There are two possible reasons for a dull joint, the dry joint as mentioned, or your tin lead solder is actually lead free solder. An annoying feature of many lead free formulations is that you appear to produce a series of dry joints, which actually aren’t. A common cause of dry joints is movement of the joint as the solder solidifies. Admittedly this is hard to achieve with track droppers, but a good rule for soldered wire joints is there ought to be a good mechanical joint before solder is applied. This usually means bending the wire into a hoop, or similar, around the terminal. For your dropper problem I’d suggest stripping a length of rail out of the plastic sleeper web. You can then practice your technique on the rail without worrying about melting the plastic. A small bottle of flux might be helpful. You need flux intended for electronic assembly, rather than some of the acid fluxes intended for putting brass kits together. Practice really is the key to soldering. It’s a bit like learning to ride a bike. Seems impossible to start with, and once you can do it you wonder what all the fuss is about.

As an aside, Lidl are currently selling 48W digitally controlled temperature adjustable soldering irons for £17. You even get two reels of solder and some spare bits. I’d have purchased one save for the fact that I already have three soldering irons.

Hi all,

For those not in the know there are a few of us on here who have 'through runnings' from layout to layout, each member having some of the same wagons and/or coaches. There are often back stories as to various scenarios with pics to accompany the story accordingly.

As this has increased I, and I'm sure some others, have lost track of who's who and where's where so I have decided to compile a list of liveries and the fictional characters from the various layouts as an easy reference point.

These can be amended so please feel free to add anything and more importantly correct me where I have gone wrong. I'll put question marks where not sure or I've forgotten, leave blanks that need to be filled etc.

WAGON LIVERIES-

LAYOUT - CANT COVE/PENMAYNE (Chris in Prague)

Dark Blue                            Castle Brewery
Light Blue                            Castle Estates
Satin Orange                        North Cornwall Pasty Co.

LAYOUTS - PORT PERRAN/TREPOL BAY/TREGONNING (Port Perran) (Martin)

Dark Brown/Black with
gold flash                             Headland Brewery
Terracotta                            James and Sons (Granite Merchants)
Dark Green                          Messrs. Prish & Jones (Fruit & Veg Wholesalers)
Red                                     Port Perran Timber Merchants

LAYOUT - WITHY JUNCTION (?) (Mito) (Brian)

Apple Green                         Sam's Cider
Purple/Red                           Creech Brewery

FICTIONAL CHARACTERS -

LAYOUT - CANT COVE/PENMAYNE (Chris in Prague)

THE CHELSEA GIRLS -
Sylvia (Trevelver)
Eli (Elayne Guillou from Brittany)
Belinda
Monique
Jenny
Amanda

Lord Trevelver
Lady Trevelver
Jenkins (Head Butler)
Captain Jeremy Corentyn Cador (Naval Officer and Sylvia's boyfriend)
George Trevelver (Sylvia's brother)
Brigita (George's wife from Germany)
Admiral Tregowan (Naval Officer)
Giles Roskrow (Wine and Spirit Merchant/Importer)
Alan Poldory (Thief/Con Man)
Detective Rule
Detective Snapper
Dr. WHO (himself)
Susan (the Doctor's Granddaughter)
Colonel Lethbridge Stewart
Lady Penelope
Brandon Williams (Castle Estates top salesman)
Marrek Prowse (General Manager Castle Estates)
Sir Mortimer Wheeler (AKA Naughty Morty)

LAYOUTS - PORT PERRAN/TREPOL BAY/TREGONNING (Port Perran) (Martin)

Lord Poldain (Port Perran Manor)
Lady Poldain
Sir David Antrobus (Chairman Headland Brewery)
Lady Rosemary Antrobus

LAYOUT - WITHY JUNCTION (?) (Mito) (Brian)

Sir Horace Speakman Court (Withy House)
Lady Alice Speakman Court
Hugh Pocock Hillary (Owner of Sam's Cider)
Peter Creech (Creech Ales)
Penny Creech (Peter's wife)
Stephen Millards (Mid Somerset Trading)
Wendy Millards (Stephen's wife)

LAYOUT - MARTON HINCHMARCHE (Innovation game) (Laurence)

Baron Toby Tiverton (Beresford Hall)
Lady Annabelle Tiverton
Wally Percival (chef at the Interrogative Seven restaurant)
Alun Peacock (as above)

LAYOUT - PERTHSHIRE RAILWAY PRESERVATION SOCIETY (Milton Rail) (Andrew)

Brian Ranch (Timber Merchant)
Walter Nuttall (Timber Merchant)

LAYOUT - PRINCPAT d'IZARO (weave) (Chris)

José Maria de La Vega (Mayor of San Cristofol)
Sofia de La Vega (daughter of José)
Xurde Valdez (Mayor of Tutera)
Pedru Valdez (son of Xurde and co owner of the El Gaitero restaurant)
Catala Valdez (daughter of Xurde)
Fermin Muguruza (co owner of the El Gaitero/fisherman)

LAYOUT - TRÉMARGAT ST. CROIX (weave) (Chris)

Marielle Kebriant (CIWL Representative) *only put her here as she was born here and I haven't got any characters
                                                             that I can remember*

Hope helps. Updates soon.

Cheers weave 

Thanks Malc.
I already had been cutting the the web away allowing the sleeper to slide to and fro so giving a good area to work on. Cleaned area with fibre pen first. When applying (tinned) iron, trapping (tinned) wire against rail underside I didn't hold solder to intersection of joint though relying on tinned surfaces. The solder looks shiny when tinning but rapidly fades to, well, lead colour.

The Dapol Schools on offer is in a very early BR livery so it could plausibly be seen with Dapol Maunsells or Farish Bulleid coaches in early BR crimson and cream, or the former still in pre-grouping malachite. In early BR days the class was confined almost entirely to the south east.

Hi again all,
An update on my soldering efforts- partly to get a few more guiding pointers to help me further along the road, partly as others might find help in my experiences.

Following JTHJTH's advice,  I sent away for some tin/lead solder with 'rosin core'. The one I bought (via eBay) was actually 63/37 and Chinese made. I now believe I had previously been using "lead free" and maybe rosin free?

In order to try to get my iron tinned I tried a gentle rub-up of the cold tip with a fibre glass pen. I bet some of you have spotted two mistakes already!..

However, with the cleaner tip the solder began to tin the tip rather than sliding off. More like it!

I also found that my iron (40w) had maybe not been hot enough previously.

So tinning iron seemed to be fine, tinning of wires also began to seem fine and Aafter much trial and error, I'd attached sets of droppers to seven lengths of n gauge code 55 Peco flexitrack. But I still:

Had trouble getting to tin the underside of the track.
Had problems with melting sleepers so long was it taking to get the joint to 'fuse'.
Though I achieved some soldered joints, the quality of the solder I question- all joints are matt not glossy and as the solder cools it becomes pasty and lumpen rather than flowing through the joint like model soldering does.

I reckon the Chinese solder might be dodgy and still wonder if I should invest in some flux. Admittedly I bough a cheaper version than JTHJTH said. But steps forward! Thoughts?