You left out one.
Put the beer down in a safe place!
BroadwayLion You must see by now that soldering is second nature to model railroaders. There are a few tips from the LION that are not in the soldering books: 1) ADJUST eyeglasses BEFORE picking up soldering iron. 2) ALWAYS LOOK DIRECTLY AT the soldering iron before picking it up. 3) ALWAYS LOOK DIRECTLY at where you are putting it when you set it down again. 4) When you drop a soldering iron, NEVER try to catch it. Just jump out of the way. 5) DO NOT SET THE HOUSE ON FIRE! ROAR
You must see by now that soldering is second nature to model railroaders. There are a few tips from the LION that are not in the soldering books:
1) ADJUST eyeglasses BEFORE picking up soldering iron.
2) ALWAYS LOOK DIRECTLY AT the soldering iron before picking it up.
3) ALWAYS LOOK DIRECTLY at where you are putting it when you set it down again.
4) When you drop a soldering iron, NEVER try to catch it. Just jump out of the way.
5) DO NOT SET THE HOUSE ON FIRE!
ROAR
I hope none of the above was/where learned by experience.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
daffSo as I understand it terminal tracks on each block are not necessary. An electric rail joiner running to each block back to a selector box / toggle switch will provide the same thing as terminal tracks.
You are correct, just make sure that each Block is electrically isolated from the others. You can do this either by cutting a gap in the rail (which can be filled with a non conductor) or you can use a plastic rail joiner You don't even have to waste money on pre wired electric rail joiners, you can solder feeder wires directly to the track.
Derek
He is the complete overview.
I have a 2 x 4 oval layout with a couple of sidings.
I intend to break up the oval into 4 blocks and each siding / yard as one each for a total of 6 blocks. I know. May be overkill but I want all the bang for the buck I can get out of this.
So as I understand it terminal tracks on each block are not necessary. An electric rail joiner running to each block back to a selector box / toggle switch will provide the same thing as terminal tracks.
Thanks.
Well, Yes, that is to say no.
This depends on how big your layout is, and how complicated your track plan is.
Normally when we say "blocks" we are talking about blocks of tracks with gaps in them to electrically isolate them from other blocks on the railroad. Maybe you are not there yet.
LION thinks that ewe are thinking (not always a good thing for ewes to do, especially if there is a ram around) of a power terminal track that is used to apply electricity to a layout. LIONS do not uses such things, but simply solder wires directly to the tracks where he wants them to be. If he needs a gap in the track a motor tool with a grinding disk will cause that to happen. Insulated joiners are ok, but once the track is laid, then what?
Ok, to answer your question then. If you have a loop of track, then no you do not need more than one terminal block. But as your layout gets bigger, it becomes more difficult for the rail joiners to pass power reliably. On a simple loop you will never know if there is one bad rail joiner: it takes to bad connections to stop a train on a loop. As the layout gets bigger, there are more rail joiners and more places that can have problems.
LIONS solder all rail joiners. LIONS cut the rails to make gaps. (Many finer modelers than I recommend putting a plastic shim in the gaps, this the LION does not bother to do.) Most modelers recommend that every rail be powered, and they put feeders every three feet or so. The LION does not do this either, but does have feeders every ten to twelve feet. They just stand there with some raw meat in their hands as the LION comes riding by. The more feeders the better the LION likes it. On a large layout track maintenance gets to be quite a chore. And on a 1:1 layout, a crew walks the track every two days.
So the real deal is that you will have electrical problems from time to time, and you will have to figure out what is wrong and how to fix it. YOu can dighten rail joiners, but that will also mis-shape them and they will have worse contact than before after a while.
You are using some kind of "Uni-Track" or something. You can always drill a 1/16" hole next to a rail and solder on another wire. After a while you will become quite profecient at this and will not even melt the roadbed, but until then, you will just have to resing yourself to have blotches on your roadbeds, which after all, is very prototypical anyway.
DAFF,
If by terminal track you are referring to the tracks where wires are attached to the track from the power pack, yes and no!
If you have a small loop of track with good rail joiners, it will probably work having only one. However, if your rail joiners are old and a little loose, you could easily loose electrical contact between sections. Many folks recommend feeder wires (wires from power pack to track) every 6 feet. Even this may not be enough if you have sectional track and loose joiners.
You do need a set of feeders to each electrical block, one can be the common, while the other is a separate wire to control the block.
If you do not have a good book on wiring, they are a great help (ask how I know). I have the one from Atlas, which uses their components, but you can use other brands and types to replace them. Our host also has books on wiring that can be found at SHOP above.
Keep asking questions, there is no dumb question, if you don't know the answer. We were all new to this at some point in life.
Have fun,
Richard
Also in my continuing education it will not be necessary to add additional terminal track as the electrical joiners will take their place...correct?