Expansion joint seal for surface contact with offset rail

An expansion joint seal, comprising

• a cover plate;
• a vertically-oriented elongate rail adapted for attachment to a vertically-oriented exposed surface of an immediately adjacent substrate at a rail vertically-oriented second side, the vertically-oriented elongate rail having a rail vertically-oriented first side opposite the rail vertically-oriented second side;
• an elastically-compressible core having a core bottom surface, a core top surface and a core first side;
• the vertically-oriented elongate rail having at a rail top surface for impermanent attachment to the cover plate by a connecting member selected from the group including a hinge, a tether and a flexible member;
• the vertically-oriented elongate rail having a profile selected from the group of a vertical bar, a c-shaped open channel, and an L-shaped channel, the c-shaped open channel having an upper lateral member extending from the rail vertically-oriented first side and a lower lateral member extending from the rail vertically-oriented first side, and the L-shaped channel having a lateral member extending from the rail vertically-oriented first side;
• and
• the elastically-compressible core adapted at the core first side to contact the vertically-oriented elongate rail at the rail vertically-oriented first side.