Nope, this isn't what you think its about. I'm not talking about railjoiners being soldered to the track. NO! NO! NO! I just know some one is going to talk about soldering rail joiners to track...lol. Here's what I've been thinking. Like some, I'm a tad lazy. However, I also come from the overkill with wiring school of thought when it comes to track wiring. At least one set of feeders to a track, preferably two. But as of late I've been thinking, why don't I solder wire directly to the rail joiners. So for every rail joiner there would be a feeder wire. This means I could solder the wire to the rail joiner before hand, then slide the joiner on the tracks, then slip the feeder down through a hole. This seems like such a great idea, but no one is doing it, so I'm thinking, there must be a flaw I am missing here. What's the flaw?
I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't rely too much on the electrical contact between rail and joiner, unless of course you solder the joiner to the rail, in which case you won't have any gap for expansion. Just a thought. Jesper
I soldier to my rail joiners then slipp the joiner in place one piece of track at a time as mentioned. HOWEVER I do this for 2 or 3 lengths of 9 inch rail (HO scale) an skip one for the gaps for expnd an contrat. And then another 2 or 3 rail lengths. As for using flex track I do this every other joint, an soldier the joiners to the rail as well in locations where I have wire soldiered to the joiners. Has never yet gave me any trouble!
You hit right on. There's the potential flaw. Over time, no matter how meticulous maintenance and cleaning is, the contact can slowly fail due to oxidization. Also, when ballasting, your bonding agent can seep in, and cause the contact to fail. As far as expansion joints, I don't have much trouble. I always let my switches "float." Then they can be removed easily of ever there is a problem. And this provides a good place for any expansion/contraction. Boxcab E50
OK OK OK, I am a novice, and I love shortcuts. So sue me, blame me, go ahead and flame me But I always push the enevelope for under-engineering... Solder? What solder? I used old-fashioned track joiners. And not just any joiners, but used ones! Some had changed color to shades I never would have associated with nickel, silver or any other neutral colored substance. I'll confess: I did start out with a package of Atlas joiners that had leads soldered to them. (So Rick, someone has already done it and is making a buck at it - if Atlas does it, it can't be too bad, right?) But, as I tried to untangle the crows nest under my gigantic 1' x 4' N scale switching layout, I found to my pleasant surprise that I could remove all these "live" joiners, till all I had left were three sets of feeders at one end of the layout. And that only because my (also used) pile of switches included a few insul-frogs. And those feeders I will house in the warehouse destined for that outpost of the layout. The point is that old-fashioned joiners could work. How much more if you solder wire to them. William
