Sorry for my ignorance but I created a Kato track layout with three feeder tracks and 4 wired unijoiners. Do I connect all of these wires together under the platform and then connect them to my DCC. I have also heard a lot about soldering and using conenctors. Does it really matter. All help is appreciated. Realize this is basic to many of you but new for me. Thanks
JNR ... Do I connect all of these wires together under the platform and then connect them to my DCC. ..
... Do I connect all of these wires together under the platform and then connect them to my DCC. ..
Sounds good to me. The key is to ensure the feeders are all oriented left to left rail and right to right rail when you join them..otherwise things will get hot....fast. But, yes, the idea is to join all of a kind together and then have them fed directly from the appropriate post on your new DCC base station terminals.
JNR I have also heard a lot about soldering and using conenctors. Does it really matter. All help is appreciated. Realize this is basic to many of you but new for me. Thanks
I have also heard a lot about soldering and using conenctors. Does it really matter. All help is appreciated. Realize this is basic to many of you but new for me. Thanks
It has been the experience of a vast majority of scale modelers that the joiners don't do what we want them to do for long in at least one respect...continuity...or passage of electrons. They do a great job of keeping the rail ends in alignment, but they do tend to get crud and oxidation between them and the rail feet, and over time you will begin to experience intermittent performance...you engines will pause, slow, or halt unexpectedly. Sometimes this is due to splayed or mechanically weakened joiners that have not been supported well on properly planar roadbed. As an engine passes overhead, the joint is allowed to sag.
But most often it is oxidation or bits of paint and ballast that get in there, even glue from the ballasting process if you ballast. So, to keep the surface doing its bets inside the joiner, fill it. Fill it with solder at the outset and you will never have problems. If you also solder a feeder wire to every other joiner, you'll have maximum voltage to all the rails on either side of it.
One caution. If you are a bit unsure of your track layout, and if you think you may need to re-align your rails in some places after experimenting with what you have, soldering would best be left until you are absolutely convinced you have the best alignment throughout your layout. It is a bit of a bother to cleanly undo solders, although skilled persons have no problem with the right equipment.
Crandell
Welcome to the forums!
While Crandell's comments are right on for almost all track situations, I'm not sure about how Kato handles electrical continuity between sections. If by regular rail joiners, don't rely on them for electrical continuity. OTOH, if there's an auxiliary contact pad (like that in Bachmann E-Z Track) you might have a solid connection without needing to solder.
If soldering is new to you, practice with some pieces of wire or junk track before putting a hot soldering tool anywhere near your good Unitrak pieces. Just enter soldering in the search block for a lot of good reading about tools and methods.
Slightly , but you have my curiosiy aroused. Do you, as your screen name suggests, run Japanese prototype rolling stock on your Japanese-made track? Or didn't you realize that JNR can be interpreted as pre-privatization Nihon Kokutetsu?
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - mostly JNR, with privately-owned feeders)
Basically you hook all of the joiners together and then to the controller. Better yet if you have a BUS wire connect them to that and the bus to the controller. If you want to save some potential headache hook one set of feeders up at a time and test. That way if one is reversed polarity you'll know right away.
Springfield PA