So the demonstarted practice that I’ve seen has the wires attached to the track post-install Considering I plan on attaching a feeder to every piece of sectional track I have, (yeah, it’ll be hundreds of pieces) I would prefer to sit at a desk and just solder stuff before I start laying it down. I can just use the joiners as my power feed while I’m testing and making sure everything goes into place the way I intended. It also occurred to me I could solder to the bottom of the track where it won’t be seen at all, if I do it beforehand.
Important issue. Over time, a poor joint can fail and track joiners do not always maintain good contact. May be years down the line though.
As an example, out club back in the 1980’s used Sal Ammoniac solder and paste. About fifteen to twenty years or so later, a feeder connections breaks. Happened a few times.
You will have to be very sure you have a good solder joint. Cleaned and tinned rail and shiny solder joint. Rosin flux and rosin based solder. Clean solder connection after.
I know some here have used Sal Ammoniac solder and flux but I would not.
If you are going to solder your feeders to straight sections of track and then curve them you will find that the solder joints will interfere with the movement of the ties and cause problems. You will need to strategically remove some ties to allow for movement and no interference with your curves.
For flex track, if you keep thesliding rail to the inside, you don’t have to remove many ties on the other piece unless you are flexing the track really severely. I usually don’t solder feeders to every piece of flex track anyway, I usually solder the track together after its installed.
If you stagger the joints, I would think you would want to solder the feeders to the sides of the rails after the track was installed.
Right now the OP is saying soldering to the sectional rail. Same as soldering to flex rail.
May never be an electrical issue but he wants to be safe. I agree, lots of feeders could be a pain.
Also, electrical issues can occur over time at track joiners. If he uses wet water for ballasting can be an issue. It gets into the track joiner after a while with a track joiner not tight enough. Takes time though. Don’t ask me how I know.
I have read about that issue in other forums. That is why some want to solder all the track joiners to the track, sectional or flex.
We have yet to hear from the OP anymore on this issue.
If You want to make Your job with soldering all those feeders easy…there is an easier/better way…it eliminates the need for solder flux, do not need to clean/scrape the area or use rosin core solder.
Use Silver Bearing Solder paste, made by Solder-it Inc. Five times stronger than rosin solder and a lot better conductivity. All You need to do, is put Your wire where You want it, apply a little solder paste and touch iron to where paste is, in about a second the paste bubbles and turns Silver, remove iron and Your done…very easy to use and eliminates the need for three hands:
They also make Aluminum solder paste and Pot Metal solder paste, that is what Atlas metal frogs are made out of.
I scratched built this all Brass sliding chainlink fence gate frame with the silver bearing solder and it was a breeze soldering…had I used the old way with rosin core solder and flux, I more than likely would have learned many more new cuss words…been there, done that! Did not have to waste a lot of time dressing/filing the joints either…there was no need to.
A 50 watt to 60 watt Pencil iron works the best…that’s what I use, but I have an adjustable temp one, built -in to the iron, with changeable tips, made by MUDDER.
I use all flex track on layout…so I lay track first, then solder feeders to side of rails…works best for Me.
Relevance? The OP said that he had seen wires attached post track installation and was asking if they could be attached prior to installation and to the bottom of the rail.
What I thought was relevant was that should that joint fail after the track was installed it would be very difficult to find and repair.
Yeah. I don’t really know how you attach a feeder to the bottom of the rail on a piece of sectional track at all, especially after it has been installed. The only open spot not covered by tie webbing is the part where the joiner goes, so I always solder the feeders onto the bottom of the JOINERS before installing the track permanently. (maybe OP meant the sides of the rails)
Kind of like making my own Atlas feeder joiners but with thicker wire and stouter soldering.
I did most of my feeders that way, and some I did in place. I didn’t solder to the joiners, as they can be the first weak link in the chain. I would just lay the track in place, knowing where bench work obstacles are below, and mark the track where the best place to feed the wires through. I had to relocate a couple of holes, but it worked good.
I did solder a jumper wire between track sections, as I have no problems with thermo expansion and contraction.
Mike.
EDIT: All of my feeder wires are soldered to the outside of the rail, and not the bottom. You can remove what ever ties are in the way, solder where you want to, and after track is laid, replace the ties and secure in place before you ballast. And, yes you can spot them, but they do not stand out that much, hidden with solder, and painted, plus, most of these are in a hidden location.
The EASY thing is to use flex track as much as possible and solder feeders to each section fo flex track. That’s a WHOLE lot less work than solderign every piece of sectional track.
And unless you are totally hopeless, don;t waste money on the ATlas termianl joiners. Buy a pack of joiners, sit down at the workbench, and cut up sections of feeder wire and solder them to the joiners. You can do a full pack of regular joiners for the price of just 1 pair of the premade ones. ANd then use these homemade terminal joienrs for every rail joint - with Atlas turnouts, that measn 3 sets per turnout. I’ve built 2 layouts this way and have never had any power problems, even after painting the rails (yes, paintign right over the rail joiners) and ballasting. And I mean EVERY rail joint - if I had say two turnouts with a 3 inch piece of track between them - BOTH sides of that 3" track got terminal joiners. Where I wanted an insulated gap between sections, I used two short pieces of track. The insulated joienrs went between the two short peices, and there were terminal joiners on the sides that connected to the adjacent pieces fo flex. This is quite bulletproof and all soldering on the track side is done at the workbench, no soldering directly to the rails, so even if you aren’t great at soldering, you won’t be melting ties, you can;t really ruin the joiners soldering wire to them. Just build up a good supply of them so when you get going with track laying you don;t have to stop in the middle to go make more terminal joiners. And don’t reuse joiners. I use fresh ones to make up the ones with wires soldered on. I have a few spares I use to fit tracks together to make cuts and so forth, which fit on easily because they’ve been used several times. When it’s tiem to put the track in place for good, the temp joiners come out and a fresh set of those with wires goes in.
Where do you buy the Solder-It Silver Bearing Solder Paste?
Thanks
Dave
Dave,
I got mine from Micromark somewhat pricer than Mfg. price, but I did not care…I liked the product. I learned that Wal-mart distributes it also…but they order it for You. I have been meaning to contact Solder-It, for a distributor list, but have not got around to it yet, been real busy. Micromark:
Since I got it, a couple months ago…that is all I use now…it is so much easier to use…works great for PC boards. Soldering rail is a piece of cake…one hand holds the soldering iron…other hand can hold a flat blade screw driver with paste and wire against rail…simple.
I have been thinking about this very issue lately as I contemplate the possibility of a new layout.
On my current layout, I soldered feeders to the bottom of rail joiners. That works fine until the rail joiner loosens or glue gets between the rail joiner and the rail. In other words, soldering feeders to the bottom of rail joiners does not work well, at least over the long term.
On my next layout, I have concluded that it makes the most sense to solder feeders to the bottom of the rail. You can also solder feeders to the outside of the rails, but then it is difficult to hide the appearance of the wire ends and the solder. So, soldering feeders to the bottom of the rails seems to be the best option.
That said, the question remains, where do you drill the hole through the surface of the layout to connect the feeders to the bus wires. Do you drop the feeders directly below the rail connection point? That can be problematic if you later have to shift the position of the track. I would prefer to drill the hole just outside the roadbed, but that means running the feeder wires over the surface of the roadbed. Of course, the ballast can later cover the feeder wires, but this may be objectionable to some modelers.
So, my question is, where is the best spot to drill the hole through the surface of the layout to connect the feeders to the bus wires?
