Question about Unitrack joint smoothness / soldering directly to Unitrack / Scenery in stages ?

[Anonymous]

Since we moved, my layout is in three pieces and will not be put up all together for a few months until the basements ready. Right now it's in the Pink Foam and woodland scenic riser stage, no scenery, "N" gauge. I'm going nuts because I have the time to work on it, but I don't have control over when the basement will be ready.

Question one: When I run my fingertips over the joints not all are smooth in both directions but trains ran well before I moved. Should I drive myself nuts trying to get them all totally vertically aligned ? And if I do what's the best way to accompli***his ?

2nd. I figure now is a good time to drop extra power drops. All my drops so far are from Kato wired joiners, but most of my track is fastened down so I'd rather not pull up track to add power drops. What is a good wattage and method to solder wire directly to the rails of Unitrack ? Inside or outside rails ? Wire Gauge ?

3rd Question. Like I said my layout is currently in 3 pieces. I figured I can continue to whine that the basement isn't ready, or I can work on the individual sections. Each is approximately 24" wide x 5' long. (2) are ends with 33" dogbone returns, (1) is the corner section about 5' x 24" x 5' again. If I start doing scenery with Cardboard strips, hydrocal soaked paper towels, or Plaster soaked strips of Gauze, and paint and ballast the track, will I be able to then move each section back down to the basement ( 2 stories ) without worrying about scenery cracking ? How tough is this stuff after it sets ? Will it make it considerably heavier ? Right now I can move each section by myself. It may be better this way because I can put each section on a table and be able to walk all aorund it. Not something I'll be able to do when it is mounted on the wall.

Thanks in advance for any feedback,

Dave

[Medina1128]

Ok, let's take your questions in order, shall we?
1. By all means, DO make sure your track is aligned. It will save you countless hours of grief down the road. A couple of suggestions, and you'll need an extra set of hands for this. I'm assuming that you have some kind of solid framework under each section. Have a friend help you align the railtops, and clamp them into place when they're aligned. You can screw the sections together when they are. Or, better yet, drill holes through the framework and install dowels to aid in alignment, then screw them together. This will make re-alignment and attaching easier, should you move again.

2. I use a 25 watt soldering iron to attach feeder wires to my rails. Get a piece of spare track and practice on this until you're comfortable. BY ALL MEANS, SOLDER TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE RAIL. This way, you won't have to try to clean the solder from inside the rails to keep your trains from hitting the bump in the rails. Make sure you clean the rails before soldering your feeders. Then "tin" the wire AND the rail. Tinning is a process where you apply a small surface amount of solder. This aids in the flow of the solder, making a stronger joint. If you have a plumber friend or someone who knows how to solder, have them show you. PS Don't let the plumber friend near your layout with a MAP gas torch.

3. I would wait to work on the scenery until the basement is done. Try putting together and detailing some buildings. I have about 4 ready to install onto the layout when I get to that phase. I've been working on one building for about 4 days now. Or you could scenic an area on a section that will be completely within that section. That is, don't scenic something that will cross from section to section, as it will surely get messed up when joining the sections.

Well, I hope that helps you out. I'm sure some others will have links to how-to-solder, join sections, etc. that will help even more. Happy railroading!! And feel free to email...

[Anonymous]

1) Yes. Drive yourself nuts. It needs to be smooth and flat in each direction. Sometimes, Unitrack ( I use HO), rail joiners do not engage the track properly, and "go under" the rail instead of going around it. Use a magnifying glass if you have to.

2) I plan to just buy more feeder track. It'll cost more, but it's prewired to the track. With the built in roadbed, i just think soldering track feeders would cause too much damage. That track's too expensive to go drilling holes in it and cutting ties out. Just my opinion. If you decide to add wire, instead of using more feeder track, I would just compare the wire that's already on the pre existing feeder track, and use the same diameter. Since the flange is on the inside of the rails, I'd solder to the bottom of the rails. The wires would be more exposed to view if you solder them to the outside.

3) I don't know about any of your scenery questions, as I have not done any yet. It's been more than twenty years since I've done any scenery. It's my experience though, that plaster is not very forgiving when moving around a lot. I might be wrong. I think plaster is heavy in relation to say, sculpt a mold. Once again, I might be incorrect on this. Maybe one of our more experienced modelers in this area can help.

4) Lastly, might I make a suggestion? It sounds like each piece (2'x5' ), is pretty sizeable for N scale. If you can, why not make one section so that you can run trains on it while you work on the other two? At least this way, you'll be running trains, and will be more likely to want to keep expanding, and less likely to lose interest, all while staying motivated. Just a thought. Sounds like you have a good plan. Sometimes I wish I had gone to N scale.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies. The differences are small, but can be felt with a fingertip. Before I moved all was good. I could run a 13 car train for 2 hours un-attended. come back in the room and all was well. If by shimming, or other means I can't get a perfect joint, is it OK to ever so carefully file ? Thanks, Dave

[cuyama]

I see you alreaqdy posted this to the Kato Unitrack yahoo group and are getting responses there as well. There has been good info posted in the files and archives there on attaching Unitrack and soldering feeders to Unitrack.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KatoUnitrack