Good Day Folks.
I am finally..... finally starting my first layout after years of research and finally having the room & money. Unfortunately, some of what I learned, has been deleted from my memory bank. I am building a layout, based on the "Grand Valley 4x8" by woodland Scenics.. I am using Atlas code 83 track. My question is, should I solder every joint? I am good with a soldering iron, has I also do electronics stuff. Is it worth the time? Are the plain rail joiners good enough? Also would like to mention, that I am going to use DCC, not sure if that would make a difference, just trying to provide as much information as possible. There is no issues , with humidity, or extreme temperature changes, even though it is in the basement. I have the bench work done, and ready to lay the track.
Thanks in advance for your advice,
-Steven
Unless your layout is in a carefully controlled environment, soldering every rail joiner is NOT recommended. Contrariwise, using un-soldered rail joiners can lead to every electrician's favorite nightmare, intermittent open circuits.
DCC requires bulletproof electrical continuity. There are several ways to achieve this:
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
I'd suggest a feeder to every rail and to leave the rail joiners alone for expansion/contraction. Remember to leave a slight (1/32") gap between the rail ends to allow for benchwork contraction.
Modeling the Pennsy and loving it!
I subscribe to the method where you solder every second joiner, but also solder a feeder to those soldered joiners. That way, your power is assured in two directions away from that joint until it is interrupted. That interruption may be at the joiners at the far ends of that contiguous length of soldered rail, in which case you have precluded an electrical continuity fault.
This necessarily means that the next joiners are going to be free to allow for 'creep' from the roadbed and sub-roadbed due to expansion and contraction issues, which are almost always associated with humidity changes and not so much temperature changes.
My way, each feeder is 'responsible' for powering six-and-a-half feet of 39" flex track. It works well in my experience.
To show it schematically, this is what it looks like. The "o" is an "open" sliding joiner and the "x" is a soldered joiner:
=======o=========X==========o==========X==========o==========X====
Crandell
You can also solder a short wire jumper around an unsoldered rail joiner. This was in Model Railroader, but I don't remember when.
With flextrack on curves it is difficult to keep the rail ends aligned without soldering. To allow for expansion I solder the joiners to flathead brass screws in the roadbed, but not the rails themselves.
Terry
If you're using flextrack, solder all joints on curves. Otherwise you will have kinks, especially using tighter radii in the curves. Do not solder the joints on straight sections, so they can move slightly as temperature and humidity changes the size of various parts of the layout.
Mark P.
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