Thanks for the tips, I'll give it my best shot.
To answer RJR's questions, first of all, good questions and make sure the smoke detector has good batteries.
The best I can do is answer, "I have no idea." The video I watched is under the title, "NTE Electronics Heat Shrink Self Solder Butt Splice". Search You Tube using that title and it should come up at the top of the list. It's 3:44 long, shows you step by step how they do it, and the solder in the middle is about the size of a small fishing sinker. So once melted it should lock the wires together pretty good. As for the sliding the wires together into a mesh, they show that as well.
Give it a whirl, trust your gut, maybe this is a method that might save you some time, still allow you to solder the wires together, and less mess in the end. If not it's good boring visual entertainment for 3 minutes plus. The most deciding factor in all this for me is that I already have the wires attached to the clips under the track and the track is nestled down to the carpet with A LOT OF track screws that I don't want to have to take out in order to be able to unhook the track so I can turn the track over and unhook the wires so I can use all 12 gauge from start to finish. So being lazy and into shortcuts that will work, I promise you, it will work, I decided to use the easiest method, for me, there was.
Crimping butt connectors would require me to use shrink tube to finish off the connection. I just trust it more. Crimping requires me to use a big tool that requires me to get it right the first time and invariably one end comes out when I crimp the other. This method is cleaner, more effective, does two things at once using heat and in the end it connects the two wires cleanly and creates a bridge for the electricity to travel effectively. Straight solder works, makes a nice connection, but it's more work than I wish to do for what I am doing. I'm simply upping the gauge of the bus wire hoping that I get an even better power distribution to an already working system that does exactly what I want it to do. Runs trains correctly. I have 16 to 18 currently. It works fine. "So why bother?" I'm bored, I need something to do, my bridge is finished, winter is coming on, I can't stand prosperity, I think this will help even though it's not in need of help, and my wife finds it sexy when I work on my layout. Need I say more.
