This may just be a hypothetical concept, but the thought came up today as I explored some of my numerous inventory of turnouts collected over the years. There are a number of nice quality, and like new condition brass turnouts of various varieties in that collection. Are they all destined to the trash heap, or can some of them be utilized??
I guess one of the first questions that comes up would be about their electrical conductivity. Is brass track really any less conductive along the rails than NS, nickle silver? Then if we consider just a single short section of brass rail as we might encounter by inserting a single brass turnout into a layout consisting of all NS track, is it going to make a great difference in terms of electric conductivity?..and particularly if we provide it with its own feeders as we might with DCC wiring??
I don’t think the rail to rail conductivity is going to suffer.
Then how about the rail to wheel conductivity? I believe that if the rail heads are kept clean, as we strive for anyway, the single inserted brass turnout is not going to be that detrimental to the overall layout?
Appearance? Certainly many modelers would be concerned about the difference in the color of the brass track as opposed to the color of NS rail. But if the track (and particularly the track
The nickel in the nickel-silver may slow/moderate the occurance of various oxides and sulfides that appear on brass rail surface, and impede rail to wheel electrical continuity.
I suspect the problem with the above is overblown. But if I am wrong, and you install them, who loses?
I might use brass track:
in a hidden yard–Code 100, too, for that matter
AND
if the hidden yard could be easily removed and replaced if my chance-taking turned out to be a bad choice.
I wouldn’t use brass rail out where it shows because, well, it shows.
I think I’d do just the oppoosite - brass rail requires more cleaning, so putting it in hidden, hard to reach areas is asking for it. You CAN paint brass rail just like most people paint nickel-silver rail.
But mostly I’m with Ulrich, I would avoid brass track today.
When I wrote “hidden yard”, I had in mind hidden off-stage, not under the scenery. I guess I chose the wrong words.
I envisioned on-the-other-side-of-the-backdrop. With plenty of headroom for manipulating the off-stage rolling stock. Like transferring it from storage boxes to track.
I’m talking about a yard that’s maybe 2 feet wide and 12-16 feet long. That takes a LOT of track. And, like I said, if it turned into a problem, I could rip it out inside an hour. And be where I started, the experiment over.
Brass track is easy to solder, easier than N-S in my experience.
If kept clean it works fine – I do not mean to minimize the challenges to that “if” by the way.
Guys were happy with brass track for decades but the switchover to nickle silver was pretty rapid once a good variety of supplies and sources for nickle silver flex track and turnouts became available with appearance being one huge advantage, better operation being another.
Interestingly, guys seemed happier with brass track when virtually all wheels were metal. The advent of nickle silver track coincided with the advent of lots more plastic wheels. I can remember removing accumulated gunk from my plastic wheeled freight cars on my first snap track layout and the gunk had a decidedly “brass” color tinge to it. Hmmm.
While I would never go out and acquire more brass track I see no harm in experimenting if it is bought and paid for and sitting right there, given your intended use, but my deep hunch is that at some point the brass will get replaced.
How much time have you got?? Don’t waste it with brass track. Toss it and don’t look back. If you install it, you will most likely end up removing it at some point…
Specifically, Shinohara never made a #5 code 70 turnout with Nickel Silver Rail, but they did produce it in brass for a while.
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Brass is a better conductor than Nickel Silver. Brass is easier to solder than nickel silver.
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I think the superiority of Nickel Silver is exagerated. Nickel Silver does look better, but once the sides of the rail are painted it is difficult to tell.
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I was always told that Nickel Silver was better because the oxide it produced was conductive. Well… my personal experience has seen otherwise. It still need to be cleaned.
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I intend to make a double 45 degree crossing on my layout out of code 100 brass components (if I can locate 1 more), and have no revervations about it.
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I believe Nickel Silver rail became popular around the same time higher quality ready to run track components became available, and that contributes to the reputation of the material.
The oxides of the metals in nickel silver are not conductive. Anyone who says so is wrong. As in: wrong!
I was there. It took awhile for it to become popular. That’s because, at first, you could only get rail. So only people who could build their own track could use it. Since those people were looked up to by all the other model railroaders (because of their skill), and because the rail was the right color, it became, not popular so much, as glamorous.
Glamorous in model railroading. Who knew?
After awhile (a NOTICEABLE “awhile”), it became available in flex track. But ya still had to build your switches. Or use brass, as has been posited here (I don’t recall anyone doing that, however).
THEN switches showed up.
I think PERHAPS Atlas dragged their feet on nickel silver, and PERHAPS Shinohara filled the void first, pretty much out of nowhere. Imported by Lambert (the name of the family dog).
Also. Brass track was Code 100. Some of the new nickel silver rail was Code 70. VAST improvement: Giant wrong-colored rail or proper-sized proper-colored rail. Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions.
That rail, too, was hand laid. At first. I did it myself, on an 18" x 8’ layout. The main was Code 100. The interchange with the branch was Code 70. There was no Code 83 yet.
5 out of 5 model railroaders agree that trains are good (should we try for 6?).
5 out of 5 agree that not having trains is bad.
5 out of 5 agree that DCC can be VERY irritating.
4.98 out of 5 agree that painting decent looking clouds on a backdrop is impossible. They are all looking for that .02 guy. To make him an offer he can’t refuse.
I was always told that Nickel Silver was better because the oxide it produced was conductive.
The oxides of the metals in nickel silver are not conductive. Anyone who says so is wrong. As in: wrong!
I believe Nickel Silver rail became popular around the same time higher quality ready to run track components became available, and that contributes to the reputation of the material.
I was there. It took awhile for it to become popular. That’s because, at first, you could only get rail. So only people who could build their own track could use it. Since those people were looked up to by all the other model railroaders (because of their skill), and because the rail was the right color, it became, not popular so much, as glamorous.
Glamorous in model railroading. Who knew?
After awhile (a NOTICEABLE “awhile”), it became available in flex track. But ya still had to build your switches. Or use brass, as has been posited here (I don’t recall anyone doing that, however).
THEN switches showed up.
I think PERHAPS Atlas dragged their feet on nickel silver, and PERHAPS Shinohara filled the void first, pretty much out of nowhere. Imported by Lambert (the name of the family dog).
Also. Brass track was Code 100. Some of the new nickel silver rail was Code 70. VAST improvement: Giant wrong-colored rail or proper-sized pr
On my first layout, I had Atlas brass track (on fibre ties - turnouts, also from Atlas, were kits). My locomotives, steam and diesel, had brass wheels.
When the wheels and track were clean, the trains ran great. When the track oxidised (usually in less than a week) it was easy enough to clean, but locomotive wheels less-so. I generally placed some dry fine wet/dry sandpaper under the wheels on one side, then held the loco while applying power.
Both cleaning rituals got tedious pretty quickly.
My next layout and my current one used nickel silver track, and while the second layout was fairly short-lived, the current one has been around for a while. I’ve cleaned track only after ballasting or after adding scenic material near the track. I don’t clean loco wheels, either, except for the one steamer with brass drivers, and it’s currently in the shop for a re-build, which will include new drivers. The majority of the freight cars have plastic wheels.
My layout is DC powered, so no keep-alives, or bus wires with feeders all over the place, just low maintenance and good performance on nickel-silver rails.
First off I must say there is no way I would consider laying brass track for an entire layout. As others have said its just too much to keep clean. So folks started to switch over to NS, and the turnout manufacturers followed suit.
But in some cases they did not continue to build all the same turnouts in NS. And/or they have ceased to build some of the turnout configurations in NS. That is sort of what prompted me to make this posting. I was looking thru my ‘collection’ of various brands of double-curve turnouts to see what radii selection I might have to chose from,…without resorting to custom construction.
I was surprised at the limited choices, and got to wondering what might have been made in the past, even in brass, that might be viable. And if I found something that had only been made in brass, could it be adopted to a modern layout of primarily NS.
One thing I noticed about most of my older double-curve turnouts is that they all had metal frogs (might be good for live frog DCC). Also a few of them had frogs built to incorporate the different curves,…don’t see that these days. That prompted me to think about the possibility of replacing the brass track with NS.
I also found some old Atlas brass double-curves that look as good as the day they were made (bright and shiny),…and they have definitely not been pamper by proper environmental storage,…in fact they have been in a HOT, HUMID cargo trailer sitting in direct FL sunshine for the past 4 years.
I also have some Roco turnouts (made in Austria) that I consider VERY well made turnouts.
Would I consider placing a single brass specialty turnout in trackplan near the aisle? Yes.
Its going to represent such a small area of track, and its going to be easy to reach with a brightboy.
I don’t see any reason why a few easy-to-reach turnouts would be too much of a cleaning burden, and at least you don’t have to contend with brass wheels.
If you paint the sides of the rails like the rest of the track, and keep the brass railtops clean, they won’t be all that noticeable as brass, either.
If you feel that the brass turnouts are operationally as good as, or better, than current-day nickel-silver offerings, go for it.
