Soldering Techniques?

[MasonJar]

Rob,

Maybe I missed something, but aren't you using rail joiners to hold your track together? If yes, you can add solder for electrical conductivity. If you are soldering separate feeders to each section, then the rail joiners are mainly for physical alignment, not electrical conductivity, and do not have to be soldered.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Yes, I am using rail joiners but the layout often has loss of current problems. Often, a loco will suddenly stall but it moves again after I push on or move the track. This pushing can either be horizontal nudging or even pushing down (then the loco runs). So all of this means that electricity isn't adequately flowing between the rail joiners. As noted, I'm going to try to solder some feeders to the problematic sections.

Thanks, Rob

The loco stopping and then running again when nudged or pushed down on may be more of an indicator that the electricity is not flowing from the track to the motor rather than problems from track section to section.

You may need to clean the track and/or loco wheels/pickups. You may also need to add weight or properly balance your locos.

If you want to solder track together and you are using sectional track (I think you are), you might consider soldering only 3-4 pieces together, and the soldering a feeder to this "super section". Use the rail joiners instead of wire jumpers between sections - the solder will flow into this joint as David suggests. Use rail joiners (unsoldered) between "super sections" to keep things in alignment. Then go under the layout and hook all the feeders into a bus wire that runs from your power supply.

Andrew