Currently building my absolute “last” layout, and I want to do it as hassle-free as possible. Benchwork complete, roadbed down, track temporarily pinned in place. Is there a general consensus on how to proceed next? Namely, do I glue or spike down my track permanently, and then go back and run my feeder wires, or is it easier to run the feeder wires before you permanently attach the track. The same question could be asked about soldering the rail joints…as you go along, or after the track is all laid down? Thanks for any help you can give me.
You know, I’m laying track right now and aside from a few pieces of sectional track, I’m not even soldering it!
Make sure all your rail joiners are new. Don’ t re-use any old ones. It’s okay to re-use track if it’s in good enough condition, but only use new rail joiners (they’re the least expensive component of your trackage anyway). New rail joiners will have a tighter fit and have gone through basically no wear and tear.
Instead of soldering the rail joiners to the track, solder your feeder wires to the rail joiners. There’s a couple ways you can accomplish this:
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Drill holes beneath the joiners and solder them to the underside of the joiner
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Pre-solder wires to several joiners before you attach them to the track and drill holes adjacent to the track/roadbed.
You can always paint the wires a dark color or a color to camouflage against the ballast.
I personally have the feeder-soldered joiners on every other joint. That way, each rail is getting juice/signal from at least one end.
If you have sectional track, consider soldering a number of them together to form a longer piece of sectional track, and attach the feeder-soldered joiners to one end of them. That way you don’t have to have too many feeders yet still have adequate power/signal coverage.
Glue or stick the track down and test it with a few cars and then solder feeders to the rails. Thats the way I do it. Never rely on the rail joiners for contact. After time they loosen up and become something to chase later.
Pete
My preference is to solder rail joints in cuves as you’re laying the track, and to solder them with the last few inches of the previous curved section still straight. This will result in a smoother curve through the joint. See my article on page 78 of our recent special issue, “How To Build Realistic Reliable Track.”
I don’t solder joints in straight track, and leave a gap the width of an NMRA gauge to allow for rail movement.
I solder feeders after the track is laid, but before painting and ballasting it. The same special issue shows my preferred method for attaching feeders, figs. 3 and 4 on page 43, and I connect a feeder to every length of rail whether the rail joits are soldered or not.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Andy
On my layout I layed out track and used thumb tacks to hold in place, ran test cars, once satisfied I then attached feeders. I did it this way just in case I had to make any changes to the track placements which would affect the feeders. Hope this helps.
Gary
I have recently been installing a double track main line and decided to try something a little different well for me anyway. I have always spiked down the track temporarily made sure ever thing was just so then marked the outside of the tie edges with a sharpie and layed down a bead of yellow carpenters glue re-install the spikes and in some cases added weights to help hold the track in place. the next day remove the weights and solder in drops every 6’to8’ give or take. then the rest of the detail stuff, painting weathering, ballasting etc. Like Andy I choose not to solder straight sections of rail so to leave a little room for expansion and contraction. On the new D/T Main I decided to take Tony Koester up on his advice mentioned in Realistic, Reliable, Track and glue the track in place using silicone adhesive caulking. So far I am very happy with the method with a few minor exceptions that are really of no consequence. A: if your using a flex track like Micro Engineering which holds it’s shape once it’s bent then it makes your life much easier and doing the job alone is fairly simple.However if you use Atlas flex track or maybe even Walthers Shinohara I am not totally sure of the later but it holds it shape about as well as well done spaghetti so when you solder tow lengths together you have a snake on your hands. A much easier task when you have a friend helping you. That being said simply lay down a bead of clear silicone adhesive caulking (no need to buy the expensive DAP brand the less expensive stuff works just as well) spread it down nice and flat with a 1" putting knife and just push the track down on top of it and either use push pins, spikes or a few weights and with in 30 min. or so the stuff is there to stay. If you need to remove it just take the putty knife and carefully start atone end and slowly work your way down the track lifting it up.
It’s really amazing how well it works, how cheap it is and clean up isn’t all that bad either. As a general rule I only like to solder eve
I would be a little concerned using silicone vs. latex: my experience with silicone caulking in non-model rr applications is that it is more difficult to remove (and it stinks). Have you actually removed, cleaned and reinstalled any track installed using silicone?
Absolutely, without any ill effects. I know where your coming from regarding automotive type silicone having almost 40 years in the biz but I believe the stuff sold in the home centers is slightly different in as it is almost liquidity when it comes out and is 100% clear as opposed to that translucent look you get with clear RTV.
I’m sure like anything else the longer it sits the harder it will be to take up of course and this stuff has zero odor. I experimented with a couple of pieces of old flex track before laying down the good stuff.
FYI the stuff I used is DAP3.0 Advanced Kitchen & Bath Adhesive Caulk it has a 3 min. set up time.
Thanks for the help, guys. I’ll try the different suggestions to see which ones works best for me.
I, too, solder the rail joiners to feeder wires [like the Atlas ready-made wires] and install them before I fasten the track down. But I don’t glue the track in place until the ballast is laid – it holds the track in place. I pull the track nails after the ballast dries. The advantage is that when I decide a new layout is called for, I can salvage 95% of the track. Quite a bit of my present layout’s track is in its third life.
me personally i lay the corkroad bed along the lines i have drawn on the table top. then lay and nail track down with track nails. i roll a amtrak superliner on the newly laid track. if rolls without any problems and doesnt look to bad i will then go ahead solder all feeders to the track where needed and thats every 2 track pieces or every 2 pieces of flextrack. i dont solder every track joint because of track expansion but i do solder all joints around the curves as it helps keep the track from having kinks in it. just my experience with laying track and soldering. i got all these ideas from guys here on the forum. if it wasnt for their advice i dont know how far i would have gotten without it. i probably would have gave up on the hobby. but either way you put it. it is a timely manner take your time and do it right the first time that way you will be satisfied with your work and you will be running trains with little to know problems. and i have found it to be alot heaper to go to home depot/radio shack/ lowes and buy you a couple of the spools of 22gauge wire and make your on feeder wires and solder them to the track. i started using ther atlas feeders but ran out. thought of idea of making my own so headed to home depot picked up a couple spools for $12 for both spools and have been happy with the decision since making it. i can use the extra money that i would have spent on the premade from atlas on anythingelse i might need/want for the layout like track, locomotives, rollingstock, and kits. im not downing the premade but if you are trying to save and the job will be done just as nice why not make your own and have extra for your trainworld.