I’m planning a 17’ x 12’ HO layout with DCC and was wondering about soldering track. Is soldering jailjoints for structural integrity or for electrical conductivity? If for electrical conductivity, couldn’t you just use 2 power boosters (running DCC) if your layout is not too big? If for structural integrity, wouldn’t gluing or nailing down the track do the trick? All opinions and tips appreciated.
Absolutely not. The only railjoiners I solder are on curved sections of flex track.
Here is a thread from about two weeks ago that dealt with this topic. There are several different people’s opinion both ways on the subject.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=-1&TOPIC_ID=58321&REPLY_ID=652436#652436
Thanx Tex - the thread helped. I like your way of doing it [:)]
I have about 80 pieces of EZ-Track, not one of them soldered. I ballasted it the usual way nearly ten months ago. I have never cleaned my track. I run it most daily. I have had no problems with continuity, even with a short wheel-based Heritage 0-6-0.
If your joiners are stiff to get the rails together, and you don’t allow your rails to bend when heavy locos, or your cleaning arm, pass over them, you will probably enjoy good contact for many months.
However, the old timers will tell you that it’s always a losing game. Over time, you will begin to have failures, and they can only happen in switches or in rail joiners that are not properly soldered. Personally, I won’t hold my breath. In any case, I am about to rip it all up and get some broader curves and a yard into my faulty track plan, and I WILL solder each section of flex track.
Soldering rail joiners in a place where expansion can be an issue (like a layout enclosure where the temperature may range from freezing to 110+) is definitely NOT recommended. Like the prototype, I’ve left a little gap at each joint so the rails won’t buckle come August. (On a couple of staging tracks where that wasn’t done, the perfectly tangent (in April) trackage looked like a doctor’s handwriting four months later.)
If you don’t connect a power drop to each length of rail (a practice which I define as gross overkill) you can solder little omega-shaped jumpers around the joints to assure bulletproof power distribution while still leaving the rails free to slide. I do, a lot of other people don’t.
I might be considered an old-timer, and I sure as heck don’t do that!
I just make sure the rails are clean when I install the rail joiners. Never had a conductivity issue.
I solder a set of feeders every 15 feet so.
Soldering the joiners where a flex-track section ends on or even near a curve is a good idea for both structural and electrical reasons. The flex track will always have some springiness that wants to straighten out, even after the track is glued and ballasted. That sideways force will always be there, and will eventually loosen the joiner, both physically and electrically. Solid trackwork and lots of feeders will help, but soldering the curves, partcularly if you’re using tight-radius turns, is still a good idea.
When I’m putting together something like this, I frequently do some of the soldering on the bench before any of the tracks go down.
I do solder joints on curves, to ensure that the rails don’t kink at the joints. But I don’t do any soldering on straight sections, except to add an occasional pair of feeders. I leave a slight gap (.020", maybe) in straights to allow some space for the rails to expand.
I just solder a few joints.
There has been a lot of discussion about the soldering of rail joiners over the course of the 40 or so years that I have been interested in model railroading. My first layout, 40 years ago, I elected to solder jumper wires around the rail joiners. It worked well but was a tedious job. After an interuption of 20 years or so I got back into modeling again. This time I decided to solder most of the rail joiners and to my chagrin I have had a few problems. The layout is in a 16 x 28 foot room. I do not think the problems are caused by heat expanding the track. I live in a fairly high humidity area(northern MI). I believe the problems are caused by the CHANGE of humidity from the winter to the summer. The expansion and contraction of the wood in the layout is causing the buckling in the track, even tho I am using foam on top of plywood. I personally believe that keeping the humidity level the same is more important than the temperature. That said, I still haven’t worked out exactly how I’m going to do that. It probably will not be feasible for me to completely climatize my layout room, as it is located in an out building that has no water. I don’t feel like hauling water in buckets in order to raise the humidity in the winter. I intend to try and relieve the pressure by cutting some of the joiners at the pressure points and go back to the jumper wires where needed. I am too old to start all over again. I hope this experience is of some use to you.
It boils down to soldered joint = stronger and better conductivity versus unsoldered joint can accommodate expansion (if gaps are left).
In my view, soldered joints are clearly better, and the only reason NOT to solder a joint is the expansion issue.
Mind you, I’m not some ‘chicken little’ who predicts doom if you don’t solder. I’m sure those who run unsoldered joints for years without problem are quite truthful! I simply view it as a “it’s better so why not do it if you can.”
All my layouts have been in fully climate-controlled rooms, so I have typically soldered all my rail joints except turnouts (and about 75% of the turnouts end up with the diverging track soldered to anchor a tangent curve of flextrack coming off it). But I recognize I have that luxury because my layouts are all “inside” the house. If I were in a garage/attic/outbuilding/etc. I’d probably have to be more careful about accommodating expansion…
Boy, this is more complicated than I thought. The reason I asked was because years ago that is what I was told to and did it in my last layout but had to move soon after and never experienced the long term effects. My new train room is in a climate controlled room and my new HVAC can control humidity but it is a sub-level room and therefore still prone to humidity changes. I have experience with soldering (can solder plumbing pipes) so the work is not the issue. I never considered the expansion concept which makes alot of sense. Guess I’ll play it by ear. Thanks everyone for your thoughtful input.
I only solder the rail joints that have feeder wires. Since I run DCC, I have a feeder track every 6 feet or every other piece of flex track. I have to solder the feeder wires anyway so it is no extra work to do it so that the solder connects the rails as well. Since every piece of track has a soldered feeder wire at one end or the other, a loose rail joiner at the other end won’t be an issue.
Having said that, my previous layout was a DC layout and I only ran one feeder to each block and some of the blocks were very long. None of the other joints was soldered. I never had a conductivity problem due to a loose rail joiner. On my current layout, I did encounter one loose rail joiner on a stub track with no feeder beyond it. I did end up soldering that one to fix the problem.
The bottom line is, rail joiners will usually grip both rails tight enough so you won’t lose concuctivity. If you separate and rejoin the sections several times, you might end up with a loose one in which case it is better to use a new joiner. Once your track is down, if you encounter a loose one, it is a simple matter to solder it in place. Soldering every joint seems like wearing a belt and suspenders to me.
In my experience, solder only those joints you are confident are never ever going to change. It is not easy to unsolder. On my learner layout I soldered a lot of the joints, especially on the large curves. On my new layout I’ve soldered nothing, and I think it will stay that way. I will be soldering feeder wires to the track, and those will be at the joints, so I may just end up having my connections all soldered by accident anyway…LOL!
Trevor
The only connectors that I solder is on curves. Then I solder every 3 foot section. I have done much soldering dince a boy, and do not have any issues/dislikes to soldering, so no big deal for me. I want to leave the straight section connectors unsoldered so that there is “some” room for the slight expansion that “may” occur with temp differences in my train room. Is soldering every 3’ section overkill? Some will argue…YES, and I can’t disagree with them, but once again, soldering is no big deal for me, and I want the setup “bullet-proof”.
To solder or not to solder boils down to reducing possible problems caused by expansion/contraction of either the metal track or the wooden frame work. If your layout space is climate controlled, you are automatically reducing but not eliminating the expansion problems. Expansion/contraction problems occur thusly: changes in humidity affect all wood problems and there’s virtually nothing you can do to stop it–it can be reduced, but not eliminated. Changes in temperature will affect expansion/contraction of metal items if the temp change is significant. I like the idea of soldering the flex track curves and installing adequate electrical feeders. The tangent/straight track generally speaking should have some expansion room at the joints. A lot depends on geography: where your space is and is it subject to humidity changes, temperature changes, or both.
I have done it both ways. What I found was more important is to only use a rail joiner once and to be sure there are no burrs from cutting to spring open the joiner when you pu***hem on. Also, you must answer, “is this the last layout I will ever build”? Chances are you will not even get it done before you tear it up and start again with the next “ultimate” plan. Happens all the time to almost every modeler I ever met, so no finger pointing allowed LOL. Soldered track is a PIA. Flex track gets shorter each time, LOL. Sectional track gets thrown away. LOL Turnouts get many hours work trying to save them. I decided its better to just power most every section of track in the middle and forget the rail joint soldering. I’m sure that in some cases soldering makes sence, but I have my doubts that it is really worth the effort anymore. Fred
I would only solder flex track on a curve the rest I would use rail joiners
I happen to have a layout that is currently experiencing some sort of an electrical failure, and I’m pretty sure the problem is a rail joiner that’s not making good contact. I’m planning a new layout (who isn’?), and I’m thinking about either dropping hookup wires from every section soldered directly to the track, or soldering jumpers around each rail jointer to make a good electrical connection and leave the rail joiner as a mechanincal connection unsoldered. Sounds good, but I haven’t tried installing a jumper yet. I’d like to avoid melting plastic parts.
Jim
besides electrical issues think about derailments. if you solder and file the the joint on all curves and stressed areas you will see sooooo many fewer derailments. not to say you cant lay awesome track without the solder but it sure helps.