Soldering Feeder Wires to Vintage American Flyer Track

[richhotrain]

I have a difficult time soldering feeder wires to the side of the rail on vintage American Flyer track.

What is the best type of solder for this task?  Solid core, rosin core, flux-core solder, lead solder, lead-free solder, hard solder, none of the aforementioned?

I could use some advice.

Thanks.

Rich

[lionelsoni]

Rosin-core 60-40 is (was?) pretty standard for electrical work and should wet your rails pretty easily if they're anywhere close to clean and still have their tin plating.  I suppose it's possible that American Flyer plated with zinc at some time.  If that's the case, you may have to remove a patch of plating and use zinc-chloride (acid) flux on the bare steel.  If you do that, be sure to remove all residual flux afterward.

[Timboy]

Rich:

I use the cut-off wheel on my Dremel to clean a small spot on the side or underneath of the rail.  Then I have absolutely no problem soldering a wire to the rail.  I then use a drop of flat black paint to hide the solder.  I don't think it matters what you use to clean the spot before you solder.  The operative word is clean.  Solder does not stick to dirt or corrosion.  You can use a dab of flux if you want.  I tin the end of the wire first, then tin the spot on the rail, then join them together with my soldering iron.  I keep the tip of the soldering iron clean as well to conduct heat faster and to not possibly contaminate the spot.

Regards,

Timboy

[richhotrain]

lionelsoni

Rosin-core 60-40 is (was?) pretty standard for electrical work and should wet your rails pretty easily if they're anywhere close to clean and still have their tin plating.  I suppose it's possible that American Flyer plated with zinc at some time.  If that's the case, you may have to remove a patch of plating and use zinc-chloride (acid) flux on the bare steel.  If you do that, be sure to remove all residual flux afterward.

Thanks, Bob.

Rosin-core 60-40 solder is what I have been using so I will stick with it.  Sounds like I need to clean the sides of those 62 year old rails.

Rich

 

[richhotrain]

Timboy

Rich:

I use the cut-off wheel on my Dremel to clean a small spot on the side or underneath of the rail.  Then I have absolutely no problem soldering a wire to the rail.  I then use a drop of flat black paint to hide the solder.  I don't think it matters what you use to clean the spot before you solder.  The operative word is clean.  Solder does not stick to dirt or corrosion.  You can use a dab of flux if you want.  I tin the end of the wire first, then tin the spot on the rail, then join them together with my soldering iron.  I keep the tip of the soldering iron clean as well to conduct heat faster and to not possibly contaminate the spot.

Regards,

Timboy

Thanks, Tim.

Duh, I undoubtedly need to clean off the sides of the 62 year old rails.  They have never been cleaned.

I guess that I am too used to working with brand new stuff on my HO scale layout. 

Never even gave a thought to dirt and grime.

Rich

[Timboy]

Rich:

Very understandable.  The Flyer rails are also heavier and require longer contact with the soldering iron to get hot enough for the solder to bond with them.

Regards,

Timboy

[richhotrain]

Timboy

Rich:

Very understandable.  The Flyer rails are also heavier and require longer contact with the soldering iron to get hot enough for the solder to bond with them.

Regards,

Timboy

Once nice thing about those metal ties is that they can stand up to a lot more sustained heat from a soldering iron than the plastic ties on my HO scale flex track - - - LOL

[Timboy]

Rich:

OBTW, Bob had pointed out to us that vintage rails have about the same resistance value as 14 gauge wire and that we would do well to use 14 gauge wire for bus and feeder wires, unless the drop-downs to the bus are very, very short.  I have bought into that persuasion and I use 14 gauge stranded drop-down wires.  Attaching them to the rails can be a bit problematic.  I have a work-around.  I strip off about 3/16" of insulation from the end and separate out about 1/3 of the strands.  I twist those strands tightly around the base of the rest of the strands and tin the whole end.  It is easy then to solder the down-sized bundle of stranded wires on to the rail.

Regards,

Timboy 

[lionelsoni]

That's a very clever shortcut, Tim.  But, even though I solder 14 AWG wire directly to my O27 rails, I still use a short 14 AWG tap to get below the table, where I connect it to the main feeder with a wire nut.  This is just to be able to remove the track when I need to, without undoing the solder joint.

Actually, I estimated the track resistance as equivalent to 16 AWG; but it's such an inexact thing that I wouldn't quibble with 14 AWG.  If we do assume 16 AWG for the track, then the combination of 16 AWG track and 14 AWG feeder is about the same as 12 AWG, or about a 60-percent reduction in resistance.

[Timboy]

Bob:

Thanks!  I invented that technique on-the-fly when I decided to use 14 gauge drop-down wires.  I quickly discovered on my first effort that it was a bit hard to bend the stranded wire and solder it exquisitely onto the sides of the rails (at least for me it was).  Is that the first time you ever saw the word "exquisite" and the word "solder" used in the same sentence?  My first thought was to use a short 18 gauge connector wire.  But then it occurred to me to convert the very end of the 14 gauge wire to about 18 gauge and that worked very nicely.  I was hoping I wouldn't create a "hot spot" on that extremely short stub.  Since the whole bundle was tinned, I reasoned that it would be okay - or no worse than using a short 18 gauge connector wire.  OBTW, I remove, shine and re-insert all track pins in an effort to promote good conductivity from track section to track section.  I have decided not to solder all track sections together.  Instead, I do what I said above and use drop-downs every 3 feet or so.  My thinking is that track voltage is supplied to any given 3-foot section from both ends, which statistically reduces the likeliness of any single track section within that power section being dead due to a bad track-to-track mechanical connection.  Does that even make any kind of sense?

Regards,

Timboy, The Over-Thinker

[lonewoof]

I use the rotary wire brush with my Dremel to remove dirt, paint and oxide before soldering. Just a quick hit leaves the surface clean and shiny and ready for solder. ALWAYS use rosin flux!

 

/Lone