I saw an ad for these Peco power feed rail joiners and wondering if any one has used them and what the con and pros to using something like that would be?
Pro - easier than soldering feeders to the rail. Con: way overpriced, like the Atlas ones. Make your own. At the workbench, solder wires to the regular rail joiners. Same thing, much cheaper.
Some will say not reliable, but on my last two layouts I did this, and put wired joiners at EVERY track joint (except where gaps/insulated joiners were needed). EVERY metal rail joiner had a wire to it, so in some cases I had feeders just inches apart. On turnouts (I was using Atlas turnouts, so more like Insulfrogs), all 6 points had feeders. I only soldered rail joints on curves - attaching 2 pieces of flex together (with feeders attached) before forming the curve, so there was no chance of kinking at the joint. Otherwise, everything was unsoldered, but, like I said, every joint was also a feeder. I had zero trouble with power loss, even after I painted all the track - and I did not leave shiny rail joiners, they got painted just like the rest of the track. One thing that helps, they were all fresh new rail joiners, so the fit for every one of them was nice and tight. Painting over them at that point probably seals out anything that would get in there and ruin the contact - I then ballasted and dribbled diluted white glue over all of it to fix the ballast ans still no issues with the joiners losing contact.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I soldered most of my joints except where an expansion joint or an isolated joint is located. I simlpy soldered feeders to each section of track. Although many curved sections are maybe 15-18 feet long, you can still use a single feeder placed anywhere on that section, as long as all joints are soldered.
I also don't solder joiners to turnouts, because of the difficulty if you need to remove a turnout.
I have quite a number of insulated sections and each section has a feeder soldered to it. I would not recommend using wires soldered to joiners because there can always be a loose connection to a joiner unless it's soldered.
It has been my experence that soldered joiners are very, very reliable, even where we have temperature and humidity extremes. Therefore, I prefer them.