Wire Welding

If there’s one thing that heads the bottom of my list of modelling capabilities, it’s sticking two bits of metal together with solder. I’ve always been pretty bad at this skill, no matter how much I read and practice, I just don’t seem to be able to put the theory into action in a consistent and tidy way.

However, tonight I cast aside any fears and sprung reluctantly into action with the welding iron as I need to get some track feeders in place before building can continue. Up til now I’ve built most of the middle and upper levels as removable pieces as it would be too hard getting an iron into track hiding underneath higher levels later on.

My electrical intention, as mentioned earlier, is to weld tracks into strings about a metre long, and then have a feeder connecting each string to a main power bus. The feeders, in addition to the fishplates between strings should provide a reliable power conduit but the gaps between strings will allow for some rail expansion and contraction as the seasons change. I’m not going DCC on this layout (well not at this stage anyway) so things are complicated by having to marshall the electricity into blocks, and further by having a twisting layout where the inside track becomes the outside track and back again in a short distance, confusing my head as which colour wire to attach to which rail.

As for on-off-switchable blocks, I figure I’ll have one for the uphill track, one for the down, one for each storage track (the Micro Trains switches don’t provide any form of electrical isolation), and perhaps one for the big arrival track on the lower level. Each track will have a three position switch so it can be fed from either of two controllers or be isolated when trains are being stabled. 

If trains run at the same speed up and down one might be able to get away with having one transformer set on 50% of power and merely sit there flipping block switches and points to make the trains stop and start...

Don’t look now, I told you this would be ugly. The big red/black bus wire is for the uphill tracks a bus wire for the downhill track is yet to be purchased! All joins have some visible access from either within the hidden sections or from under the layout.

One of the more exciting innovations, derived several ciders into this session, is the DB-patent-pending Bunny Hopper™ - one feed provided between two strings that powers both. Next time I’ll do this in a cider-less state...