How to Solder Spade Connectors to Rail for Power Drops

Never soldered any spades to the underside of the rail, never had any problems either, either in loose/tightness or connectivity.

Also never soldered any spades to the feed wires. Get a good crimper tool for the proper size wire and spade combo. Soldering is actually detrimental to a good wire-to-spade connection. If you've never crimped before, YouTube is your friend.

Part of my former life was designing and building wire harness for bench-top lab equipment. Crimped terminals by the thousands, I have. A little practice and you'll be a pro in no time!

CJ Meyers posted:

Never soldered any spades to the underside of the rail, never had any problems either, either in loose/tightness or connectivity.

Also never soldered any spades to the feed wires. Get a good crimper tool for the proper size wire and spade combo. Soldering is actually detrimental to a good wire-to-spade connection. If you've never crimped before, YouTube is your friend.

Part of my former life was designing and building wire harness for bench-top lab equipment. Crimped terminals by the thousands, I have. A little practice and you'll be a pro in no time!

Thanks for the information.
Many have stated the same success that you have had using unsoldered spade connectors.
BTW, which track do you use on your layout?

To your point about crimpers, you are so right.
The proper crimper makes all the difference.

I have both the special ratcheting crimper for  insulated connectors,
And the pliers  style crimper for uninsulated connectors. It has the two sizes of crimper points, and works very well.

 I’ve soldered mine of late. Still the majority of the layout they are just inserted into the rail. The only soldered wires. Were to the Ross Switches. 18 gauge solid wire to every rail. The layouts 30 years old. Some recently pulled up track. Still had tight non corroded connections. All track is ballasted.
 You must clean the black off the center rail. I place the soldering iron against the rail and the spade. I place the solder on the opposite side. When the solder flows you know the rail itself melted the solder. Not the iron. I then switch sides and get some solder on the other side. 
 I have a number of irons. My go to of late is the Milwaukee 12v with the chisel tip for this job. Not better than what I used to use. Just easier with no cord.

the best thing you can do to solder on the outside of the rail, is to use an old Weller gun! you need plenty of flux so the solder will adhere to the rail! you just dip the iron tip into your can of flux and immediately  rub the iron on the side of the track with a back and fourth motion which will help in the tinning process to get the solder to stick , once the solder melts and sticks to the side rail add solder as needed. this method is the best I've ever found. it might take a while to get the solder to stick especially if the side of the rail is corroded and oxidized, you've added road bed gravel lo the look

Alan

My plan is to solder all track connections before laying down the sections of track, so the roadbed and ballasting should be no issue.
At least it shouldn't be until I make changes to track that has been placed, and locked down.

Here are some of the connectors, with wire, installed in the track and placed on the RossBed.
You will notice that i used ring terminals in these photos, and that the Rossbed is a broken piece.
These are just for showing my plan.
I will use true spade connectors, and the roadbed will be painted with stone paint so simulate crushed stone.

I would stagger the connections. Unless you want to only drill one hole for the wires to pass through. Or put some shrink wrap over them when done. You may want to add a jumper wire to connect the outside rails. Or alternate in every other section as to where you place the wire to the outside rail. Unless you are leaving it isolated for a reason such as signaling. As far as cutting the stringers. Cutting a few here and there will have no effect on the integrity of the Ross track in case you want to jumper across the outside rails. For this I use some 18 gauge solid. Just build up some solder on the underside web of the Ross rail. Melt the wire into it. Leave a good amount of slack to keep it off the underside of the center rail.

I prefer to solder feeder wires to track AFTER laying the track.  That way, you can drop feeders whenever and wherever you choose, as opposed to having to do a bunch of pre-planning and coordinating of soldering and hole drilling and tearing up track because you forgot to add a feeder here and there.  And naturally, track-laying goes a lot faster.

I also prefer to use solid feeder wire as opposed to stranded, as I find it much easier to get the wire to stay in place while soldering.  With a little practice, you can make nice, neat little solder joints that are barely noticeable.  However, stranded wire works okay too, simply pre-solder the end of the wires first so you're not fighting loose strands of wire when soldering to the rails.

I can see using spade connectors on for small, temporary layouts, I wouldn't hesitate to use them myself.  You can bend the crimp portion over at 90 degrees from the spade so the wire goes out the side of track instead of straight down.  But if the spade fits snugly into the bottom of the rail, there's really no need to solder them in, at least in my opinion.

That's pretty much the way I tackle it, your methods may vary. 

RWL posted:

CJ Meyers posted:

Never soldered any spades to the underside of the rail, never had any problems either, either in loose/tightness or connectivity.

Also never soldered any spades to the feed wires. Get a good crimper tool for the proper size wire and spade combo. Soldering is actually detrimental to a good wire-to-spade connection. If you've never crimped before, YouTube is your friend.

Part of my former life was designing and building wire harness for bench-top lab equipment. Crimped terminals by the thousands, I have. A little practice and you'll be a pro in no time!

Thanks for the information.
Many have stated the same success that you have had using unsoldered spade connectors.
BTW, which track do you use on your layout?

To your point about crimpers, you are so right.
The proper crimper makes all the difference.

I have both the special ratcheting crimper for  insulated connectors,
And the pliers  style crimper for uninsulated connectors. It has the two sizes of crimper points, and works very well.

I use Gargraves Phantom Rail exclusively both O and Std. Ga.

Many years ago when I was taught to solder the first order of business was to "Tin the Source and the Target".  Another rule of thumb was to ensure both the source and target had similar heat dissipation (heat sink) properties.  If you couldn't meet those two rules, use a crimp connector because your longterm success rate passing AC or DC current will be much higher.  Courtesy of the US Navy over fifty years ago and it still works for me.

Thanks for all the info guys.
BTW, if using this method, as shown, I do plan to add a piece of shrink tube over the connection to insure that they do not some into contact.
Also, having the flexibility to place these wires as desired, after the track is in place is a compelling argument for soldering wires to the sides of the rails.

what brand of crimper do you experts use?  thanks

wb47 posted:

what brand of crimper do you experts use?  thanks

Uninsulated connectors:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Insulatedd Connectors:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

wb47:  I’m no expert by any means, and have no idea if this product is any better or worse than anything else.  It’s just the one I bought and use.  And, works well with no problems for me.  Slight learning curve to position connectors in crimper correctly, but always get a very tight crimp.  Additional jaw sizes are available for various wire sizes.

Looks like the same type of jaw, exactly.
Just a different type of handle set.
Your crimps look just like the ones that I get.