Lane changer modification question

[DC_OR]

I've had to reset the cars a number of times from driving too slowly across a lane changer as the brushes lose contact briefly with the rail at the point seen in the picture. I know the answer is to drive faster, but correcting others is harder than correcting my own behavior sometimes.

Has anyone used a metallic paint pen to extend a rail a bit? Of course I don't want to arc the rails, but based on the standard distance between rails I can't see why the tip of that changer couldn't have some paint applied and extended up nearly 1.5 inches and still be ok. The red I've added is where I am considering painting.

I don't know if

The counter argument in my mind would be that the brushes require this dead zone during the transition, but I'm not sure why it'd need that much dead area unless it is an arc issue. Any thoughts? Right now I'm dangerous to my own hobby as I'm new, so I'd rather ask before I damage something!

[lance]

The gap is big because the rails may not touch, but the braids on the guide may touch the left and right rails at the same time and cause a short. sometimes cars with the long braid or the 2 braids per side like scx cars

[DC_OR]

The gap is big because the rails may not touch, but the braids on the guide may touch the left and right rails at the same time and cause a short. sometimes cars with the long braid or the 2 braids per side like scx cars

And with that my question has been answered! I appreciate it. Thanks!

[docdoom]

and if you have track call and car stops on one of those you will need to push the car pass that or it will not go when the track power comes back on..

[RexCadral]

If you wanted to do better than this, you need to take a page from model railroading. Look up "powered frog" to see how it's handled, but basically the part you want to cover with conductive paint should not contact anything besides the metallic lane switching guide, which should, in turn, contact the metallic rail that it is currently engaged against. In this way, the "triangle" always has the same polarity as the side of the car that will pass over it.