Has anyone heard of or tried soldering feeder wires to the bottom of rail joiners instead of the rail? When I start to put some track down, I plan on soldering 2 pieces of flex track together, basically making a 6 ft. long piece of flex. Is it possible to then solder the feeders to the bottom of the joiners, which would be every 6 ft. This way, it seems the engine would only be 3 feet away from the nearest feeder at any time.
Thoughts?
Will
The consensus on this commonly-raised idea is that it’s a good concept, but very hard to execute.
The primary issue is that when you solder the tracks together, you send to loosen the feeder affixed to the bottom of the joiner. If you elect not to solder your rail sections together, many will argue you’re defeating the purpose - not to mention you may have some real difficulty forming any curves with flextrack.
Atlas, and perhaps others, actually sell pre-made feeder/joiners exactly as you describe. Those not only raise the same concerns, but the wire used for them is awfully light by most folk’s standards (IIRC it’s like 26 ga stranded. Very, very light).
That’s just my recollection of the last time this came up. Other of the denizens may have more info to offer.
[#ditto] When I successfully used this method on N-scale layouts, I did not solder the track to the joiners, just the feeder to the joiner.
Atlas makes them already, rail joiners with feeders attached. Most costly than making them yourself but it saves on burnt fingers.
Every rail joiner in my layout has a feeder soldered to it like this. I DID solder the track joints between flex track on the curves, plus have the feeder, but all others the track is not soldered. This is where solid wire comes in handy. I have 2-conductor red and white, matches my bus wires. It’s #20 or #22 solid. I also have one of those helping hands things with the two alliugator clips. Clip the joiner in one, wire in the other - no burnt fingers. I strip off a bunch of wire and bend the stripped end 90 degree aheadof time, makes it liek mass production. I solder up a dozen pairs and have them on hand as I lay track. --Randy
I’ve soldered wire to joiners and it has worked out well.
I used stranded wire – maybe 20g, strip no more than 1/4 inch and bend it 90 degrees. Then I take a joiner and slide it on an old piece of track to hold it steady. Apply flux to the joiner and dip the wire in the flux, place the wire in the center of the joiner and then solder it – takes just a few seconds. I don’t worry about melting rails because it is not a piece I will use.
When I use the joiners, both wires are angled to the center of the track and run through a hole I’ve drilled.
Most here solder directly to the rails, but this has worked out well for me.
I hope that helps.
Solder to the track not the joiners. Once you have your 2 pieces soldered together, go roughly to the middle of each section and solder your feeders to the bottom of the rail. This must be done before you install the track. After laying the track, drill a hole and run the feeders through it. Ballast will hide the feeders and you have no unsightly solder joints on the sides of your rails.
Hmm, mixed reviews. I think some may have misunderstood me ( or could have been the way I put it!! )
I wasn’t thinking off soldering two pieces of flextrack AND the joiners at the same place. I would basically have a 6 ft. piece of flex and then solder the feeder wires onto the joiners that go on each end of the 6 ft. section.
This does bring up another question I have. When you guys do solder two pieces of flex end-to-end, do you use two joiners and solder them in place or just butt the two ends of the track and solder them with no joiners.
Do it with joiners in place. This way you’re assured of the rails being aligned.
I attach all my feeders to joiners. I use a piece of scrap track on my workbench, and just slip the joiners loosely on the track. I turn the track upside down, lay the feeder wire across (not along) the joiner, put a small weight on it to hold it in place, and solder. No burnt fingers, as long as I wait long enough before removing the joiners. By having the wires across the joiner, the rest of the feeder then comes out perpendicular to the track and I can put in ties at the joint without interference from the wire. When I solder the rails together with the joiner, I haven’t had any problems with the wire coming loose.
I use red and black for my bus and feeder wires. This makes it so much easier under the table.
nasaracer,
One good piece of advice I read on these forums is to have a soldered connection to every piece of rail. This means it is best to avoid any moveable connections as much as possible. Therefore, is is probably best to solder the feeders directly to the rail in most cases. If you solder the feeder wire to a rail joiner that is free to slide on the rail, you have a chance of a poor connection as the parts loosen and oxidize over the next few years.
Excellent rail alignment is critical to a good running section of track. That means you need to use a rail joiner at every joint. Even then, you may find slight misalignments or burs on rail edges that need to be corrected. Many of us file each and every rail end just slightly, to help smooth the transition.
There are many good opinions on how to lay flex track. One that works well for me is to solder the rail joiners on all rails in straight areas, except leave one joint unsoldered with a gap for expansion, every three sections. I use a business card as a gage for this gap. I alternate sides every three sections for this unsoldered gap joint, so that both rails are somewhat free to move as the sustrate expands and contracts. Then I solder a feeder wire to any convienient point on each section of solidly joined track. This can be under the rail if you wish to completely hide it, or on the unseen side as I do. Soldering the feeder wire to a previously soldered rail joint is not so good, because the rail may pop out of alignment when you re-heat the joint.
I do not solder the joints at turnouts. Doing so makes service or replacement very dificult. Just use new joiners and squeeze them a bit tighter if they seem to fit too loosely. Later you can slide them enought to get the switch out if necessary.
You may want to do a search for soldering track topics. There is a lot of good advice on this forum from some pretty sharp people!.
If you solder your rail joiners than having feeders pre-soldered to joiners isnt the best idea because they could come unsoldered.
If you dont solder your rail joiners but just slip them on, pre-soldered feeders on the joiners would work OK although it still isnt ideal because you are relying on the pressure of the joiner against the rail to give you a good connection.
When I solder two pieces of flex track together for curves, I solder the rails together first, then solder the feeder on the bottom. Do the higher heat joint first, then you can do the lesser one without unsoldering the first.
–Randy
While I do not run DCC, the same principle applies to analog DC, so I’m in the pot here, too.
I do not solder rail joiners, but I do solder jumpers around them. My feeders are then soldered to the jumpers. This gives me bulletproof power distribution. Both jumpers and (short) feeders are #22 solid pretinned wire.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - 1:80 scale, MZL, analog DC)
I know for a fact Walthers (or was it MicroMark) sells these items premade. I just saw it a couple days ago. The feeder wires are attached to the joiners already!
If I find the link, I’ll post it.
**Edit:**Found it!
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/150-553
My 2 cents:
Stagger the flex track joints a few inches (looks better) and solder using joiners but no wires. Slip spacer ties underneath (why you don’t want wires here).
Solder feeder wires directly to the rails somwhere close to the end (slide ties out of the way, solder wires, then slide ties back).
When finished, including ballast, cut expansion joints if needed.