I have need to desolder a considerable quantity of wires and rail joiners from HO Scale track. What style of soldering iron do you recommend? Or is there some other little secret to this?
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Hi Engine_1988,
I’ve been doing a lot of Track mods myself recently, as well as down through all the years. Here are some options.
Lightly nipping the Rail-joiners with ‘Xuron’ rail-cutters right on the joint is usually enough to break or snap the joint.
The Joiner remnants can then be ‘flicked-away’ with a hot iron, one at a time. I always use an Aluminium ‘Tracksetta’ between the Rails if possible, to act as a Heatsink to protect the plastic Crossties.
Excess Solder can be removed with a hot Iron and a ‘Solder Sucker’, basic or electric.
Both of these items are available from local stores or Amazon etc.
Wire can be removed using a hot iron and Solder-sucker. I use Heatsinks wherever possible.
Hope this helps, Paul.
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Most of the track is not going to be saved, just valuable track like turnouts and so forth. I’ve been cutting it in the regular sections just past the turnout.
So, in short, your recommendation is moreso to use a heatsink and a solder sucker than to focus on the type of soldering iron used?
Thanks!
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Desoldering wick.
Use any old soldering iron you want (above 35 W. at least). The wick is impregnated with flux so it draws the solder away from the joint.
Regards, Ed
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I have used desoldering wick myself, and it works great.
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I’ll try that also–I have some on hand.
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The advantage of braid (either fluxed or dry) is that it can be laid adjacent to the joint so it can act nearly immediately when the solder liquefies. So however you apply heat to the top of the rail over the joint, a minimum of that heat will transfer to where the ties are.
The thing that used to be recommended for this sort of heavy desoldering was a stained-glass foiling iron, something modelers probably don’t have and wouldn’t want to invest in. This is custom-designed to heat thin copper foil and ‘structural’ solder quickly without cracking the (often fragile!) glass pieces. Lay it firmly against the joint railhead with braid on either side, and remove it as soon as the joint loosens enough to pull apart.
I think this would be a near-ideal place to use the reflow gun from an electronics soldering station. Use metal stock as a ‘heat sink’ to protect the ties while applying the hot air to the joint with braid.
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I see. This is definitely along the lines of what I was thinking also.
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In my experience, if you use a higher wattage soldering iron, say 100 watts, a brief touch will heat and soften the solder enough to quickly separate the joined rails.
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If only my soldering gun was working…
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That could be a problem. 
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Yeah. My cheap soldering iron still works, though.
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I have several different types of soldering irons, but the one that I use to desolder track is an old 100 watt Radio Shack soldering gun like the one pictured below.
You can buy a used one on eBay fairly inexpensively.
What I like about the soldering gun, as opposed to a soldering iron, is that the heating surface is a broad, rounded end that heats up immediately and very quickly softens the solder, permitting the soldered tracks to be separated quickly without melting the plastic ties.
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I do like the shape of the heated end of the Radio Shack soldering gun.
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I can see that–the original tip on mine was more like it, but the new tip you see in the picture was made from a copper washer. No, I’m not joking. I ought to get a new tip for the thing. The washer tip broke after I dropped the darn soldering gun.
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I would vote for the wick too. I have had better luck with that then solder suckers. I made a tip for my soldering gun with a scrap few inches of 14 gauge copper ground wire. Been working great for some time now.
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Sure!
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there’s no need for a solder-sucker or wick when trying to disconnect the tracks. isn’t the problem being able to unsolder both rails.
assuming this is flex track, heat the rail joiner on the rail that can be moved first, pull it out of the rail joiner then unsolder the other rail joiner.
i think a 40W iron should be more than adequate.
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I agree with your method of heating the rail joiner.
The reason thatI prefer my 100 watt soldering gun is that it heats up immediately upon pressing the trigger, and the wide heating surface very quickly liquifies the solder.
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