Wiring troubles

[T-Lloyd]

should i take out all my rail joiners and solder the track together?

[Running Bear]

You don't have to remove the joiners to solder the track. Just put a little paste flux on the outside edge of the rail so it covers the joiner and some of the rail. Apply a hot soldering tool to the joiner and apply the solder. As the flux melts it will flow into the joiner. As the solder melts it will follow the flux everywhere it goes, making the rail and the joiner into a solid unit. Don't get any solder on  the top of the rail. It can be a bear to remove.

[CNE Runner]

This is a fairly old thread (by forum standards), but I thought I'd throw in my two cents. As an expert at melting ties, and other items of plastic, I cannot recommend a soldering station more highly. I bit the bullet and purchased the American Beauty Induction Soldering Station from Micro Mark and have been completely satisfied with the results. Induction soldering is easy and will result in a much better joint without the more-than-occasional melted ties that ordinary soldering guns produce. I do agree that one of the basic skills all model railroaders need to possess is that of soldering. Why not buy some old brass track at the next train show and practice on that? Atlas brass Snaptrack goes for pennies and is a lot cheaper than using Peco (or whatever) nickel-steel products.

While we are at it: in my opinion it is not advisable to solder turnouts. These are mechanical devices and, friend, they will need replacement. All my turnouts (Peco) are held in place with rail joiners for easy replacement. BTW I have already had to replace one unit...slide back the joiners and pull out the turnout...easy.

[Yampa Bob]

I have used "induction" soldering for 40 years.  Originally I used it to solder delicate gold filled eyewear without marring the finish.  The "solder" was actually tiny strips  and wire made of expensive gold metal. I agree it's the only way to go.

The repair specialist at Caboose Hobbies uses this technique for expensive brass locomotives. 

[Jhanecker2]

At Pyle National we used Induction Soldering equipment for soldering cable wires to contacts for connectors that utilized solderwell contacts . it does make a fast and solid connection and is easy to use. Used to use it myself whenever we had to assemble or repair connectors for automatic stepping cable testing equipment.

[Jim Banner]

While we are at it: in my opinion it is not advisable to solder turnouts. These are mechanical devices and, friend, they will need replacement. All my turnouts (Peco) are held in place with rail joiners for easy replacement. BTW I have already had to replace one unit...slide back the joiners and pull out the turnout...easy.

I am surprised to hear about having to replace turnouts.  I have had turnouts that needed resoldering and turnouts that needed jumper wires installed to bypass failed internal jumpers, but both of these jobs were easily done with the turnouts in place.  I suppose turnouts could eventually wear out, but checking on some that have been thrown more than half a million times each, I would say that it will take a few more millions of throws to wear them out.  The only turnouts I ever remember removing were some Shinohara ones that I modified to make more DCC friendly with long steam locomotives, and I put those back in the same places they came from.  They were a little harder to remove, having been soldered in place.  But not much harder. 

I just used an Atlas hobby saw to cut through the joiners at the track joints.  Then I soaked the ballast with warm water to release the glue.  Next I lifted out the turnout, modified it, and removed the half dozen half joiners with a soldering iron and a rag.  The soldering iron was to melt the solder; the rag was to pull off the half joiner without burning my fingers and at the same time wipe off any excess solder.  With soldering iron and rag still in hand, I removed the half joiners from the ends of the rails.  Occasionally this left a bit of solder on the underside of the foot of the rail but a few strokes with a file quickly removed that. 

The biggest problem was cutting slots far enough into the tracks to completely slide the new joiners out of the way.  The Atlas hobby saw has too wide a back to be much use here.  I eventually came up with two solutions - one was to break all the plastic off a spare hobby saw and make a new handle out of a piece of dowel epoxied to one side of the blade.  Then the other side of the blade can go right down to the roadbed if need be.  These modified saws work best if made in pairs - one left hand and one right hand.  The other solution was to use a 1/4" wide metal cutting blade, the kind meant for use in a fret saw frame.  These are a little thicker than the Atlas hobby saw, so they are no good for cutting the joiners, but they can be used, either with or without a frame, to cut the tops off some ties for clearance under the rails.

With the rail ends under cut, it was easy to slide on six new rail joiners, pushing them back far enough to clear the ends of the rails.  It was then possible to drop in the turnout.  Once the joiners were slide forward to span the rail joints, they were soldered in place once again.  The gaps left by the Atlas hobby saw were about 1/32" wide and caused no problems whatsoever.

I know all of this sounds long and complicated.  But it is what you have to do if your track and turnouts are glued down and ballasted.  The only additional steps if you have soldered rail joiners is cutting them with a hobby saw and pulling off the half length pieces.