# Ribbon Rail Track Alignment gauge



## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

OK gang here is the deal, if you do not have any Ribbon rail gauges, get two or three in diff radius's. You can buy em direct from the maker [email protected]. 

I just got one and here is what I learned very quickly. They are precision made, they are cheap and they work very well. 

I had previously soldered 6 pieces of 22R track together in preparation to replacing some 18R on my layout. IT looked to me to be an absolutly perfect solder, no kinks, no jumps etc. best work I ever did. 

I dropped the gauge between the rails and went to slide it around and oops all of a sudden it got hard to move at one joint, I found by opening that joint a minuscule amount the gauge would now slide freely, kept playing with it and found another that need to be closed, then another a bit etc. and etc. 

It seems to me you should center the gauge at the joint so it slides freely back and forth and secure the track in place and then solder it, I managed after some practice to get all 5 sections done so could slide the gauge from one end to the other with out it it binding or catching on something I had a much better section of track. One I install them track on the layout I will solder the last section in place, using the gauge

I looked around at the various train sites and did not see any that sold these or if they did had nothing much to say about it, escaper the price and it is one of the most useful things I have found and the same goes for that Xuron track cutter, it you don't have one, get one, it makes perfect track cuts with very little effort and the track joiners slide right on with no filing


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

I had to look for it to see what it was, looks very handy to have.:thumbsup:








Slide between rails to correctly gauge rails. Helps in laying, spiking and joining rail. Precision machined to NMRA standards. 

Or if your ordering from Walthers they carry his products. He has a bunch of them.
https://www.walthers.com/exec/manuinfo/170/Ribbonrail.html

I wonder if buying from him directly is cheaper?

Look on the Walthers site link and compare the prices to what you paid.
Let us know if it is cheaper?
I guess you got more then one?

Edit, OK, I now see in your other thread, you got two.


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

big ed said:


> I had to look for it to see what it was, looks very handy to have.:thumbsup:
> 
> View attachment 54426
> 
> ...


I paid 3.95 each plus 3.94 shipping, I forgot to ask the guy that makes em what he would sell them for, as for shipping, hell it is a flat piece of metal, you could wrap some paper around it, stick in an envelope put a stamp on it and off it goes, If I was selling them I would charge a buck for shipping and if you bought more then two I would give free shipping and just put two stamps on the envelope,

How much was Walthers asking?


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

big ed said:


> I had to look for it to see what it was, looks very handy to have.:thumbsup:
> 
> View attachment 54426
> 
> ...


I just sent an email to the maker of ribbon rail, his name is Robert I told him to jump on the forum and answer your question, I mistakenly told him you were gunrunner john ,,,,, DUH ????Senior moment there


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