Fishplates Droppers???

[krisworton]

Hi All,

Im just about to restart my layout and have purchased an elite. I want to install a BUS cable beneath my layout and have seen some pre-soldered droppers connected to fishplates.
This seems to simple to be true no hassle and easy to use.

Has

any body seen/used these before or would you stay away from them.

If they are ok to use would you still suggest clips on all point is this not required due to being able to connect both sides of points via fishplate droppers to the BUS.

All assistance

appreciated.

[poliss]

It's best to solder droppers directly to the rails. Once you have droppers to make your whole layout live then you won't need point clips.

[Phil_Spiegel.]

Soldering to track, in-situ, can present difficulties - due to location, and other factors. Therefore the idea of sodering to separate-at-the time fishplates, at a convenient workbench,has a lot of advantages - stnadardised 'droppers' can be created using

2 (or more) differing colours of wire, and of a standard length to be dropped through pre-drilled holes when actually fitting the track.

However, if, as with some makes, the fishplates are 'nickel silver' or maybe some other materials - you may find

the solder (normal resin-cored) does not 'take': applying a separate flux immediately beforehand will usually resolve this, and ansure a good firm joint. Due to the material involved, (whatever type of flux) this is best carried out at a work station, and

not all over the layout.

A continental company whose products I use supply their digital point motors pre-wired to fishplates - and use a thin copper strip wrapped over the length of the fishplate, and back through it at either end to ensure good conduction.

[i][Before

anyone comments - because I then use the points in 'live-frog' mode, I remove the fisplates because the point motors are wired to a separate dcc accessory bus, and I re-use them for track-bus conncections.][/i]

[stevecamden]

I have fitted about 5 pairs of these pre-soldered droppers at 'strategic' parts of the layout - I don't know whether or not you really need a bus wire on small layouts, but I did it anyway.

Anything to avoid soldering has to be a positive as far

as I am concerned...

Steve

[poliss]

I hope Flashbang won't mind me quoting his post from another place.
"connecting track feeds to the joiner isnt such a good idea as it may seem at first! This is because reliance on the push fit joiner onto both ends of the abutting rails is likely

eventually to become high resistance. Mainly due to the small expansion and contraction that occurs in the rails. This the movement at the joiner allows microscopic particles of airborne dust to enter their sliding fit. Eventually the rails tarnish and the

particles build up into a nice high resistance joint preventing electrical flow. This often manifests itself with locos suddenly slowing or even stopping on a section of track with power applied and all working elsewhere!"

[Flashbang]

Help yourself Poliss. :-)

[Junglehouse]

Hi everyone,

I tried to solder to the fishplate over the weekend and had so much trouble getting it to "stick" (I'm not very good at soldering anyway) I gave up and soldered further along the track. So I think I'll take Flashbang's advice and solder

droppers elsewhere in future.

Regards, Tim

[Phil_Spiegel.]

Phil: The use of a SEPARATE FLUX applied to the fishplate FIRST is ESSENTIAL ! (O believe I mentioned that earlier). The SEPARATE FLUX will also make soldering to the RAIL easier! - just take great care about handling the open bottle over the layout!.

Fishplate

connections are fine until people use 'wet ballasting' or start painting their rails .... then the PVA adhesive or insulating paint draws itself into the gap between rail and fishplate, causing it to be insulated!
Loosening fishplates can always be tightened

with a pair pf pliars, to 're-crimp'.
In the worst case, they are also replaceable. Soldering to to flexible track can make it harder to re-use, as it will probably not slide through the chairs as easily as unsoldered parts [assuming you have removed the

wiring first 8-).

The lighter the rail-size, the easier it will be to solder to: For 00/H0 and thinner rails - [N, 009] now Code 100 or less, it is easy with most modern soldering irons.
For larger gauges - such as Code 332 on G-Scale, it is not

practical, and mechanical clamps (fishplates) are best.

Has anyone ever tried using low-temoerature solder for soldering to rail??? (I havn't)
(Separate flux again being a requirement)

[Graskie]

I always solder to the fishplates wherever possible and have had no problems as a result over 15 years, although, I must admit, I haven't got round to ballasting yet. I find it more difficult to solder to track as it takes time to get sufficient heat on

them to accept solder, but you have to do that for slips, for instance, which you need to isolate. By the way, I use fluxed solder and I solder wires direct with no "drops". Am I doing it the wrong way?

[Phil_Spiegel.]

Graskie said:

I always solder to the fishplates wherever possible and have had no problems as a result over 15 years, although, I must admit, I haven't got round to ballasting yet. I find it more difficult to solder to track as it takes time

to get sufficient heat on them to accept solder, but you have to do that for slips, for instance, which you need to isolate. By the way, I use fluxed solder and I solder wires direct with no "drops". Am I doing it the wrong way?

carry on using

the fluxed solder - BUT you will find it much easier with more flux = applying it as a paste or liquid first, so that it attaacks and cleans the surface o the metal .... you may find you use less cored-solder as a result, because you may have been wasting

some of it to get enough flux from it.