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I have decided that real men solder in N scale; any wimp can solder in HO....lol! Seriously, once you have melted 2 to 4 railroad ties you'll get the hang of soldering. Use the wrecked ties track in the back of your layout. Do a few practise runs before you solder "for real." Here is how I solder to my N track - Peco 55. First I tin my feeder wire (stranded - 22 gauge). Then I make a right angle bend on the one end going onto the track. You will discover after a few soldering that the right angle can be very small (the tip that is soldered). Now dip the tinned and right angled feeder wire into the liquid rosin flux. With a paint bru***hat you know will be destroyed, paint the rail (outside or bottom) with liquid flux. Now put the tinned end of the feeder to the spot to be soldered (where the flux was painted on). Put the iron on top of the rail, but bend it down until the tip touches the wire, pushing it in and against the track. Hold it there until you see the solder from the tinned feeder, flow between the feeder and the rail - about 4 seconds. Then hold wire while removing iron, wait about 8 seconds and continue to hold the wire, then you are done. No need to tin the rail; in fact, tinning the rail can glop up the whole joint and get solder on top of your rail. Also keep filing the head of your soldering iron to keep it nice and silvery, don't use it when it goes dull grey to black. Also when tinning the tip of your iron (add flux first), only put a small amount on. Why? Because when you touch the top of the track, excess solder will go on your track. I use a slightly not tinned enough iron, when I solder track. Once you get this technique down, takes about 15 times, you won't need heat sinks.
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