0029 T Gauge - Getting started - The Dawlish T Wall

[@TheFairway8]

I used to own a caravan down in Brixham I can remember maybe about 20+ years ago when there was an horrendous storm with many warnings given out for the area. I went down to Meadfoot on the hills with my family to watch this storm as I’d never seen anything like this by the sea coming from North London at the time. It was an amazing experience. There was an amazing photo in the local paper of a train ploughing through as the wave crashed right over the train quite incredible. I also remember by the seafront in Torquay the floods were incredible and a car had somehow floated and been stranded in The middle of the green by Torre Abbey.

[@endoorrailway]

Wow, that sounds extreme and exciting! I've never been there in that kind of weather, but have ridden on trains being overtopped by waves. An interesting aspect of the line is that the up line has bi-directional signalling so trains can all be a bit further from the sea when it's like that.

[@TheFairway8]

@@endoorrailway yeah at the time I believe they said they were the worse storms for about 80 years or something. The train photo was that exact stretch of line you showed at the beginning of the video

[@nickthorp1624]

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]

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 :)

[@AlwaysCensored-xp1be]

Great idea with the plastic joiners.

[@endoorrailway]

Thanks!

[@Chacma-d7u]

I have been watching people replace integrated circuits in cell phones. The pins stick up and they drop the new chip.on.with no wires sticking out of the side. So here's a thought make holes in your track. Place pins in the baseboard connected to the power supply. Now simply place the track over the pins. as where you have holes the plastic. No need to solder. Drill the holes in the plastic only so that the pins meet the bottom of the track.

[@endoorrailway]

Thanks for the suggestion - relatively recently I tried drilling into the rails to get a pin into them, but it's too fiddly without a precision drill press. I think your suggestion would work, but I'd find getting those pins in exactly the right position in the trackbed very difficult. I've ended up removing one sleeper where I want to put wires, to treble the available space for soldering, and I'll add something back in at a later time to hopefully hide the wires.

[@daveb.trains7019]

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

[@endoorrailway]

Thanks 🙂

[@mattcox3415]

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

[@endoorrailway]

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

[@iansngauge]

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]

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!

[@RobSchofield]

@ 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]

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 :)

[@Madhuntr]

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]

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

[@PiddleInTheMarshbyMarkIreland]

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]

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 :)

[@hotportugal2786]

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]

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!

[@Thebigfour1923]

Cant wait till next vid

[@RudiLoof]

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

[@endoorrailway]

Thanks! 👍

[@mortenw7777]

soldering paste helps

[@joeydr1497]

Oh my got its adorable I must have it.

[@thegrowler-blackwoodngauge]

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

[@endoorrailway]

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

[@davidrumbelow]

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]

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 😊

[@stormbowman7148]

I just can't wrap my head around that the track in the front is N scale.

[@endoorrailway]

Yeah, it looks like it should be O gauge track or something next to the T gauge.

[@stratosphere2133]

Are you planning on modelling the sea?

[@endoorrailway]

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.

[@johnmurray8864]

It's great fun to build but a nightmare when things go wrong like getting stuck in a tunnel😢😢😢😂😢😢😢😢

[@endoorrailway]

Ah, yes, not much space for fishing them out! I intend to have a tunnel at the South-West end of the layout (Kennaway tunnel) - I'll have to make sure the side is removable.

[@Netaction]

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

[@endoorrailway]

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]

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

[@laurencecope7083]

Don't ever use lead free solder, it is the worst.

[@endoorrailway]

Lead-free has been OK for me on other metals, but it definitely seems to have limits! Thanks.

[@ungurdani8346]

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