Track soldering


P

PELindy

New Member
Rookie question, but I didn't find anything with the search function, so here goes:

I'm building a shelf layout (HO - 24" X 20') and using DCC. There seems to be two schools of thought on soldering track - one says all rail joiners should be soldered together, with feeders to the buss every 3-6 feet. The other says to drop feeders more often, and that makes it unnecessary to solder all the track together.

I'd like to solder the rail joints and use fewer drops. Here's my question: what is the best way to solder rail joints without melting ties? Okay, ideally, I'd buy a resistive soldering station, but the price is prohibitive! That being said, what wattage iron is best - low or high? Any specific recommendations?
 
I use a 30W iron that stays hot all the time I'm using it. I use to use a soldering gun, but I found an iron works better. I only solder on the outside edge of the joint & I have a jig for just that I bought years ago. I clean the area I'm going to solder w/a scratch brush. I use the smallest amt. of solder I can that doesn't require heating it up enough to melt the ties. Just heat the rail & let the solder flow into the rail.
I put 18 ga. wire for drops to a 14 or 16 ga. buss wire every 4 ft. & I solder the drop to the Buss. I also use a very thin soldering wire that I bought at radio Shack.
Just a lot of practice makes perfect. Solder on scrap rail to get the right flow rate.
I only have DC, so, the wire ga. might be diff. for DCC.
BTW-I only solder tracks together in hard to get at area's.
Larry
 
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I can't imagine a place on earth with any wooden components involved in supporting the roadbed where soldering all the track would be a good idea.

Period.

What most of us seem to agree to do is to definitely solder together, at the joiners, any segments of flex track that will be bent later to conform to a radius. Outboard of any curves on your layout (IOW on tangent tracks, and especially tangential track joining to turnouts), you would not want to do much soldering...or as little as you can get away with.

Thinking purely logically, you really only every have to solder any two pieces of track together and at the same time feed that longer section with one pair of feeders. Anything on either side of that one soldered length cum feeder pair is going to be configured in precisely the same way...until you run into a turnout, that is.

What it boils down to is this: you must allow for expansion of the rails, although that is a very small problem all things considered. What is much more problematic is what happens to the structure below the rails as temps and humidity combine to do weird thing to dimensions of lumber. The second is that on either side of a sliding, free, joiner, you should have a pair of feeders. That sliding joiner will never become a problem on tracks properly affixed to roadbed because even if it were to oxidize and reduce connectivity to zero, you would have soldered feeders on either side of it...thus all the rails leading to the joiner are powered. Problem avoided.

BTW, I have reliably fed 30' of HO Code 100 with a single pair of feeders, and had no discernible loss of DCC signal strength reported by my decodered engines...even my hungry QSI decoders. They come happily to life on that section. There isn't a soldered joint in all that length of track.

-Crandell
 
I used a 100/140w solder gun, with 14g house wiring copper for a tip, first notch on the power, 100w, a good smear of resin type flux, and a first solder on the joint itself to tie the two rails and the joint together, then a quick 'fill' on the rail gap, a slice or two with a razor knife to level, and then a small wipe with a little sanding block to make it pretty..., the solder is the fine small diameter I normally use for soldering on pcb's, and such..and I normally put most of the solder on the outside of the rails, easier cleanup afterwards..
the sanding block I use is the little rectangular one that comes with cheap 'kinda like dremel' rotary tools..
works quickly, my sub is 3/4" blue foam so the little bit of expansion / contraction doesn't affect the layout..
a few slices filled in with styrene for reversing sections, or plastic insulated rail joiners..
 
Selector said:
I can't imagine a place on earth with any wooden components involved in supporting the roadbed where soldering all the track would be a good idea.

Period.
Click to expand...

Interesting point. I guess if feeders were attached every 3-4 feet or so, IF a problem ever developed, it would be relatively easy to determine the problem joint and repair it as required.

What about "hidden" tracks? Stuff inside tunnels, etc, where a later repair would require ripping out scenery? If it's only a short section (3 or 4 feet) would it be acceptable to solder those joints to prevent problems later on, without creating problems with expansion/contraction of the support structure? I can't imagine 4 feet of lumber moving so much as to cause the track to buckle in a short section.
 
I have about 600 ft. of track laid & only use joiners. The last layout I had I had a few problems w/track flex from heat. This time I only soldered in my tunnel & over the main bridge. I also soldered some area's I couldn't get to easily. As far as drops go, I've learned in the past 48 years that the more engines you run in a long track the more drops you need. If you don't solder all of your joints together, you need drops every 4 ft.
If you do solder all of them together, then you could probably get away w/longer stretches of track w/less drops. In my yards, I have drops every 4 ft. & never have any problems. I guess the longer you're in this hobby the more you learn about electricity.
When I have problems w/power loss in a stretch I know it's not the drops & has to be the track, that's just the way I always do things. It's always better to be safe, than sorry. The way I do things doesn't mean it has to be everyone else's way.
BTW, my building gets to 105* in the summer & if you think you have problems w/contraction & buckle you should visit me.
MY 2 cents worth.
Larry
 
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I'm not a big fan of soldering rail joiners for all the reasons the other guys have pointed out. My experience is that a drop every four feet is more than enough to provide reliable power. I've also had fairly large layouts and never even had additional power drops. It work but I spent a lot of time chasing dead joiners. As Crandell pointed out, the main thing to be concerned about is that each section of track between joiners has an independent source of power. If you're using flex, that would mean a power feed every three feet or so. If you're using sectional track or, at switches, I solder a piece of thin 18 gauge wire between the two sections, leaving the joiner alone. The wire has enough flexibility to allow the track to move without breaking the joint. For hidden areas, just make sure you have a feeder between each joiner and you'll be fine. Soldering joiners also leads to melted ties no matter how good you are because you're trying to get a fair bit of solder to flow around a pretty big hunk of metal. If I do have to solder joiners for some reason, I use a vice grip on each side of the joiner as heat sinks. It works pretty good but I still manage to melt a few ties. :)
 
I use a cheap iron from Lowes and small solder from radio shack.
My layout is 24x24 and has been up for 4 years.
My 3 main lines are 80-90 feet each.
I only soldered for track positioning reasons. ie curves and switches or places the track wont stay in place on its own.
Havent soldered for connectivity as of yet.
I have many transformers and about 30 blocks
So far I have only one set of jumpers to the tracks for each block.
Yep my main lines are 90 feet and run off single jumpers with unsoldered joiners.
Havent had time to put the jumpers in or the buss lines
Havent once had an engine not go for lack of connectivity.
 
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