I received my Super Chief Extra 8 amp in the mail yesterday! I was reading through the manual and it says to wire the rail every 6-8 feet or so. I have no DCC experience. My layout is a double main, 8 x 20 feet loop, no switches as of yet. Is it really necessary to wire it every 6-8 feet or is that over kill?
My railroad, my rules!
Absolutely necessary maybe not, the loco will probably run with one drop, but it is very poor practice. having feeder wires every 6-8 ft insure a strong signal throughout your layout.and increase the reliability of the overall system. Some folks put a feeder on every piece of flex track or every 3 feet to further insure reliability. It is not overkill.
Yes, for reliable DCC operation you need more than one power feed to the track -- preferably at least every 6 feet for flex track with soldered rail joints, or more often if sectional track that is not soldered together.
Good, glad I asked. I would rather do it right the first time to prevent headaches later.
I need to pick up a soldering as well, looks like Weller is the way to go . I am seeing rosin core and silver bearing solder. Is one better to use over another? I am using Atlas code 83 flex track and 22" curves.
You'll find that if you use one power feeder everything will seem to work fine. Over a relatively small period of time you'll start to see your loco's start to jerk and sputter as the rail joiners lose their connectivity.
Installing multiple risers will prevent that and leave your layout running smooth.
Also with an 8 amp system the last thing you want is a short on the other side of the layout with aging joiners. You could easily fry a decoder or weld loco wheels to the track.
Springfield PA
You want 60/40 or 63/37 rosin core solder, silver solder is overkill. The 63/37 is better, as it is less likely to end up with a 'cold' joint if you move slightly before it freezes. Some rosin paste flux is also good to have - do NOT use acid flux like commonly used for plumbing work.
This has to be one of the world's worst web sites, but based on a tip from here I purchased some of this flux: http://www.ccis.com/home/hn/ and it works great. Completely water soluable. You don't need much, it only takes a tiny bit to help make a good joint. I got both paste adn liquid, with the idea of building turnouts so the liquid might flow better under the rail before I soldered it to the tie, but I'll NEVER go through all that I have. A small jar of the paste is PLENTY for a long time. You want the SuperSafe kind for electrical work. They also have a tip tinner which works GREAT.
As for soldering, I've come to love my temperature controlled solderign station. I've never had much trouble soldering, but it's much easier now than I ever figured it could be - all those years of using standard irons I guess I learned how to work around their disadvantages, but the temp controled station is jus that much better. You don;t have to spend a fortune, mine was $50. It's a Xytronic. The difference is that a regular iron keeps heating as long as it's plugged in. The temp controlled type shut off at a set temperature - this promotoes long tip life, and keeps the tip from getting oxidized as quickly which blocks heat transfer and leads to keeping the tip on the joint too long and melting things. The sort of equivalent to the one I got 3 years ago is now about $55 from the same source, model LF-369D. I use this for everything from decoder isntalls to solderign track feeds. The only place I don't is for soldering the feeders to the bus wire, that takes more power and for that I have a 150 watt soldering gun.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Great information, thank you.