# Puzzled. soldering track



## UP-Railroad (Apr 18, 2018)

I am confused about soldering track in general. Do I solder every track together, do I only solder curves, do I solder turnouts? 


I'm working with 4x10 layout with code 100 HO track


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

Hi. Actually you do not have to solder any rails if you're sure each section is and will always be making a fail safe connection to one another, electronically.. Even if one did fail you could correct it..Make sure all your face to face rails are correctly in the rail joiners. It's easy to wrongly have a rail on top of a joiner...
With that said, to solder the joints, use a pen type soldering iron (not a gun type), heat the joiner and let the solder flow into it, rails already connected..Yes you can solder switches (TOs)..
This is important: If you are using flex track to form a curve with 2 or more sections, do solder 2-3 of them together while they are laid out straight. This prevents a kink in the curve when you do bend them. You will have to deal with the extra rail at each end of the inner rail when bent. Buy an Exuron Rail Nipper for this..
Finally, if your code 100 is the old Atlas brass rail kind, you can expect stall outs due to brass oxidizing to a green film which doesn't conduct power= extra rail cleaning times ..If so, and not too late, you'd be better off with code 83 nickle silver... M


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## JerryH (Nov 18, 2012)

I solder all my track except turnouts and crossings. They are powered individually. I use double insulated gaps where the track is not soldered. Generally the longest section that is soldered is less than 10 feet. I really like resistance soldering for trackage. See post 554 https://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=14852&highlight=resistance&page=56


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

i used code 100 HO track, and i soldered all joints except for turnouts ..


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

The answer is yes. Solder as much or as little of it as you want. There is no right answer, only the one that works for you. The only thing you don't want to solder is the turnout points -- they're supposed to move.

You're also not actually soldering the rails together in a butt joint. You solder the rail joiners to the track.

Consider this: solid rail conducts electricity well, and it's rare for it to break. But every joint is a potential place for the track to come out of alignment or pull apart, and the potential to lose electrical connectivity as well (gunk in the rail joiners is a common cause). Your track is under more stress in curves, so that's a good place to start; but the question is, how many of these potential failure points do you want to eliminate by soldering? All, some, or none? It depends on you and your tolerance for risk. My son has been running an 8x8 HO scale layout for about 4 years on a single pair of AWG22 feeders and not a drop of solder anywhere (although Atlas True Track has roadbed that helps hold it together), Is he just lucky, or is soldering rail joints a waste of time and effort?

On a layout the size of yours, you don't have to worry about expansion and contraction. For bigger layouts, I usually recommend 1 set of unsoldered joints with a 1/16" gap between the rails every 50 linear feet or so (depending on how well the climate in your train room is controlled).

Hope that helps.


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## mesenteria (Oct 29, 2015)

Unfortunately, it's not easy laying flex track well, kink-free, unless you take some pains to make it so.

The joiners are weak. They splay. They get crud between them and the pressure points with the rail structure. They oxidize differently over time compared to the nickel-silver rail because they are different metal. Soldered joiners take care of pretty much all these problems. The solder makes better contact electrically, it fills the voids, so less oxidation, and it makes for a mechanically robust joint.

The problem with flex track is that one rail slides, as you must already know, and when you bend two pieces that are joined, the sliding rail wants to shove itself through the tiny plastic spike-heads. So, when I solder my flex, I slide the moving rail about six ties deep into the mating length of flex first. I bend the tracks and spike them into place on the roadbed. I place a joiner there by removing the ties, or breaking the spike-heads, and I use a needle file to file away the tieplate platform so that the rail joint isn't kinked upward the thickness of the joiner. 

When it's all lined up, and the joint is tight-fit and kink-free, which it will be with the sliding rail buried 6 ties into the one end, I go ahead and solder the joint.

You really do want your tracks to work and to be trouble-free. You have to prepare a clean and flat roadbed, arrange the track elements in sensible geometry, get power to them all along their entire length, and keep S-curves and kinks out to the extent possible. With smooth flow, everything in gauge, and the right #turnouts, you'll do fine.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

I soldered everything. Every turnout, every joint, everywhere.


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## UP-Railroad (Apr 18, 2018)

Thank you all, you really helped!!


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Soldering the joints is a good thing...BUT...

...if you are not yet certain of your track plan and
just want to get trains running...hold off...see how
things go...most likely you are going to see how
your layout can be more fun if you move this or
change that. If your joints are soldered it's going
to be much more difficult to do. 

...I'd just go ahead and temporarily lay your track.
Try it out. Watch your trains run. Maybe do some
switching. If it turns out to be exactly as you hoped, then wield
your soldering iron.

Don


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## eastwind (Sep 24, 2019)

If you solder wire feeders (also called droppers) to every length of flex track you don't need to solder track joints at rail joiners because you aren't depending on the joiners to conduct electricity. This is better practice than spending your soldering effort on the rail joiners, because if you try to power your rails all from one point, without bus wiring, you will see voltage drop over a long run of track, even with well-soldered rail joiners at every joint. Once you have done the work to solder feeders to every track piece, soldering track joints becomes optional.

Soldering all rail joiners can lead to trouble if you later have temperature swings in the layout room. Rail expands due to heat more than wood, and if all rail joints are soldered the rail will kink if the room gets hotter than it was when the track was laid. 

Turnouts may fail or need to be removed from the layout to be worked on, soldering the flex track to the ends of the turnouts makes this more difficult. 

However, soldering joints on curves can help you maintain a smooth kink-free curve even with loose-fitting rail joiners, so there is some advantage in soldering joints on curves, especially for the outside rail, even when otherwise you don't need to solder rail joints (because you have properly powered your layout with bus wires and droppers).


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## mesenteria (Oct 29, 2015)

eastwind said:


> If you solder wire feeders (also called droppers) to every length of flex track you don't need to solder track joints at rail joiners because you aren't depending on the joiners to conduct electricity. This is better practice than spending your soldering effort on the rail joiners, because if you try to power your rails all from one point, without bus wiring, you will see voltage drop over a long run of track, even with well-soldered rail joiners at every joint. Once you have done the work to solder feeders to every track piece, soldering track joints becomes optional.
> 
> Soldering all rail joiners can lead to trouble if you later have temperature swings in the layout room. Rail expands due to heat more than wood, and if all rail joints are soldered the rail will kink if the room gets hotter than it was when the track was laid.
> 
> ...


There is no need to solder feeders to every length of rail. That's a myth, as is the 'problem' of voltage drop over the lengths of rails one can expect to find between sliding joiners.

This is what can be done to minimize soldering, materials, time usage, and any problems associated with buckling rails when soldering joiners:

You use joiners where needed. You solder a feeder wire into every other joiner, and leave all the others to slide freely. Schematically, it looks like this:

======x===========o=============x=====

The X's are soldered joiners, and the O's are left unsoldered in order to slide. Logically, the soldered 'x' will feed two rails, one running each way from the joint. That could be six full feet of fed rail, with negligible voltage loss...if that should ever be a concern. If humidity or temperature ranges sufficiently that shrinkage or expansion are of concern, every second sliding rail will take care of that...PROVIDED a small gap is placed between the rail ends so that the rails can take up the gap. FYI, Code 100 n/s rail expands only 6mm, or about 1/4", with each 30 deg F rise in temperature, but over a whopping 100 feet! This means that when our tracks buckle, it isn't likely to be heat but reduced humidity in the material under the tracks that causes shrinkage of distance, which will close gaps left at the joints.

I agree that soldering every joint is almost certain to present problems at some point...unless...the room is controlled for humidity. So, don't solder every joint. Leave some free, say every second one, to accommodate changes in linear dimensions. But, do solder a flattened tip of thin feeder wire into the joiners every second joiner and get reliable power flowing bi-directionally from that joint.


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I am in the middle of layout construction and I’m just going to say that as an equipment mechanic by trade I have a much higher trust in a soldered joint over a mechanical joint. My personal opinion is that if you’re electrically savvy and can understand the circuit you’re building why not solder all joints. My personal opinion is that you will have less voltage drop with solder but if you’re not wanting it to be a permanent thing and just want to run your trains for now don’t solder it. If you look up soldering technique on YouTube it may help you learn to do it too


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

I'm with mesenteria on this. I think the expansion and contraction of the rails with temperature means leaving a few unsoldered joints, especially near turnouts. I lay individual rail using CV ties and I solder a track jointer between 2 3' sections before I glue it down, then either use an insulated joiner or regular unsoldered joiner at either end. I use a PC tie somewhere in that 6 foot section as the drop connection so all the wiring is completely hidden.
In this photo you can see the red and black wires going thru the milled homasote roadbed.


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