Lionel tubular track soldering

[Anonymous]

I am building a u shaped layout and I want to have good solid electrical connection. I am using some new and some used tubular track. Do I solder the tracks together and then run bus lines every so often? I have tried jumpers soldered between sections before, but I want to do this right this time. So any ideas are welcome. I have to use tubular do to cost. I have a lot tubular track to use and I want the old fashion look.

[Back2Trains]

If your track is rust free and the pins are clean you shouldn't need anything except power feeds every few sections. If you do solder the track you will have no problem as long as it is clean. If necessary use a wire brush in a Dremel tool or 220 grit sandpaper to clean the rail ends. You should not need any jumper wires between sections if the gaps are small. If you use a good iron or solder gun which will heat the rails well the solder can be made to bridge a small gap. Be sure to heat the ends of both rails at the same time until the solder flows. I use standard 60-40 rosin core solder which I buy for electronic repair. You don't need any kind of flux, other than what is contained in the solder.

[Anonymous]

If you dont plan on dissassembling you can just solder across the pins. The 100watt/140watt Weller works well. For extra strenth you can strip some 22 gauge stranded wire,cut it to about a half inch long and solder it to the side of the rail. Heat the track before applying the solder, If you solder all the joints a jumper every 20 feet is probably sufficient.

Dale Hz

[Anonymous]

I would not solder ever joint if you can clean the pins and track. When i did I found soldered joints broke often so I did waht Dale suggested and added a wire to each side.

Charlie

[lionelsoni]

I solder O27-profile track that is firmly attached to the table without jumpers nor pins and have had no trouble with joint breakage. I flow solder into the railheads and also make beads on the flanges on each side.

I started doing this not to improve the connections but to be able to remove individual sections without having to rip up long stretches of track.

I think you will find that, with soldered joints, you can operate a single-block loop of perhaps 50 feet in periphery without feeders, as I did before I recently decided to split it in two. There are several favorable conditions that can help you. First, the farthest point on a 50-foot loop is only half that distance, 25 feet, away from the transformer. Furthermore, it is feed from both ends; so the track resistance is only one-fourth what it would be for a simple 50-foot ttrack. Then the outside rails provide less resistance anyway since there are two of them and their frequent cross connections through the ties greatly reduce the effect of any high-resistance joint that may remain. Their resistance is truly negligible if you make cross connections between tracks where they are close or have them already built into your track plan, as crossovers, for example.

[marxalot]

Since this topic has arisen I'll ask one of the many questions I've been holding in reserve! Knowing that probably more heat is better than less heat when making a solder joint, just what wattage iron do you recommend for tube and/or Gargraves track? I've got a 25 watt unit. Thanks.

Jim

[ben10ben]

I wouldn't use anything less than a 100 watts for soldering track; 25 will never get you anywhere. I have a 100 watt gun which cost me $13 from Radio Shack, and their are plenty of more powerful ones available. Something as high as 250 watts would probably be okay.

[fwright]

Soldering is too much work because of desoldering for changes. Put in feeders every 6-10 track sections or so. I simply insert the feeder - tinned stranded or solid wire - directly into the rail through the slot on the bottom side of the track, using a screwdriver to open/pu***he wire in. Makes a secure connection (better than a lockon) that can be easily taken apart when I change my track arrangement. One of the less understood advantages of tubular track in my opinion.

yours in wiring
Fred

[daan]

DO NOT SOLDER THE TRACK TOGETHER!! (sorry for shouting) Temperature changes will cause the track to bend in any direction and you can't use the layout anymore. Also the constant bending (slight, but it is there) of the tracks when a train passes by causes metal fatique and will soon get your solder joints cracked. Make a big feeder line under the layout and feed sections of approx. 3ft at a time, that will be fine. Do not pu***he tracks entirely together, leave a mm between the joint of the rails, so it has space to move when temperatures rise.
I'm serious with this, since I've had a few nasty trackproblems related to soldered joints and temperature changes.

[lionelsoni]

As I said above:

Daan, "I solder O27-profile track that is firmly attached to the table without jumpers nor pins and have had no trouble with joint breakage. I flow solder into the railheads and also make beads on the flanges on each side."

Fred, "I started doing this not to improve the connections but to be able to remove individual sections without having to rip up long stretches of track."

[daan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lionelsoni

As I said above:

Daan, "I solder O27-profile track that is firmly attached to the table without jumpers nor pins and have had no trouble with joint breakage. I flow solder into the railheads and also make beads on the flanges on each side."

Wait until the summer comes and temperatures in attics raise.. I'm not trying to convince my view, but I've seen track displacement of over 10cm (4 inch) with h0 copper tracks. I made 20ft of copper tracks to one big loop by soldering the joints in winter, and during summer the tracks where that much bent and out of place that I couldn't run anything on it anymore. I guess it's less with tubular, since copper has a higher degree of lengthening with higher temps, but you better be safe then sorry I guess.
(but my attic was extreme, +/- 40 degrees between winter and summer temps..)