Is that solid core wire or stranded?
But how do you solder the green feeder to the far side of the rail when the track is close to scenery and you can’t see what you’re doing?
Cody mentioned using 22 gauge feeders and a 12 gauge bus. He also mentioned using 18 gauge wire. Can you explain the need for the 18 gauge wire? … and how it is installed.
When drilling feeder holes I had a hard time keeping the drill from hitting the track. I found a faucet washer that was about one eighth thick and five eighth’s in dia. and ran it down to the bottom of the drill bit,then it didn’t make any difference if I hit the track or not, there was no mark or damage.
I’ve successfully used Atlas turnouts with Hex Frog Juicers to power the frogs on my DCC layout. They work like a charm, are easy as pie to wire up, and there’s no dead frogs to worry about.
Explanation on the video is excellent and I certainly appreciate the comment on why Peco insofrog turnouts were used.
I enjoyed the soldering part, however I would of really liked to see how you did the far rail. That is always the hardest to do. I was hoping to see you do that part but, I was disappointed when it did not happen.
I can speak from experience about being careful when drilling feeder holes. One time the chuck teeth on my drill came in contact with the Atlas Code 83 flex track I was working on and, WHACK, before I knew it 18" of rail was wrapped around the drill’s chuck. @#"%?! in spades.
I recommend cleaning up the soldered feeders with denatured alcohol before running anything. This gets any sticky rosin flux of the railheads, where it can be picked up by wheels and catch all sorts of dirt.
Andy
Great job on explaining your solder work Cody. As I am prepearing to build my first N-Scale layout, I am going to solder me feeder on the back side from viewing of each rail so that there would be less visiblilty of seeing the joint. This might be a little overboard, but I see so many of the solder joints on layouts that are very obvious.
It looks like just the tip of the wire is soldered to the web of the rail. Is this enough? Is that type of joint secure? I would think it would eventually fatigue and break off.
In the past MR has always taught to include one more 90 degree bend to put a short length of the wire parallel to the rail web to make the final joint.
If this works, it puts a lot less heat into the rail and ties.
Hi MRR, I would of liked to see How you finished the track wiring as pertaining to the DCC switch track, terminal strip and frog install, there may be some great tips that we use and can Help us in future layouts. Thanks
Another enjoyable episode and Model Railroader continues to be a great publication.
I like the way things are explained
Believe it or not, I use a gun on my N-scale code 55 rail for feeders. Used a low wattage iron and, because of the low wattage, melted a lot of ties. With the gun, cleaned rail, flux and .035 inch solder, it’s quick (just a tap) and almost invisible.
Nice pre-intro.
Others might disagree, but I would say you should use a minimum twenty watt and maximum forty watt iron for soldering feeders to track. Anything less then twenty watts and you’ll start melting ties before the rail gets hot enough to melt the solder. More then forty watts and the rail gets too hot too fast and you start melting ties. I’m right in the middle. I use a thirty watt iron.
THE ABOVE LETTER SHOULD HAVE MENTIONED “O SCALE”
YOU CAN USE A HEAT SINK TO AVOID MELTING THE TIES,WHICH WLL DISPERSE THE HEAT.LIKE THE IDEA OF THAT TYPE FROG…BUT I AM IN 2 RAIL SCALE ,NO INSULATED FROGS. NICE LAYOUT.
Very great information for me ! I am in the prosess of redoinng and enlarging my layout. And I have just started the wireing. Thank you Otto, Ludington, Mich.