074 The Navajo Mining Railway - Assembling the Sections

Today we'll finish putting the sections of hidden staging together.

Hobby Stop had some bumpers in HO so I bought some.

This one is mounted on the track where the removable cassette will be.  This will keep the train from running off the track into the canyon full of carpet.  An once of prevention...

I've cleaned the track with alcohol and a lint free cloth (available from hospitals if you know the right nurse!)

The next step is to check all the rail joiner connections and solder them together, with the exceptions of the ones that are across section gaps.  The far rail in this picture has a bump in it where the rails don't line up perfectly.  We'll fix that.

Using liquid flux and silver solder I manipulate, file down and smooth out ever joined section of rail.

The best tool for the job?  A thumbnail!  Run your thumb nail up and down the rail head.  If the rails don't meet perfectly your nail will catch on the joint.  Works like a charm!

I use a flat file and file down most of the rail section, especially if they are not perfectly aligned.

Again, I run the test car over the track and listen for a clickity-clack.

All the track is ready.  Now we'll mount the sections.  Here is section one ready to go first.

I couple them all together.  Section three is a little rough fitting, so I made a few adjustments.

Ok, I made a ton of adjustments.  This didn't fit well at all and the rails were too short to meet evenly without a gap.  So using my mini table saw I cut some of the roadbed off to make them meet flush.

I grabbed a box of 1 1/4" drywall screws and the wood glue from the garage.  Again, I tested the track alignment.

Using the Sharpie marker, I marked where the section goes so that I know where to put the wood glue.

This board was glued in place, and then predrilled and screwed down to the sectional supports for a firm fit.  That board ain't going no where!

Section two of the hidden track was positioned and marked.

With some work, section three was finally installed and screwed down.  The track is ready for a test run.

Using the test car I push it back and forth.  Occasionally I find a bump or something out of place and tune up the track.  This take time and can be frustrating but resist the urge to move on until the track is perfect!  If not, you will pay the price later.

The car is rolling freely and the grade level is perfect.  No run-aways!  I need to get a better, heavier car and test it again.

One more time, I clean the track and then vacuum it thoroughly to remove any remaining dust.  We're ready for a powered run test!   Electrical conductivity is what we want to verify.  Even though I wire each section of track separately, any two drops should power all the track if I did the work right.

073 The Navajo Mining Railway - Hooking Up!

We made 20 feeder wires in the previous episode, now let's install them!

For track work I use a 40 watt iron with a large chisel point.  This one is by Weller.  I love this one for a very handy safety feature...it has a glowing orange light on it to let you know it is plugged up.  I've left irons on many times.

I use liquid soldering flux for track work.  It flows better and makes less of a mess than past fluxes.

This soldering iron needs to be cleaned and tinned, so we take the time to do it right.  Sponge is wet and ready to go.

Using the marks made in purple I find the hole and drop the feeder wire or "drop" into the hole with the tinned "hook" at the top.  For wiring I make the locomotive engineer's side red, and the other side white.  This is part of the loop so the engineer is now going the other way, so white is closest to me.  Goof this up and you are rewiring for hours!

Put a drop of flux where you want the solder joint to go, then heat it with the soldering iron and touch some silver solder to the web of the rail.  If you do it right you'll get a nice, flat, shiny silver surface on the web of the rail.

I get a good mechanical fit with the wire forced into the web of the rail.  A good physical fit will give you a good, solid solder joint.  Once it fits together, hit both the wire and the rail with the soldering iron for a second and bond the two.  Hold the wire in place if needed.  The joint should be shiny if you get a good bond, and not flat or dull looking.

Use a drop of alcohol and a cut down flux brush with stiff bristles to clean the track.  This is a very important step because if you don't remove the flux it will migrate to the rail head and cause the electricity to slop conducting to the train.  It can also corrode the track or wire later on.

..
There!  A nice, shiny, soldering joint.  Normally I would not do this on visible track, but since this is hidden I'd rather have a great bond than a small joint.

Clean the joins thoroughly!

Once the drops are soldered in, test them with a freight car.  You should not get any bumps and the feeder wires should be OUTSIDE of the rails, not inside where they can hit the flanges.

If you need to label your wires, now is a good time to do so.

This piece of track has a little build up of corrosion on it, so I'll just file a clean spot for soldering.

More drops installed.

The frog on the Walther's turnout has a mounting lug on the side.  We'll use that for adding the green wire.  The green wire is 18 AWG gauge and won't fit through the whole, so I'll drill a 5/64th's hole next to it.

File off the black coating on the mounting lug so that you get a clean surface.  Add flux and solder to tin it.

Pull the green wire through and solder its tip to the mounting lug on the frog.

With turnouts be extra careful and test using a test car to see if there is any interference from the soldering joint.  Clean the track carefully around turnouts as to not damage them.  The are delicate and expensive!

I finished up all the drops and thoroughly cleaned and checked the track.  We're almost ready to run trains!

072 The Navajo Mining Railway - I Need to Get Wired!

Still no snow here in Utah, and the weather is nice.  I've spent a lot of time outdoors, and have only worked on the layout in the evenings.  Let's get wired!

Using a purple Sharpie (I have a whole set of wonderful colors!) I mark where I'm going to install "drops" or more properly called "feeder wires" on the track.  The drops bring power from the bus wire below to the rails themselves.  Notice the "V" shape on the left.  That indicates a power feed to the frog on the switch.  This wire will come from the Tortoise to power the frog.

Using a 5/64ths drill bit, I drill holes on the outside of the rail, at either side, for the drops.

My shop is really low on wire, so I'm going to have to go shopping.  Hopefully the Black Friday crowd is gone.  We'll use 12 AWG red and white solid copper wire for the power connection, and 18 AWG red, white and green for the drops.  You can use stranded wire, but there is always a chance of breaking it during installation.

The 12 AWG red and white came from Home Depot.  Guess I should have known I can't get everything I need at one store.

The red and white 18 AWG was changed to 20 AWG wire and I bought a spool of bell hook up wire (twisted pair) for a reasonable price.

The green 18 AWG wire came from Radio Shack.  This was all the wire they had in solid copper.  I will use the red and green at the workbench, though.  Always good to have wire handy.

Time to heat up the soldering station.  I turn the heat to 300 degrees

Using a push/pull topped dropper bottle I squeeze some water onto the dry sponge that is used to wipe off the soldering tip.

With my small cutters, I clip the wire at 12" intervals.

For this wiring zone I need 8 white, 8 red, and two green.  Here is the white and red, though still twisted together.

Here is the green...snip...snip....

My tool boxes are full (help, Santa!) so I keep most of my electronics tools in a specially marked box.

There are three tools that I can use for stripping wire; the cutters, a pulling type stripper, or a standard stripper.  I don't like to use the cutters, and the blue/yellow strippers only work well with really small wire.

Selecting the 20 AWG hole, I strip 1/4 of an inch off of ONE SIDE of each wire.

There!  Our wires are ready to go!

Next we'll need some paste flux and silver solder.  I only use silver solder on track connections because it is so strong and flows better.

I need to clean the tip, so I brushed it with a sanding pad, dipped it into the flux and added solder to the tip.  I did this step again, and wiped the tip clean on the sponge.

This is Max.  Max likes to hold stuff.  I handed him one of the drops and told him to be still.

I had dipped the wire into the flux before clamping it, and then I heat the wire with the soldering iron and touched the silver solder to it in order to "tin" the wire.  This makes is solder much more easily to the track.

Using flat tipped pliers we'll shape the drops.

 First, I bend a 90 degree bend into the wire.  Click on the photo to see it more clearly...

Then I bent the wire again another 90 degrees.  This allows the wire to snug up into the web of the rail for soldering.

The top part of the wire should only be about 1/8th of an inch long for HO and On30.  If it is longer, just clip it off.

One by one I tin and bend the wires.  They are ready to be installed!

Tune in next time when Little Billy falls into the well!

Wizdom:

1.  Make your drops a bunch at a time.  Saves time heating up the soldering iron.  This a great job for tv watchers.
2.  Wire gauge can vary with scale and gauge.  Be sure to check before wiring and used recommended DCC practices.
3.  A variable heat soldering iron is the best for this kind of work if you can find one.