# New to the hobby, came across weird rail



## 9finghells (Apr 28, 2019)

I'm pretty new to the hobby and recently got a bunch of rail as a gift. One of the pieces is... weird; it's got a little gap, but only in one rail, and the underside has these conductive pieces... I've attached some pictures to show. What's this thing do, and what's it called?


----------



## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Looks to me like a block separator section for DC use.


----------



## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

I agree with MichaelE, although why you would need that (instead of insulated rail joiners) beats me. Bachmann makes a section with an insulated gap in HO, but that's because their EZ-track "doesn't play nice" with Atlas insulated joiners.


----------



## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Common rail gap*



GNfan said:


> I agree with MichaelE, although why you would need that (instead of insulated rail joiners) beats me. Bachmann makes a section with an insulated gap in HO, but that's because their EZ-track "doesn't play nice" with Atlas insulated joiners.


 I also agree with both MichaelE and GNfan that this piece of track is a block gap for DC operation. The gap in only one rail suggests this track section was made by Atlas, since they use a DC wiring system called "common rail", where only one of the two rails has insulating gaps. The other ("common") rail is continuous through all the blocks on the railroad.

Traction Fan:smilie_daumenpos:


----------



## Stan D (Feb 1, 2019)

What doess the writing say on the bottom?


----------



## 9finghells (Apr 28, 2019)

I can see how that construction would insulate like that. Thanks, everyone.

The text on the bottom says "By Casadio, Made in Italy."


----------

