Instead of buying the expensive Fastrack connecting wires, can I just solder wire to the metal tabs on the underside to power my layout? In other words, if I’m careful, can it handle the heat?
Thanks,
Dan
40-45 watt iron should do fine.
Sure, but why not just go to Radio Shack and get the female connectors?
X2
didn’t know Radio Shack had the connectors…you guys are awesome. Thank you for the suggestion.
dan
DAN,
Did my two loops of fastrack with solder every 4 feet no problems in over a year.
laz57
Numer 18 connectors.
A bunch for a couple bucks. Radio Shack, Ace Hardware, etc.
Right on. Lowes here even has narrow bladed ones. I have soldered long sections of my Realtrax. I used a high wattage gun, “load” tip and you touch it and move it away. Copper tabs soldered together with no plastic melting.
Can I assume #18 connectors work only on #18 gauge wire and…is 18 gauge the best choice for wiring a small layout?
How small? I rather use 14 gauge. Some use 16. I use the blue connectors and 14. I used the blue narrow flanged connectors to wire all my Realtrax switches to Aux power. The red ones with narrow flanges for the smaller controler wires. For the mainlines and sidings, I used the blue connectors with 14 gauge wire.
You can squeeze 16 gauge in too. I would go 16 gauge feeders to 12 gauge mainline back to the transformer. Some would even recommend 10 gauge mainline…
Since the track itself is the rough equivalent of 16 AWG, 18 AWG feeders can’t be expected to help much unless the track joints are pretty bad. I recommend 14, 12, or 10 AWG.
I have a ton of 14 gauge wire I got for just about free and would love to use it. The #18 connectors work on them or #14?
PS Layout 5x6
You can use somewhat smaller wire for the last few inches without any problem. Here’s a resistance table:
AWG resistance, ohms per foot
10 .001
12 .0016
14 .0025
16 .004
18 .0063
20 .01
You can see that 6 inches of 18 AWG is equivalent to 2 feet of 12 AWG; so a 6-inch 18-AWG tap at the end of, say, a 20-foot 12-AWG feeder is a negligible increase in resistance and voltage drop.
One might consider soldering short light-gauge wires to the bottom of the track, then poking these through holes in the table and splicing them to heavy-gauge wire with wire nuts under the table. This way the soldering can be done on the bench; and the track can easily be disconnected and reconnected for repair.
| Two good resources for beginning FasTrack users are the book “The Lionel FasTrack Book” by Robert S. Schleicher (available at book stores, some hobby shops, Amazon.com, etc.) and TM Books & Video’s DVD, “Building an O Gauge Layout - Beginner & Advanced”. |
|---|
Both are excellent, but there are a few cases in the book where the track plans need a few small joiner sections to make them operate correctly.
The DVD shows a lot of ways to make connections under the track, isolate rails, etc.
Well I prefer OO gauge wire feeders placed every 3 inches for my 8 foot oval, but the lugs on the Fastrac are made for #18 connectors.[8D]
How about a continuous feeder? I have wondered whether one could thread a bare 12 AWG wire down the inside of a tubular-track railhead. Track pins would be unnecessary; but repairs and modifications would be somewhat difficult…
Track has no problems with heat. I used a 33watt ungar soldering iron(about 800 degree tip temp).
Solder just like this. I found it easier to solder to the tabs that hold the rails to the bed. Just tin the wires and tabs before you solder the wires to the tabs.
I don’t know about anyone else…
[soapbox] It torques me to have to spend $25 to figure out how to use someone’s product.
Kurt
kpolak,
Kurt wrote:
It torques me to have to spend $25 to figure out how to use someone’s product.
Good point, but I think each specialized piece of FasTrack comes with an Owner’s Manual. In any event, you can always go to
—> Customer Service —> Owner’s Manuals and key fastrack into the search box. They’re free for the viewing and can be printed out.
There’s is also a useful forum devoted more-or-less exclusively to FasTrack. To access it you have to sign up, but it’s free and the amount of information there is amazing. For more info try:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lionel_FasTrack_System/
One reminder: the early Lionel CW80 transformers do not work well with many FasTrack pieces and accessories unless you wire them up “backwards” with the orange posts as “common.” This design defect seems to be reflected in some of the manuals which say (or at one time said) you just can’t do something that you want to. Not necessarily so, but the “workaround” (which has been discussed to death on the forums) reverses the bell and horn/whistle control buttons. The newer revised CW80 models should work just fine with Lionel equipment as well as some but not all of other manufacturers’ equipment.