If you haven't had another go at soldering the rails, theres a good chance this is a nickel iron alloy of some kind, akin to low grade stainless steel which will be magnetic, sanding, degreasing and a lot of heat quickly using a short blunt tip along with an aggressive flux and a flux free solder containing some silver (rosin will interfere with the acid in your aggressive flux) This will be the best chance you have. 60/40 tin/lead will do in a pinch too, get in and get out before the heat spreads. Placing the track on a metal or glass surface to dissipate the heat from the plastic to stop it melting will help too. Alternatively you could look into "wire glue" a conductive glue that would suit this application especially if you have a Dremel style tool to make the rail joints overlap instead of butt together. Either way its fiddly work and I wish you the best!

@endoorrailway

Ай бұрын

Thank you for the detailed information there - it's good to know why certain things work and other don't. I have indeed had success, using a more aggressive flux and a solder that contains silver :) With those things the soldering iron doesn't need to be in place too long and avoids melting the sleepers. I don't think I've come across wire glue before - that could be really useful in some other situations too! Thanks :)

Nice, informative video - looking forward to see your progress!

@endoorrailway

8 ай бұрын

Thanks 🙂

I’ll keep coming back to see this develop. It’s all very interesting 😊

@endoorrailway

9 ай бұрын

Great, glad you're finding it interesting :) I'm enjoying the adventure so far too!

Great idea with the plastic joiners.

@endoorrailway

7 ай бұрын

Thanks!

Hi Jonathan! This T gauge stuff looks so fiddly! Pretty sure I'd need a microscope to see it properly, never mind a magnifying glass! It's an interesting project though, and I look forward to seeing how it develops! With soldering the track, and melting sleepers, I had a similar problem with my N gauge sleepers when trying to solder to the bottom of the rail! I now cut the webbing between the sleepers adjacent to where I want to solder and push the sleepers apart to give me space to get the solder tip in! I then push the sleepers back into position once I've got the wires attached! Not sure if you could employ a similar strategy with T gauge! More heat is always better so you're not in contact with the rail for too long, and I've found flux a must to get solder to adhere to the rails! You could also try adding a crocodile clip or two to the rails to act as heat sinks! Good luck! All the best, Ian.

@endoorrailway

9 ай бұрын

Hi Ian, Thanks for the tips! I didn't have those issues with N gauge when I tried soldering between the webbing, but mostly I soldered to fishplates because that does two rails for one join. Nevertheless, it might be a good way to go with this T gauge track, especially as I'll be pulling the sleepers off anyway in order to link rails :) Yes, good idea with the crocodile clips!

ok that idea is pretty good. cant believe i never thought of this technique for laying flextrack withthe 100s of meters i laid on my own N scale layout

@endoorrailway

6 ай бұрын

Thanks - it was quite a while before I thought of it, but was please with how it worked with the N gauge

Great video! 👍🏻 Looking forward to see the progress!

@endoorrailway

7 ай бұрын

Thanks! 👍

@ 4:59 - I would suggest you use liquid solder flux when soldering a hard rail that can wick away the heat. Lead/Tin solders need around 280C, lead-free around 320-340C. If you can get it, use a fine wire gauge Lead/Tin/Silver solder (expensive) as this will give the best results, but don't rely on the flux in the solder wire on it's own.

@endoorrailway

7 ай бұрын

Hi, thank you for the useful advice - I think you're spot on with it! I did eventually have success using a more acidic liquid flux and solder with Silver in it :)

Hi Jonathan, try using a solder that contains lead because it has a much lower melting point. The lead free stuff I have given up using because as you found the heat required does to much damage.

@endoorrailway

9 ай бұрын

Hi Mark, I guess the route I'm going down it's hazardous materials either way! I'll give that a go if this other stuff doesn't work out, thanks :)

Cant wait till next vid

Interesting stuff. I started Z scale model railroading as a pass-time during Covid lockdown. The Z scale size appealed, especially the ability to make a good size layout in a small space. However I found train running to be unreliable and hence a little frustrating. Plus I liked the idea of DCC, So I moved up to N. I soon realised that the reliability of running Z was my poor experience in track planning and laying and I return to it every now and then. I'm tempted to purchase a T gauge starter kit. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Thanks for sharing.

@endoorrailway

9 ай бұрын

Thanks for the comment :) I'd looked at Z before but it had seemed more expensive and I didn't see rolling stock available that I wanted, but the actual scale really appeals to me. I think I'm a little way off having trains running on The Dawlish T Wall, but hopefully once I get there it will be informative for you :) And hopefully my trackwork will be up to the task for keeping things running well enough!

Oh my got its adorable I must have it.

Really interesting Jonathan. Didn't know you could get T gauge flexi track. Cheers Euan

@endoorrailway

9 ай бұрын

Hi Euan, thanks - yes, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it was an option :)

How would it be rather than soldering have mini bolt coming up through the base board and touching the underside of each piece of track. No need for a soldering iron.

@endoorrailway

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for the suggestion - that might work. I later had soldering success (though the video with that is mainly about ballasting), and I think soldering with the better iron, right tip, flux and solder will be easier than correctly aligning rods, and will give a more reliable connection. Thanks 😊

Are you planning on modelling the sea?

@endoorrailway

9 ай бұрын

I haven't quite decided yet - I think I'd like to have a bit of beach, but relatively high-tide sea - I'll have to see how far it would stick out. Near the station there might be room for at least some sea.

I doubt it is simply stainless steel as this would be a bad conductor and not magnetic.

@endoorrailway

7 ай бұрын

Ah ok, in that case I got lucky that what I bought to make the soldering work has actually worked :) The website says the track is "steel", but it doesn't say anything more about the composition of the alloy. It hasn't rusted, which I assumed standard steel would, but I'm no metallurgist!

@AlwaysCensored-xp1be

7 ай бұрын

430 stainless is magnetic. Coco cola has phosphoric acid in it.

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