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Friends,

I was wondering if any or you have opinions or experience on the preferred means used to transmit power to Carrera track rails via power taps. Many of us know it is difficult to solder directly to the stainless rails themselves. I noticed Carrera uses brass strips, bent into shallow triangles, which slide into the rail channels and are self spring-loaded to stay in contact; I have made some of them myself, and I guess they do the job. However, I saw Professor Motor supplies some knurled cylindrical inserts which grab onto the rail when shoved in, which I picked up but haven't tried just yet:

https://www.professormotor.com/ProductD ... e=PMTR7022

I am really not sure which has a better contact patch, and thus transmits power to the rails better. Do any of you all have any opinions on the matter?

A bare piece of #12 house hold wire works fine if it is just slid up under the track rail 3-4 inches. #12 wire carries 12vdc with ease and very little resistance. While it's not real flexible in a tight area, it works fine if you cut out the table underneath. It is many dollars cheaper than buying all the jumper wires Carrera makes.

What Matt said.
When the Artin track first came out, we made jumpers with bare wire shoved up under the rails. The Carrera track design is similar and those jumpers work fine.
Resistance is reduced with multiple carriers so the multistrand wire, when unwound, will do a good job.

Paul knows!

I have never seen the underside of Carrera track, but for Ninco track I made these clips from K&S phosphor bronze sheet.

Thank you for everybody's input. I will probably use the knurled inserts for the tiny wires for the lap counters, and the thicker wire trick for the extra power taps.