Rail Joiners

I presume in 2 rail.  What type of track do you have? Atlas,ME hand laying your own??  What code?... .148 or .125 ect....

I know Walters has some....

code 100...I would suggest Micro Engineering. Follow the link and I believe it is the 5th one down.    

Atlas's 2 rail track is code .148 if that's what you have you can just get there joiners. 

Well personally I do not solder every joint and I haven't encountered any operational problems.  I have found that with expansion and contraction, not only with the rail but also with the bench work itself you can get joints that will open up on you and as such crack your solder joint.  Some folks solder on a small jumper from rail to rail, some solder a feeder to each section of rail.  How are you planning on powering/operating your layout?  Straight DC..DCC...?

Ok how big of a layout are you planning?  What kind of track plan?  

That looks nice.  I wouldn't solder every joint, I would just break it into blocks and drop a single set of feeders from each block or you can drop feeders from each section of track.  Another thing to consider is that if you want to change things later or expand the layout ect...things not being soldered will make that much easier.  Isolate your yard tracks that you have there and then there are the reversing loops...old school DC would just come down to DPDT switches now a days there are Frog Juicers that automatically detect and reverse the polarity for you.

Me neither, but the necessary reverse loop is a very big reason the 3-rail scale folks keep the center rail.  If I had room for a reverse loop, I think I would do a "dog bone" layout.  Without a reverse loop feature.

True command control will make reverse loop wiring problems go away.  In the meantime, all you need to do is make the loop part of the revese loop a separate block, with its own reversing switch.

Azatrax has components to make that easier to do in a 2-rail context. Even though there are electronic polarity switchers, if you're using DC, conventional AC, or DCS with Proto-2 engines, mechanical (relay) polarity switching is the only way to go.

http://www.azatrax.com

Thanks Matt, I never knew there were mechanical relays for reverse loops.

I run DCC and what I use for my turntable is the PSX-AR from DCC Specialties. Here is a link to the manual:

http://dccspecialties.com/products/pdf/man_psxar.pdf

It was easy to hook up and works great for me. They say there's no sparking but I do see a small spark once in a while but the locomotive doesn't slow down or anything like that.

The frog juicer is meant to be used with DCC only, you can read about it here.

Matt thank you for that link, I didn't know those existed either.  I agree it seems like the way to go. 

Well there ya go Mike I hope all this helps..and you can take what Matt said to the bank.

They have some interesting stuff. More importantly, they illustrate how to use their products in various applications. I stumbled across them about a year ago while I was looking for alternatives to insulated rail for signal triggering at the club, plus I was looking for something that would be compatible with 2-rail operation on a hybrid layout.

They certainly do.  I also noticed that they show you what to use where and how ect...I was impressed.  I'm glad you came across these folks, I think I may be placing an order for a few items.  Thanks again Matt.

Frog juicers are awesome.  Use  them on the portable layout.  Just don't forget about them while you're running DCS and Proto 2 locos.  Had an issue several years back and fried the DCS board in the locomotive.   A case when smoke coming from the locomotive stack and through the cab windows wasn't desired.

 

Ooooooo that really hurts...

I'm glad we all could help you, and please keep us posted on your progress...