So was curious about flex track. Because your using less rail roiners and longer continuous running track does that mean you can use less feeder wires?
Like if you use conventional length track i read somewere that it is good to supply feeder wires for each section. So with a 36" length of flex track does the same hold true???
One pair of feeders per 3-foot section of flextrack is more than adequate.
Relying on rail joiners for track power is a bad idea with either flex track or sectional track.
Solder a set of feeders on each piece and never worry about it again.
1 per section, but compared to typical 9" sectional track that results in 1/4 as many feeders.
I wire feeders to every joiner (make them yourself, Atlas cost way too much). For longer runs and for curves, I solder 2 sections of flex together, I do not solder every joint nor do I solder any turnouts. But every joiner is a power feed, so a turnout has 3 sets. An hour or so is all it takes to make a dozen or more sets of feeder joiners, I stockpile them so when layoung track I don’t run out.
–Randy
LIONS do not put that many feeders on his layout. He puts feeders about every 15 feet. But then, LION uses welded rail. (Soldered Rail Joiners).
Actually, I have 1000’ of mane lion track, and I have 45 platform edges, that leaves me with a run of about 20’ between stations. Power is applied to the railroad at the mid point between the stations.
The LION uses “automatic train control” and so there are gaps in each station to control the movements of the trains. This is why power must be applied on each end of the station. Express runs do have more than on set of feeds to the track.
Actually on my railroad, the LEFT rail (in the direction of travel) is GROUND. +10.5v dc on the right rail yields a forward motion of the train. (-10v dc would make the train go backwards, but we do not do that, our trains do not go backwards.)
Be that as it may, feeds every 15’ seem sufficient with soldered rail. Your results may be different. I do not use DCC.
ROAR
I am currently soldering every other joint, as well as adding feeders to these joints. I do not solder turnout joints, in case I need to replace said turnout in the future. I can simply slide back the rail joiners, lift out the turnout, and replace it. I also leave a slight gap in every non-soldered joint, to allow for expansion and contraction. So, each 6 foot run has a drop in the middle. I’m using 16 gauge wire as drops. These go to nearby terminal blocks. From the terminal blocks I run wires to the control panel. This makes changes and trouble shooting much easier, not to mention making everything look cleaner and neater.
Brad
Hmmm interesting thoughts here everyone. Thank you very much!!!
I use flextrack and soldered all my rail joiners in place, including those at turnouts. If you need to remove a turnout, it unsolders as easily as it solders in. [swg] I use one pair of wires to power the entire layout, currently about 200’ of mainline. DC wiring made simple. [(-D]
Wayne