Wheel Flange Clearance with soldered track feeders

Solder the wires to the outside of the tracks, problem solved.  That's how I always do it.

paint em if they stick out

I did this on the Fort Pitt Highrailers' turntable.  Atlas track, soldered low on the flange, both ends of the TT.  The center rail connections (2) are disconnected for transportation.  The bridge is removed and boxed separately.

Solder to the outside of the rails in most cases maybe the easiest.

The only track this does not work with is atlas:

Flip the track over, use a small flat screw driver and work it into the gap on the bottom of the rail. 

using a dremel with a burr (not a wire wheel) clean up the area you just put the screw driver in, being careful to not go through the rail, but get the surface clean and roughened.

Tin a wire then hammer it flat.

Put wire in rail.

Solder the wire in.

The end result is invisible, and nothing can hit it.

For atlas, I drill a hole in the rail, clean up around it, put the wire in and solder the hole shut. 

You can cut out a small piece of the plastic on the bottom of the Atlas track and solder directly to the bottom of the track, works like a champ.  Truthfully, I'm always soldering them after the track is laid, so I'm just doing it on the outside flange of the track.

Using Gargraves track I solder the drop to the underside of the rail, melting enough solder to form a "anchor" of solder inside the rail.  Never had one come lose and cannot be seen from above.  No wires attached to sides of rails.  Looks cleaner I think ...

To expand on what the gentleman from Indiana said:

Boilermaker1 posted:

Tin a wire then hammer it flat.

Trim the wire back to about 3/8" after flattening

.

Boilermaker1 posted:

Flip the track over, use a small flat screw driver and work it into the gap on the bottom of the rail. 

using a dremel with a burr (not a wire wheel) clean up the area you just put the screw driver in, being careful to not go through the rail, but get the surface clean and roughened.

Boilermaker1 posted:

Put wire in rail.

Solder the wire in.

Add a wire to tie the outside rails together. (Helps with Legacy/TMCC and DCS)

Steve

Boilermaker1 posted:

The end result is invisible, and nothing can hit it.

Steve

On my layout, all the feeders are soldered to the underside of the rail joiners.  No interference problems at all.   Earl G.

lightningstripe posted:

On my layout, all the feeders are soldered to the underside of the rail joiners.  No interference problems at all.   Earl G.

Pretty hard to do when the track is already down.

rattler21 posted:

Or use spade connectors forced into the rails from below without spreading them with a screwdriver.  John in Lansing, ILL

See above.

rattler21 posted:

Or use spade connectors forced into the rails from below without spreading them with a screwdriver.  John in Lansing, ILL

Until someone crawling under the layout yanks one out ... which is why we always solder them to the underside, melting a solder slug into the space with the wire, which flows into the hollow rail and makes a plug which cannot be pulled out from below by accident.