I soldered all my points to the throw bar and all the points were hinged for both code 100 and code 125 rail. I made the hinges for 125 rail out of SHS insulated joiners and for 100 rail out of PECO insulated joiners. The throw bars were made of PC board with a gap in the copper foil. The rail soldered like a charm to the foil. The main trick is to heat the end of the point so that it would melt solder before making contact with the foil. The foil delaminates if it gets too hot. Only failures were initial bad solder joints. They held for 10 years or more. One aspect I didn't like was that some of the point assemblies would work their way away from the hinge until the throw ran into its adjacent tie. There was not enough movement to cause the rail to work free of the hinge joiner; I just didn't like the unsightly gap. I think this creep was due to the tension at the rigid joints at the throw bars.
Ben Trousdale
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