wiring dropper wires to points

[tootsie100]

hello i am in the middle of wiring drop wires to my track,but how do you solder the drop wires to points,i have the clips in the points at the moment would this do instead of soldering drop wires to the points thanks for any advice in advance

[Flashbang]

Hi

Electo. point clips will suffice, but they can overtime become loose or displaced completely.

The best way is to do as you are doing. On points solder the dropper wires to the points two stock rails (Outer straight and opposite outer curved rail).

 

Ideally soldering the droppers to the rails underside before laying the point is the neatest way.

[poliss]

If you have droppers before and after the points then you no longer need point clips. There's not really a need to solder droppers to the points either. :-)

[2e0dtoeric]

I do - I soldered droppers to the toe-end, which is more or less the same as Flashbang's method. It's probably not strictly necessary, if the track sections either side of the point are droppered, but it reduces the chance of a dodgy fish-plate contact.

[2e0dtoeric]

p.s. Especially in a 'busy' area, ie a marshalling or fiddle yard, where there are a lot of sets of points interconnected.

[poliss]

You can find lots of websites that will suggest all sorts of modifications for improving electrical reliability. Allen Gartner's is probably the most well known.

Linky http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches.htm

[Flashbang]

Hi

Do be a little cautious with modification to points. As many of these are designed for Electrofrog points, which Hornby do not manufacture.

 

On DCC and where Hornby points are used and all of which are Insulated frog style, you don't need to

 

carry out any modifications other than fit Digital point clips.

However, if you want to improve power/data transfer through the point you can add power feeds (Droppers) to the two outer most rails - ideally to the rails underside as they then become virtually

 

invisible.

Plus if wished and especially where any short circuits occur where wider metal wheels are able to bridge the two Vee rails at their closest place on the frog area or where the metal wheels can touch inner face of the open switch rail at the

 

beginning of the point, you can remove the metal joiners and add two Insulated Rail Joiners (Plastic fishplates - Hornby part R920) to the ends of the points Vee rails leading away from the frog. Then add more rail feeds (Droppers) after the IRJs.

[Roddyrail]

I'm new and constructing a matrac layout. Question, what are droppers?

[Bulleidboy]

Droppers are the wire(s) used to connect you track to you bus cable. If your bus has been created using domestic mains power cable - usually stripped of it outer cable and using the blue and brown wires - these would normally run below you baseboard - roughly underneath your track, and the "droppers" are usually soldered to the track, passed through a small hole in the baseboard and connected to the bus cables. Droppers can be created from domestic lighting cable, again stripped of its out covering, and using the brown and blue wires as I said connected to the bus. You can solder or use connectors whatever is easiest for you. Most modellers will have droppers from every individual piece of track connected to the bus - your controller will connect to the bus cables. Your bus cables do not need to be connected in a loop and connect your controller about mid-way.

If this is all "new" to you, I would suggest you read, it's available online Brian Lamberts book - The Newcomers Guide to Model Railways or read through the stickies listed at the top of the main menu on this forum.

[Fishmanoz]

And Brian Lambert’s website, excellent, google it.

[rpjallan]

I have tried many things over a long period of time to make my insulfrog points as reliable as possible. I found the Hornby point clips to be very unreliable after a short period of time, especially if you want to weather and/ballast your track.

The method I have settled on now is as the 1st pic on the page linked above. However, where it shows the stock rails and point rails joined, I continue that wire to be the dropper to your bus. What I do that is not shown in the diagram is fit insulated joiners to the frog rails. Obviously, you need the track joining the points to be powered also.

I also tried isolating the frog area & then switching the polarity as if it was an electrfrog point but this didn’t prove any more reliable than what I have described above.