# advantages of soldering track together



## cr123890 (Feb 24, 2013)

I recently put ballast on my layout and it seems that it has bad dead spots in it afterword's
I tested the track for several months before I applied ballast to make sure everything run smooth and it did but now it seems to run rough and have dead spots and when I press on the joints in the tracks sometimes it makes it work
im wandering is soldering the track together would help or is it a waste 
I believe the glue for the ballast may have gotten in the joints and is now causing a bad connection 
I don't even know how to solder 
any help 
thanks 
cr


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Soldering the track certainly helps, but of course you do have to know how to solder. If you solder track, you should use a small jumper wire between segments, it keeps the joint from cracking.


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## Featherbedder (Jun 29, 2014)

There is a lot of information on soldering, even model train track soldering, on you tube. Just search for "how to solder model train track".


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

CR

I had the same experience. The wet water and glue seeps into the
rail joiners and electrical contact is lost. Easiest solution is
to scrape the joint clean then solder, making certain it fills
between the rails. You can test with a Volt/ohm meter 
to determine whether both rails need solder.

Don


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

It's a ton easier to simply do them all with short wire jumpers. Even if you have a good connection today, no warranty that it'll be good tomorrow.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> It's a ton easier to simply do them all with short wire jumpers. Even if you have a good connection today, no warranty that it'll be good tomorrow.


That's what the railroads do so that the 1 or 2 volt
signal current moves from rail to rail.

I didn't find it necessary to do that much
soldering. When a high resistance
joint occurred after ballasting, I soldered it. All
the rest have good conductivity.

Don


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## Bone1977 (Jan 17, 2014)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> It's a ton easier to simply do them all with short wire jumpers. Even if you have a good connection today, no warranty that it'll be good tomorrow.


Easy to do on that ginormous O Gauge track you love so much  (Just a rib, seen it done on HO as well)


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

I think soldering is really the best solution, but you can try electronic contact cleaner on the affected joints.


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## JNXT 7707 (May 5, 2013)

One thing to keep in mind about soldering your track: be very sure that your track configuration is "permanent" and you are satisfied 100% with the trackwork. I just dismantled a layout that was nearly all soldered, and it is a J-O-B to take apart and salvage. Not impossible, but not something I enjoy doing!
Other than that, I'm all for soldering the connections, but I think on the next layout I will add more jumpers and cut down on the soldering.


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

I use a combination of rail joiners, soldering and additional power leads to the track. I have a DC block style layout. All off my connections have a rail joiner. The blocks vary in length from 3-5 feet. All joints in the block are soldered. Insulators separate the blocks. There is a power lead to each end of each block. Turnouts are an exception. They are not soldered in. They only have rail connector. Each turnout receives its own set of power leads. 

All of this does require allot of additional wires to be run and redundant leads. What it also provides is the ability to remove the turnouts for service / replacement as they are the most likely peice to break. Also if rails need to be changed only one block is ever affected, no need to unsolder then re-solder portions. 

This is just my design thought. I have a tendency to over engineer things.


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

Before you decide to solder rail joints together, you might consider these points. 
If your layout is in room that is not heated/air conditioned you might have problems with thermal expansion of the rails. This can cause track to go out of gage and derail trains. 
If you decide to solder rail joints, I recommend leaving one joint un-soldered every 3' or so. This joint should have a small gap between the two rail ends to allow for expansion. I have seen a section of a club's rail rip right up out of the ties from expansion
Personally I don't recommend soldering rail joints at all. A better method is to solder a small (18-20ga.) wire to the outside of each rail section on the layout and drill a small hole next to the rail and feed the wire under the layout. Here all feeder wires from the same rail solder to a large (16-14ga.) buss wire. All the feeders from the opposite rail connect to its own separate buss wire. The two buss wires then connect to your power pack. 
This method, widely used for years, assures excellent electrical contact, and will allow rails to expand or contract as needed without damage.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

traction fan said:


> Before you decide to solder rail joints together, you might consider these points.
> If your layout is in room that is not heated/air conditioned you might have problems with thermal expansion of the rails. This can cause track to go out of gage and derail trains.
> If you decide to solder rail joints, I recommend leaving one joint un-soldered every 3' or so. This joint should have a small gap between the two rail ends to allow for expansion. I have seen a section of a club's rail rip right up out of the ties from expansion
> Personally I don't recommend soldering rail joints at all. A better method is to solder a small (18-20ga.) wire to the outside of each rail section on the layout and drill a small hole next to the rail and feed the wire under the layout. Here all feeder wires from the same rail solder to a large (16-14ga.) buss wire. All the feeders from the opposite rail connect to its own separate buss wire. The two buss wires then connect to your power pack.
> This method, widely used for years, assures excellent electrical contact, and will allow rails to expand or contract as needed without damage.


This is true to an extent, but it's really the benchwork that expands and contracts, more so than the rails ( unless you have very severe temperature extremes in your layout room). Painting your benchwork can mitigate this problem.

Otherwise, the basic concept is valid, except that you don't need feeders and unsoldered joints as often as you suggest. Every 6-8 feet is sufficient. I solder a couple of sections of flextrack together, and supply a feeder to each of these. Great connectivity, all the time.

And, FWIW, a bus carries people from one place to another. A bus also carries electricity from one place to another. Buss is the archaic word for kiss. Now I love trains, but that's pushing it.


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