Soldering rail joiners?

[GaryB]

I am using Peco Code 100 Streamline track on my loft based layout, pointwork are medium radius insul-frog, the rest is flexi-track laid on a 3mm cork bed (PVA'd to the boards with track pinned into place and ballasted the usual way with ballast held in place with diluted PVA). I want to make everything as reliable as possible so was thinking about soldering the rail joiners to give a more reliable electrical connection throughout the layout.

My concerns are that with it being loft based it sees a big variable in temperature and humidity, so will I be better off NOT soldering them and leaving a bit of an expansion gap (0.5mm or so) between each section of track? I have a rather complex junction with several crossovers and points in one area so considered soldering this section together only?

Any advice gratefully received.

[Paul-H]

Hi

Personally I would not solder the rail joints, you would be better off just adding dropers to each section of track which would give the same result as soldering the joints without the risk of track buckling in the heat.

Paul

[RFS]

Definitely don't solder rail joiners, especially in a loft layout or your track will buckle in the next heatwave. If you really want reliable electrical connectivity then solder a track feed onto every piece of rail, advice which is often given if you are using DCC.

Do leave a gap to allow for expansion and I would suggest not laying track in cold weather unless the loft has been heated to a reasonable temperature.

EDIT: Paul just beat me to it!

[Bigmet]

To add to the above, leave a 1mm gap between rail ends of a yard long flexitrack piece if the loft temperature is now 'cool' as I expect it will be. That should allow enough expansion space for the most baking hot day. (A metre of nickel roughly expands by a millimetre for a 50C temperature change.)

[GaryB]

Thanks for that, I'll go with the soldered droppers. It gets phenomenally hot in there in the summer but I'm having the roof insulated internally with 25mm Cellotex to help try and maintain a more constant temperature in there, but it's certainly cold in there at the minute!

[RAF96]

You can solder Omega links ( Ω ) across the rail joints to add reliability, which can be made to look like earth straps. Soldering the actual fishplates can be problemtic due to them usually being stainless steel and if the rail joint is made solid then as previously stated expansion and contraction can seriously distort the track footprint.

IMG_0742.jpg (12.18 KiB) Viewed 1872 times

https://goo.gl/images/ZD4kx7

Rob

[gppsoftware]

Some hints and tips for wiring droppers:

http://www.mrol.com.au/Pages/Vu/PowerFe ... thDroppers

http://www.mrol.com.au/Pages/Vu/Avoidin ... lesonRails

Graham Plowman

[Flashbang]

Never solder metal rail joiners to the two abutting rails as the rails must move slightly inside the joiner to allow for expansion and contraction.
Equally don't use metal joiners as feed in places either for the the same reason, plus airborne dust and other 'crud' often from painting rails and gluing ballast etc enters the metal joiner and eventually causes a high resistance connection metal joiner to rail. This is why many DC user find locos slow on a particular section of track as the joiner(s) have become High Resistance (HR) connection.

Adding soldered dropper wires is by far the best option and as shown by RAF96 even bonding around metal joiners can be done especially in unseen areas like fiddle yards or storage sidings etc.