A question regarding insulating blocks

[Anonymous]

I just have a few questions regarding where and when to use insulating blocks, how to solder flex-track and wiring. I have one passing siding and one dead-end spur (in seperate areas) coming off the main line. I was wondering if at any of those switch points if I have to use insluating blocks? Another question I had was when you solder flex-track you are supposed to take out 3 ties in either direction, but how do you put them back in again, before the track is glued down? When soldering flex-track, is the best way to use rail joiners and solder the rail joiners to the rail? The main line is going to be approx. 200-250" long. How many times should I power this track? And last question was what is the smallest wire size I shoud use? Thanks in advance for everyone's help. As a beginner I love the wealth of information that comes out of this forum.

[wrumbel]

I have a question frist. Are you using dc or dcc to control the trains? You can't solder all your joints; some gaps are need for expansion or the track will kink. For feed wire I use 22ga. wire to the bus wires under the layout. The bus is 14 ga. The bus wire goes back to your power pack if you are using dc. The insulated joiners are use for blocks or if you want the siding to be dead to store an engine on. The old dc way was called common rail; only one rail had an insulated joint; the other had a regular joiner.

Now to the next problem; what to do about that gap where the ties are missing. I've been saving peices of tie strips from short sections of flex track. I shave off the pin on the side that is away from the side you see than slip these back under the track. If you are using Atlas flex track the tie plate will make a bump so it has to be shaved off too.

[BR60103]

Whether you have to use insulated joiners depends on whether you have all-rail/electrofrog switches or plastic frogs. If you have the all-rail switches, you need an insulated gap beyond the frog in each of the rails coming from the frog (not the other side.) The dead end of a siding counts as one gap. In your passing siding, you can either make one gap do for both switches, or insulate the whole siding, whivh then has to be powered. (Can be powered through a switch and you can store locomotives there.) You may need to add extra jumpers past the insulation.
If you have plastic/insulfrog, you don't need gaps for electrical purposes.
I try to use a fairly thick wire for long runs, but a thin wire for actually connecting to the track. The wire out of telephone cable or computer cables may work for up to 6 inches. People will say each piece of track should be wired (!) but I don't like to wire expensive turnouts. Every 3 to 6 feet unless solderd together.
I use Peco track, and I carve a notch in the tie where the rail joiner is going to go. I solder joints on curves, but usually do it with the rails straight: slide the ties back, assemble in a fre***ight rail joiner, check the lineup of the inside railhead and solder. Then slide the ties back and curve and cut to length. Oh, and put a heat sink (I use a metal track gauge) between the joint and the plastic ties.
You can also cut off a tie or two, then carve off the tie plates and slip them under the joint.

[Medina1128]

As far as soldering tools go, I picked up a handy set from, dare I say it, Radio Shack. It comes with various picks, shavers and a wire brush. It also comes with two aluminum heat sink clips. And never, EVER, go buy a new soldering iron because you can't find your old one without asking the wife if she has seen it. You'll end up with two and then try to buy a new tool in the future without a dissertation on "you sure you don't already have one of those??"