Having tried both glue and solder, I will always prefer solder for large assemblies - far less mess, and no stooging around waiting for glue to set, plus it is possible to un-do a mistake without wrecking the parts.  Besides, I can never put anything together with glue without getting fingerprints everywhere!  However, it does require some investment in a decent temp-controlled soldering iron.  Motorised_Dandruff blog mentioned a clever set-up using a computer power supply to run a small 12V iron if you don't already have one.

If you are interested in trying soldering, I can supply all the low-melt solders you could ever want, have in stock 221, 183, 179, 145, 100 and 70 deg varieties.

Regards, Paul

Have a look at this soldering solution : www.nz120.org/forumtopic/product-reviews

I recommend using 70 degree solder for Trackgang kits, and I totally agree with Woodworks comment " it is possible to un-do a mistake without wrecking the parts ". The trickiest part is to make sure the ballast hopper is sitting squarely in the frame. Here's a pic of one of my Y'c's. It needs a bit more weathering, details painting and decalling.

Watch out for the 70 degree solder with whitemetal, it can be quite brittle unless the mating surfaces are tinned with something higher temp....for large parts with plenty of bonded area it is usually not a concern, but small parts may be knocked off very easily.  100 degree solder has been formulated recently to reduce this problem, 'tis tin/lead/bismuth same as 70 deg., just different proportions to fix the brittle failure problem, which has also raised the melting point.

Pre-tinning parts with something like 145 or 179 prior to joining with 70deg is also effective at preventing brittle failure, it just requires a bit more time.

Regards, Paul

What's the melting point of white metal?