Screw It Method on Gargraves

Not sure how well the screws will hold with solid track. We used all Gargraves and Ross to but soldered from below the rail. In spots where we forgot and had to go back to add feeders, we just soldered to the outside of the rail. It's easy, and if you are going to paint and ballast the track, no one will ever see the solder joints.

If you're not going to paint and ballast, just place the feeders in spots where they are less visible when looking at the track. We use a Weller iron, turned up to full wattage and it's plenty of heat to solder 14 or 16 ga wire to Gargraves.

On my gar graves track I have always laid the track down. Then I take a sharp drill bit and drill into the side of the track on both center and outside rail. I drill down through the table and then place a wire one end into the rail and the other end through the tabletop. I then run solder on the wire in the track..............................Paul

I just screw it down through some ties, with blackened screws, and dab the hole with a black marker.  One hardly notices the screws.  It's all a "willing suspension of disbelief" with toy trains anyway, just like theatre.

Isn't he talking about wire connections and not securing track???

Lancer

Just solder it!!!

I picked up some used GG track a while ago which had some screws in it for the wiring, UGLY

Steve

Lance, what I do to wire GG Track is work on the under side of the track. I use 16 gauge wire RED and BLACK I stripe about 5/8 inch of insulation off and slide the wire between the tie and rail it's a good fit. Than I solder it and give it a good pull to make sure it  holds. I also do both outside rails. It's worked well for me.

best method is soldering in my opinion

Agree with what LOS said.  I kept my Dremel handy with an attachment to remove just a bit of the Phantom rail coating to make the soldering easier; the tinplate rail is a snap.  Used the Weller 100/140W gun.  With some paint and ballast the soldered spots disappear.

If you are going to pursue the "screw it" method (catchy title), try the Dremel with a small bit to create a starter hole for the 3/8" drill you're probably using.

"Screw It Method on Gargraves"

Well, when I was using Gargraves track and switches, I never had any problems with it at all. Very good stuff.

However, back in some of my HO days when I was learning to hand lay/hand spike my track using very small rail, there would be times when it wasn't going so great, and yes, then I employed the "screw it" method: Leave the fool layout to rot and go watch TV.

Of course, later I would calm down, return, and make some progress... but yup... used the "SCREW IT!" method many times, on many other projects, too. (Still been known to use it.)

Someone recently had a thread on soldering with a title along the lines of "Thank you Jim Barrett," and he went on to provide a link to a soldering tutorial that appeared in OGR in the past.  I read it and it was very good.  As a premium member, Lance, you can access that same article.  I'll see if I can find the article and post it in your thread here.

Here's a link to the tutorial; you just need to sign in:

http://ogrdigital.uberflip.com...-soldering-made-easy

when i had gargraves,i used a dremel to clean a spot to solder[the cleaner the better].stainless gargraves was always harder for me to solder to. i never worried about hiding the wire.90% of people looking at your layout will not notice it.ha ha-jim