OK, I'm slowly getting it. Relative to feeder wires -- are they attached to the joints in between the rails so that the solder fills the rail joints and provides the electrical connection for the wire to the rail, or are the feeder wires connected to the rails at some other point along the rail -- halfway down the rail? Also, when soldering the joint, do you place the iron/gun on the top of the rail, on the inside of the rail, or somewhere else? I've seen lots of feedback about using higher watt guns and putting the gun on the top of the rail -- What about if you are soldering the feeder wire along the rail at some other point than the joint. I tried to put the soldering gun on the side, and metled everything. Arghhhh! (Gosh, this must really sound ignorant to some of you guys -- sorry). I have been practicing on a test piece of track and have melted everything every time. If I am supposed to attach the feeder wire to the track at some point other than the joint, how can I solder it without melting everything? Will metal clamps on either side of where I am soldering really help? I'm currently using Atlas wired rail joiner connections at both the near and far points of the track (nothign soldered) -- with all the talk about 20 guage feeders and 14 guage main bus, these Atlas rail joiner with wires must be 30 guage -- they are tiny. I probably need to rewire with larger wire but can't seem to get the soldering and wiring positioning correct. If I were ever able to solder feeder wire to the track, how do I connect the feeder wire to the bus wire running under the table. My setup is a new DCC layout, got a new engine, and noticed that it went appreciably slower on the extremity of my layout than near the power supply -- I haven't had a chance to try my older engine on the layout which I don't remember having a problem, but the new loco was visibly slowing down at the exremity, and we are talking 8 ft. Even if it is a problem with the new loco, I'm beginning to feel that my current wiring is insufficient. Sorry that there are several questions embedded in my message -- How to solder, and how to wire. Thanks in advance for some help.