Dropper wires

[Stokeyboy]

Hi all. Being new to DCC there is a question I need to ask o dropper wires. It is my intention to solder underneath the rail, rather than the side. I have in my possession some Hornby nickel/silver track. Having looked at a straight piece most of the underneath is black plastic to which the sleepers are moulded, apart from two small areas of exposed metal either side. Are these areas specifically there for soldering purposes?. Thanks.

[St1ngr4y]

Those gaps in the plastic probably weren't intended for that. Have you considered soldering to metal rail joiners instead? That's what I did and I've had no problems. Peco even sell them ready-soldered.

 

Ray

[Chrissaf]

None of the Hornby branded track have areas specifically reserved for soldering. Soldering does not appear in the Hornby Marketing vocabulary. That's why everything (electrically) that Hornby bring to market is designed to plug together.

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I agree, putting in the droppers as you lay the track is a good plan, and thus it does give an opportunity to solder the wires more out of sight on the underside. You will need to cut away a small part of the plastic webbing to make a space for the soldered wires under each rail. I do however suggest that you stagger these soldered connections so that the plastic webbing removal cuts are not directly opposite each other between the same two sleepers.

[2e0dtoeric]

Practice on a scrap piece of track first, then if you make a complete hash of it and melt the plastic bits, it won't matter

[morairamike]

If required cut away two sections between sleepers. It doesn't matter if these are at the ends or in the middle, myself they are in the middle, opposite each other. The rail is a good conductor, it's the fish plates that aren't.  They spread and offerohigh resistance to the power If the track piece has a cut out section in it for a power clip then solder your wire there. I use 7/.02 wire for my droppers. Red for left rail, black for right. These go to 1.5 mm mains cable stripped out of its out sheath, which run under the base board. The mains cable insulation is cut away to allow the droppers to be soldered to the buss wires. Red to Red,  black to black. The droppers are soldered to the bottom of the rail and soldered to the buss. The buss wires are twisted once every 1 metre. Apparently best practise is not to have a circle buss but to have a Y with the track powered in in the middle and radiating left and right. On my layout the lift up access flap is the end of the Y arms. 

Trains on my original layout ran with no problems in this configuration. The new layout is being wired at present but I have tested the track and buss all ok.