Alright I am totally confused now. I rejoin the hobby about 3-4 weeks ago with my old HO trains from the 70s. At the LHS they say throw all of my brass away and buy nickel silver as it doesn’t have to been cleaned and it conducts better.
At the MRR club they clean their nickel silver track with a train car.
I was talking to some outdoor G gauge folk, and they all want brass track for their layouts.
I did get some nickel silver for my layout, but haven’t dropped the $$ for switches yet. I used brass for my 22 curves, and other than using my bright boy for cleaning on both types I haven’t had problems. If my gandy dancer runs, all my trains run. If he stutters, I clean track.
So why do HOers not like brass, O still uses 3 rail tinplate, I remember as a kid, and G likes brass?
Also is HO and O available to run outdoors, or is the G gauge that much sturdier?
People who don’t run power through the track like brass.
I have brass and do run power through it with little trouble.
Nickel Silver is actually a brass alloy (brass is an alloy of copper, tin and who knows what else).
For track power outside, it’s very hard to be stainless steel.
When I was a kid, any “serious” model railroader had brass track. Nickel Silver was toy stuff for kids. Now, when a small scale visitor sees my brass track, they say, “Why do you G scalers use brass track? That stuff is for toys! Haven’t you heard of Nickel Silver?” Go figure[^]
Brass also seams to hold up very well under a diverse range of climate conditions which are common outdoors. For example thier was a big pu***owards aluminum track a few years ago until people started figuring out that under certain soil and climate conditions (high salt) the stuff could deteriorate fast. So the new push is towards stainless steel, but its still expensive and limited stock peices. Stainless will still deteriorate outdoors, just not as fast as plain steel would but faster than brass. The battery boys and live steam burned finger boys run brass because its cheap, durable and will last and they dont care how dirty it gets, track power guys buy it mostly for economy, some have switched to SS but its expensive. I suppose over time brass will go the way of the dodo but for now brass is king in the outdoor world.
I have been using brass track from aristo craft for almost 5 years now and had very little problems with it , just a little screw comming out once and a while , so i started using supper glue on them. BEN
You can buy nick silver for G, a Brit company called PECO make it and it’s exported all over the world. They’re big on scale track height and I have to say it looks good, not as strong as the brass track we by though. With the best will in the world if you have track outside on the ground it’s going to get stood on/kicked etc.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]
I ran 00/H0 on Peco nickel silver in the garden for 15 years. It works great but it has to be protected. It will damage easily if stepped on. It cleans up well. The points are made of a harder plastic that tend to break up more easily with the changing weather. Now a G scaler, would recommend brass.
All the best
Ian P
I think the brass used in G-scale track is different than HO scale. I use AristoCraft brass track outdoors and it hasn’t corroded in one year’s time anywhere near what HO scale track would look like after a year.
For my G-scale trains, I run battery power and the CVP Products’ AirWire900 wireless DCC system, so it doesn’t matter if my track does corrode.
Kim, we can get Peco G scale track over here, but the price[:O][:O], I only know one person who has got any.
Ian, Did you have any problems with the plastic sleepers / ties in the HO track deteriorating outdoors over that time? It really depends on the UV level in your area. I have seen the plastic in LGB track break down after 5 yearas here, so I wouldn’t give the HO stuff which is not treated much of a chance. I do know 2 people who have it outdoors, but both have got in shady arears so it doesn’t get sun on it.
Listen mate just about everyone, 90 % of people use brass rails and to do otherwiswe is regarded as foolish. If you wi***o do a lot of pointless pioneering work and try to reinvent the wheel do just what they say.
Glen/Ian,
Interesting stuff about LGB plastic being UV’d. I worked in the Falklands for a couple of years and the sun down there was intense, no pollution in the atmosphere. Do you think that plastic rated as UV resistant is really only resistant to northern hemisphere levels of UV and that down under it gets fried? I suspect, but don’t know, that you guys have a clearer/cleaner sky.
Anybody got any thoughts on this?
Sianora,
Kim
[tup]
HO track plastic will turn to powder unprotected in a few months outdoors. Doing HO outdoors would require either protecting the track, or hand laying. The trains will also be prone to UV damage and heat warping. Also outdoors in VERY hard to get HO track level, and the trains are prone to all sorts of potential train wreckers , like twigs, bugs, etc. It can be done, but I wouldnt recommend anything smaller than O. I’ve read where one guy installed an HO gauge track outdoors for a Gn15 tram, but later replaced it with O track due to constant derailing problems.
Thank you all, for you kind input, I am going to a Garden Railway party this weekend. They have a layout with waterfalls, and it will be interesting to see how it help up with all of the rain we had this last week. I will let you know how they came out. I will 99% keep the ho in the garage, and put the G outdoors. I think it would be more fun squishing the bugs, that having them squish and derail my HO train. Although in a 50 x 30 back yard, what an HO layout !
Anyone else have any ideas, I would love more input. !
On the “HO outdoors” topic, that’s a definite no-no here in Arizona. We once needed to determine how much HO nickel-silver rail expands or contracts with changes in temperature before we constructed a 40-foot long straight run on a club layout, so we put two pieces of Atlas 3-foot long flex track outdoors, in July, in the full sun. The rail became so hot that the plastic crossties began to melt and warp.
I had a passenger car get ruined when the sun shone through a window onto it in the Wintertime and caused the car’s roof to curl up into a “C” shape, and the car itself also bowed.
In Phoenix, metal wheels on G-scale rolling stock are not just desirable, but mandatory. Some people have reported that their plastic wheels melted on G-scale track in the Summertime.