The tip is grounded, forget working on live track

Tired of buying new soldering irons when the tip would go out in less than two years, I bought a really good quality one. The club layout had a bunch of feeders dropped for the track around the roundhouse, and it was time to hook them up.

Once the soldering iron was hot, I fluxed the joint and touched the tip to the live* bus wire. Sparks started to fly and I realized working on the bus wire with a grounded tip wasn't going to work. Good thing the club's iron isn't grounded.

*Yes, live. DCC track voltage is around 16V, with usually around .5-1A current draw. It's also very short circuit tolerant, so there's little risk working on live DCC track.