While ballasting my layout I have realized that a strange phenomina is occuring: everytime I ballast a section of track it stops working!!
My trackwork has been up and running for about 6-8 months now and I’ve been operating reguarlly without any problems. But everytime a ballast a new section of track I need to solder most or all of the joints in that section in order to get it to work. [%-)] just wondering if anyone knows why.
Some specs:
Track: Atlas Code 100 sectional
Ballast: Woodland Scenics medium
Electrical: DC block wiring, 22 gauge wire soldered to track at about 15 different points around the layout (not to every section).
I use a 50:50 mix of water/ rubbing alcohol as a presoak for ballast, then apply the ballast with a 50:50 mix of water/ Elmers white glue.
I don’t really want to solder every joint because I want to leave room for expansion/contraction as the humidity and temperature changes.
Why is this happening? What can I do about it? Please Help!
Sounds to me like you’re getting the glue and water mixture into the unsoldered rail joint and that is insulating it. You may have to be more careful applying the glue mixture. A lot of people use a pipette or old glue bottle to dribble the glue solution onto the ballast after it has been misted with wet water. Maybe try this method if you haven’t been. It also may be that the water and glue is wicking up into the joints between the track even if your application is precise. In that case you may end up soldering the track together anyway.
This is a common problem. Everything runs great until it is ballasted. You aren’t doing anything wrong with your ballasting technique.
Relying on un-soldered rail joiners to carry power is not a good idea. Each track section needs a feeder or a clean solder to a section that has a feeder. Even if you ballast the track and it runs fine now, it will eventually cause problems as things age. I can tell you from personal experience that it is easier to solder more feeders/rail joiners before ballasting than after.
It will take a little time soldering or installing feeders and then you should be good to go. Good luck with the ballasting.
I think that Chris nailed it as to the cause of your troubles. The solution is to either solder all of the track together, or drop wires from each length of track to a powered bus wire beneath the layout.
I soldered all of my track together at the rail joiners, and even with the layout in the basement, I’ve had no problems with expansion or contraction of the track or benchwork. I used a cut-off disc in my Dremel to cut electrical gaps, where required. With just under 200’ of mainline in service, and only a single pair of wires connected from the power source, I’ve had no electrical problems whatsoever, whether the track is ballasted or not.
Unlike Wayne, I model in a layout space that can see a 100 degreeF temperature swing over a year’s time, so soldering rail joints is not an option. My solution is to solder a jumper around each uninsulated rail joiner.
As you have discovered the hard way, metal rail joiners are fine for mechanical alignment. Electrical dependability is iffy, at best.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with bulletproof track electricals)
If you wish to minimize the work you have to do with providing wire feeders and soldering here and there, use unsoldered metal joiners every other joint. The rest would be soldered, but they would also have the feeders soldered there. You end up with a feeder centered between two lengths of flextrack, and you only need an unsoldered joiner at each end of those lengths for alignment, not power transmission.
In visual format, something like this, with the X meaning a soldered joiner with feeder also soldered, and O meaning an open, sliding joiner that will accommodate any expansion/contraction issues:
I have to agree with those that have already responded that the glue is drying and forming an insulation barrier to the electrical current. Happens to me every time I ballast track.
As an alternative to soldering the rail joiners, what I do when a loss of power occurs is to grasp the guilty rail joiner with a pair of snip nose pliers and slide the rail joiner back and forth once or twice. That always solves the problem for me, and that way there is no need to solder the rail joiners.
Another alternative is to apply a light oil to each rail joiner before applying the glue mixture to the ballast (i.e., Labelle Industries Synthetic Multi-Purpose Oil). The application of the oil to the rail joiner will prevent the glue from bonding but will
I fixed the section I was having problems with by using Rich’s technique:
I wouldn’t mind soldering all the rail joints, however with the temperature changes in my area I was advised not to when I first started the layout by a local MRR club. Many of their members said that they tried to solder all the joints and it only created problems. This is my first layout so I haven’t tried it myself.
I’ll see how it goes, if I need to I might use a method similar to what Crandall sugested or mabey I’ll just solder joints that are the problem. At least I’m not the only one who has this problem…