Solder Atals track together in tunnels?

I'm not entirely sure what the issue is.  When we solder rails at the club with Atlas track, I just clean the sides, then lay a small piece of wire in the side and solder it down.

I'm sensing you have a concern about the future, perhaps taking the track up if necessary?

I was thinking that if I solder them I won't have to worry about the connecters coming loose and connectivity issues down the road. My plan is to never have to take the layout apart.

In that case, IMO it's a no-brainer.

Instead of the wire method,if permanent i scrape the joiner, dab a little flux and solder. One side of the joiner is fine.

I had a friend who worried that the motors in his ho rivarossi engines might not last for the rest of his life.....he passed away and the engines are still running, put the tracks together fasten them down run a jumper to them and forget about what ifs...life is too short..keep the track clean and FAGETABOUTIT !

I've read many posts about soldering Atlas O track. I am concerned about melting plastic ties. How do you not melt the plastic?

Hi Keith, While soldering Atlas track, if you put a wet cotton ball on each side of where you are soldering it reduces the chance of melting the ties.

Just finished doing an 072 loop, soldered jumper wires, no problem melting.

I keep reading about this concern that Atlas track connectors come loose. Curious - what exactly is the issue?  If by "loose" does that mean the sides loosen their tightness to the rail sides?  If so, so what? The connector has rail sitting on it.  Or does it mean they can move back and forth?  If so, again, so what?  They aren't going anywhere. They are hemmed in - front and back - by the plastic tie tabs.  What am I not appreciating?  

Thanks 

The rail joiners are not a super reliable connection, especially for a run of any size.  They don't come "loose" in the conventional sense, they just don't conduct power properly all the time.

While I agree that solder connections are more reliable and will conduct better, I have not experienced any issue with my layout using just the joiners.

I have over 900 feet of Atlas track and 58 turnouts, run Legacy and MTH, and have had no issues with power, and just a couple with signals, but not joiner related. I do have one or two screws per track section, so it is not moving. Also, I seldom clean the easily reachable track, and have yet to clean the hidden track (dotted track in the picture below).

Along the same line, when I started the layout (five years ago!), I soldered the first two wire feed connections to the track, but then changed to my 'drill-hole, insert-wire, add small-screw' method, which was very easy to do, required no soldering, and has proven very reliable.

There were three reasons why I decided not to solder the track joints and take a chance with just the joiners: (1) If soldered, any changes I would want to make would be much more difficult. (2) With at least two solder joints per track section, it would have taken me much longer to finish the layout. (3) Concern about the potentially disfigured plastic ties.

But, I see nothing wrong if anyone prefers the solder joints!

Alex

Ingenerio..from above"but then changed to my 'drill-hole, insert-wire, add small-screw' method".

I can't quite picture that.Any images and ditto on the not cleaning track

Any positive attachment of the wires works.  Alex's method is probably as good as soldering, and it obviously works for him.

I copied Alex's screw fastening method for my Atlas track and it works great. I also share his reasons for not wanting to solder the wiring connections. The screw fastening method is very easy to do and to change which I have done several times since I started my layout. I am really glad to have found that before starting on my layout and glad he provided the details.

Alex describes his method in detail in his build thread, he has a link to it in his signature line at the bottom of his post. I think it is about half way down the second page if I remember correctly.

Hi RTR12

Can you provide the link for Alex Atlas screw method.

Hi Kris,

Yes I can, try Here

Are those drilled holes in the rail? And very nice layout and i like those UP GE's.

Hi Willgee

Yes those are hole drilled into the Atlas track.

Thanks RTR12 that is what I am looking for. I was looking under Alex M and going nuts trying to find it, not for

Ingeniero No1.

I am not in Alex's or GRJ's league, but would chime in to say - I've had my first of three mains screwed down for actually over 3 years now and this was my - a newbie's - first layout, and conductivity is fine so far.  I test with one of my MTH engines on ocassion and signal strength remains "10" throughout.  If it helps, there are approx 10-11 track section in every track block (I star pattern wired).

I'm no expert, but so far so good.

EDIT - forgot to say that I solder wires to the bottom of my track connectors, nothing too exotic.  

Peter 

Glad you found it Kris. It works great and I can't say enough good things about this connection method if you are using Atlas track. It is really easy to change things around too. Alex even listed the drill bit and screw size and type and where to purchase them.

FWIW, I didn't solder any rail joiners either. I made sure to use the dimpled rail joiners and made sure they were a good snug fit when assembling the track. I had some used track and rail joiners and I replaced any loose fitting or dirty looking rail joiners with nice, clean, new tight fitting ones. So far no problems with any of the connections in about a year and a half of operation.

Hi rtr12

I am at the point that the carpet lay  does not work for me anymore. Half my stuff is Fastrrack and the other half is Atlas track.  I am looking a semi permanent layout at using two foam 4x8 sheets of foam to mount the track on.  This is one of the problem that has to solved to move forward with this project, thanks for the information.

rtr12 posted:

I copied Alex's screw fastening method for my Atlas track and it works great. I also share his reasons for not wanting to solder the wiring connections. The screw fastening method is very easy to do and to change which I have done several times since I started my layout. I am really glad to have found that before starting on my layout and glad he provided the details.

Alex describes his method in detail in his build thread, he has a link to it in his signature line at the bottom of his post. I think it is about half way down the second page if I remember correctly.

RTR12,

I cannot find the drill size. Do you recall what that is? The link to the "screw it" method has been redirected.

Carl, I did search of Alex's posts for "drill" in this forum and found this from an early March post:  

I have tried different size drill bits, and have settled on No. 48 (0.0760), but 5/64 (0.0781) works well also - for 16 AWG stranded wire and the No. 0 screw; that is.

Moonman posted:

rtr12 posted:

I copied Alex's screw fastening method for my Atlas track and it works great. I also share his reasons for not wanting to solder the wiring connections. The screw fastening method is very easy to do and to change which I have done several times since I started my layout. I am really glad to have found that before starting on my layout and glad he provided the details.

Alex describes his method in detail in his build thread, he has a link to it in his signature line at the bottom of his post. I think it is about half way down the second page if I remember correctly.

RTR12,

I cannot find the drill size. Do you recall what that is? The link to the "screw it" method has been redirected.

Sorry, been a while since I read Alex's entire thread and I was thinking Alex had all the information in the post I linked to above.

Dave has it right above, with the 5/64 bit, but I also found it again and almost where I thought it was...

Try this link to page 5 of Alex's build thread (same build thread, just on page 5 instead of page 2)

As another FWIW, I used the OGR #16 wire to fasten to the track  (OGR #14 to my terminal blocks). OGR's wire is very nice, especially for DCS, good quality wire. If I remember correctly Alex may have also used the same wire? I think he added some additional info for me later on in another thread which I can't find right now, but we have covered most of it here.

Hi Kris,

There is a little more info here, see my above. I thought all the info was in the link I posted, but some was further down, but I think it's all been located now.

I hope this method works for you in your revisions. I would have never thought of it if not for reading Alex's build thread. He had a great idea there. 

found these for you

Thank you gentleman for the information and the link.

I am sorry I missed several of your posts regarding the screw method to connect to the rails. 

For 16 AWG stranded wire to the track, as I use:  

(1) drill Ø5/64" holes into the center and outer rails.

(2) Strip about 1/4" and make sure the strands do not fray.

(3) Insert wire into the hole carefully - keeping all the strands together.

(4) Use a pick to make an opening between the wire and the rail for the screw to start - the wire just gets pushed against one side of the hole.

(5) Insert the screw and tighten.

NOTES:

• I tried button head screws/hex sockets, flat head screws, and screws with brass washers, but the one that worked the best is, without any washers: Pan Head Sheet Metal Screw, #0 x 1/4". Black Oxide Philips. I buy these from Micro-Fasteners - their part number SMPPK004; at $4.30 for 100. You need a #0 Phillips screwdriver for these.

• In the pictures above, you will notice that I stripped and finished the red/center rail wire first, and did not even strip the other wire - yet. The reason is that if I stripped both wires to start, I inevitably frayed the black wire while working on the red wire. 

Alex

Thank you Alex a picture is worth a thousandth words.