the other end of the cable is an electrical plug that ultimately plugs into a Kato power pack. With the FORWARD setting turned ON, the WHITE wire will be +, the BLUE wire will be -, and the train will go EASTBOUND. By substituting Terminal UniJoiners for regular ones, I can hook up power to any segment of track, but I use them to power up my electrically isolated staging tracks.
UniJoiners attached to track
In this photo I have attached the UniJoiners to the ends of the rails but have not yet connected the track sections.
Unitrack made by Kato consists of sections of rail and crossties mounted on roadbed and easily connected and disconnected by their patented UniJoiners. This series of photos shows three kinds of UniJoiners. All three kinds of UniJoiners connect the rails and hold the sections of roadbed together but otherwise serve different purposes. Please look at all three photos of this series: UniJoiners by themselves, UniJoiners attached to the rails, and track connected by the UniJoiners.
The basic UniJoiner shown in the top view has a gray plastic body for connecting the plastic roadbed of two sections of track and a metal rail joiner for connecting the metal rails of two sections of track while allowing electric current to pass along each rail. The metal rail joiner itself is similar to those made by Atlas, Peco, and other brands of N scale track. Clips that are molded into the plastic body of the UniJoiner snap into recesses at the ends of each track section and are what securely holds two sections of track together. Each piece of new track from the factory has a regular UniJoiner already installed on the right rail (as you face each end of the track), but you can remove it with a special tool. On all but hidden track, I color my UniJoiners with a Rail Black marker and then scrape away paint from the conductive metal rail joiner surfaces.
The bottom view shows Insulated UniJoiners. They are molded from black plastic and are designed to lock the roadbed of two track sections together and keep the rails in close alignment without allowing the rails to touch each other and conduct electric current. I use a pair of Insulated UniJoiners at each end of a segment of track I wish to electrically isolate from all the other power blocks. Each track of both of my staging yards contains an electrically isolated segment that is long enough of hold a complete train of 10 passenger cars or 18 freight cars plus engines.
The middle view shows a pair of Terminal UniJoiners (Kato item 24-818). They are constructed like the regular UniJoiners but have built in power wires already soldered in place. At the other end of the cable is an electrical plug that ultimately plugs into a Kato power pack. With the FORWARD setting turned ON, the WHITE wire will be +, the BLUE wire will be -, and the train will go EASTBOUND. By substituting Terminal UniJoiners for regular ones, I can hook up power to any segment of track, but I use them to power up my electrically isolated staging tracks.