Hi, I’m new to model railroading. I’m building Atlas HO-19 Narrow switching for tight places. My wife and I want to build this, Well she wants to help she says. I will be going to dcc. I want to nail down the track and solder the joints and solder wires to them. My question is. Is it better to solder all joints or every other joint, And do I run feeder wire every other as well. One more question, About bus wire how do I run this or do I need to. What is a good solder and flux to use.
You run the buss wires under the layout and attach feeders to it from the rails… For a plan like that one though you probably don’t need to bother. I Would solder every joint though to keep dirt and oxidation from causing problems…
Good luck
Jeff
HI, Larry. You need not solder every joint, but many of the fellows here will tell you that they have far fewer problems when they do. Apparently, the joiners fail over time.
A good rule of thumb by the great gurus here is that if you are going to go to the trouble of soldering your joins, you might as well put a feed to them at the same time.
Your bus is simply a main artery for power. It runs more or less parallel to your track, under the layout, and should be as short as you can make it. 12-14 gauge wire is best for most applications, but keep the length down, certainly not more than about 40-50’. Your feeder wires rise off the bus at intervals that are reasonable for you, and they too should be as short as you can get away with. The less wire, the less voltage drop…period.
Go to your hardware store and purchase a spool of non-acid flux core solder. A ratio of 40 flux and 60 solder is just fine, and readily available. Some very capable modelers will tell you that they routinely use acid flux because it does a better job of making the contact robust. They clean up carefully to eliminate the acid flux.
I hope that helps.
A slightly modified version of this layout (22" instead of 18" curves) just happens to be the one I built in three sections as a portable that I take to shows like GATS. I didn’t solder any of the joints. I have one feeder from the bus for each of the three sections, one feeder for the reversing part of the wye, and a couple feeders for dead spots. The only reason I have a bus is because it is modular and has to pass power to the modules that get connected on either side of it. If I was making it stand alone I wouldn’t have bothered with a bus at all. Maybe just one feeder on each end (well, and the wye). It just isn’t big enough.
My layout gets banged around a lot being transported, set up, taken down, and stored all the time. I have never had any electrical problems. I believe soldering all the joints is just a way to make up for poorly laid track.
Thanks alot everybody, That help me.