I have a 4x6 Layout, double loop. What would be the recommendation on how many pairs of terminal joiners to use? Will be mostly flex track, 1 turnout and maybe a 3 or 4 straight and/or curved sectional. Thanks!
Are you using DCC? Do you know how to solder? Do you want to learn to solder? You can just use wires and solder them. It depends on whether or not you are using standard DC power or a digital controller how many you would need. On such a small layout you may only need one for each loop if you do DCC.
I am building a layout around an 11 foot room in N scale. To avoid locos stalling on plastic frogs, I am using mostly Peco electrofrogs. My ideal is to solder/I] wires to every piece of rail on underside where it won't show, or interfere with wheel treads. But to avoid having to solder to turnouts and possibly ruining them, I am using terminal joiners, six for each turnout-- ie. both sides of every end of switch. That way, every rail that needs to get power from a rail joiner is fed by TWO joiners. If one fails, I have redundancy. Frog is fed by the joiners on the two inside rails at frog end. Again, redundancy. Overkill???? Maybe...
If this is a DC layout one set of terminal joiners would work. However, some prefer to use several sets. An electric motor will not be damaged by lower voltage, it will simply slow down. Some will suggest soldering, but if you think there is a chance you will be changing your layout in the future or taking it apart, I would advise against it. I have a 14' x 16' layout and nothing is soldered and the trains run fine. Soldering makes a more permanent join and assures good electrical contacts. A good electrical connection can be made with the metal joiners as well, though there is a chance that that connection could become corrupted by corrosion or dirt.
I agree with logandsawman, in that soldering wires is reliable and less of a maintenance nightmare. I use solder to wire my feeder wires directly to the outside of the rails. Solder all my rail joiners except for those leading to a switch. I may have to pull the switch out someday and it's easier to slide the rail joiner back when they aren't soldered. Feeder wires get dropped in every six feet or more often but only if needed. I never use terminal joiners they tend to break off or should you need to solder the rail joiner the solder will melt and the wire falls off.
Double loop, essentially as in two circles, but connected tracks? I'd put one on each loop. As already suggested, consider soldering rail joins, excepting switches.
Kenneth On peco electrofrog turnouts the 2 inner rails that make the v shape need to be insolated otherwise u will have a short. Unless u cut gaps in those 2 rails after the v.
Yeah 1 track 2 loops, just like this. I do have one turnout that will not go anywhere other than about 2 feet then end.
You can also do jumpers to insure continuity between track sections. The one in this picture has the insulation still on it, but really you could make a shorter jumper with just a bare wire. But seeing your track plan, the layout is so small that until the track connectors have been out long enough to oxidize, chances are even just one pair of wires from your controller to your track should be fine.
Ahh okie thanks. I do have 3 sets of t-joiners here. Would it cause any issues if I just use 3 instead of 1? I figured I would need more than that, but don't want them to go to waste lol.
Contrary to some advice here, the state-of-the-art protocol for wiring a layout (no matter how large, or small) is to solder a track feeder to EVERY PIECE OF RAIL near the center of that piece of rail. This obsoletes any requirement for fugly wires or joiners being used for electrical continuity between rail pieces. The reasoning behind soldering feeders to a piece of rail, near the center of the rail, is that spot is the least flexible spot on that rail. The MOST FLEXIBLE spot is on the end of a rail where the much weaker rail joiner will flex, bend and oxidize. What does flexibility have to do with reliability? (1) Non-soldered, mechanical joiners joining the ends of two pieces of rails, will flex whenever any pressure is applied to that spot. Trains rolling over it are negligible, but cleaning the track using an abrasive cleaning pad such as the ubiquitous Bright Boy causes a lot of flex to happen at the ends of rails, which may eventually distort the rail joiner to the point that it is no longer reliably conducting electrical current. (2) Soldered mechanical joiners suffer the same mechanical pressures, and the soft solder "glue" may eventually oxidize to the point that both it and the mechanical rail joiner have distorted to the point they are not reliably conducting electrical current. Since wires soldered directly to the sides or bottoms of rails are not forming a mechanical device that aligns the rails (as rail joiners do) the purpose of a soldered feeder is only to conduct electrical current. Oxidation from flexing rails is virtually zero, so a soldered electrical joint near the center of a piece of rail is exponentially more reliable than relying on rail joiners (soldered or unsoldered) to perform both mechanical rail alignment AND conduct electrical current at the same time. Real world experience varies and a lot of layout builders at sometime in their lives have stuck a single set of feeders to a whole layout and it ran okay. On the other hand, there are a lot of us who have had chronic electrical problems from feeders at the ends of rails, and have had soldered rail joiners regularly fail. Additionally, if you're using light rail (code 55 or code 40) this makes the rail-flex problem much worse than if you use code 80 track. Also, using Woodland Scenics flexy track roadbed or something similar, makes the problem even worse. My recommendation is to do it right, and solder a 22AWG solid copper feeder on each piece of rail, near its center, and rely on rail joiners for mechanical alignment only...soldering some of them, leaving others unsoldered which takes care of track expansion and contraction. That's what I did after decades of fixing joiner and feeder problems on my modules and portable layout. Six years after soldering rail feeders to every single piece of rail on my layout, I have had zero electrical problems with it, as opposed to the usual re-soldering of both several joiners and several feeders that always happened while performing quality assurance before a show, and during a show and after setting up at home after a show....three times a year. Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
