I heard somewhere that nickel silver rail does NOT stick to a magnet. So the way to tell if rail is only steel (which will rust of course), is to take a magnet to it. If it does not stick, then it’s the good stuff, - nickel silver. Is this true?
Only if you use glue.
I had to go check. The magnet does not stick to Walthers NS turnouts nor Atlas flextrack
No…a magnet will not stick to NS. Pure nickel has a slight amount of pull but nickel silver doesnt.
Iron, nickel, and cobalt are the three magnetic metals, along with some certain ceramics.
When the percentage gets low enough in combination with the right metals, as in nickel-silver, the material won’t exhibit magnetic properties.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
If your track does stick to a magnet, it is steel track. That often comes with inexpensive train sets. Most folks do not considerit desireable as it will rust.
I got some one time in a box of stuff a fellow gave me. I use it for scenic purposes as, stacks of rail in the maintenance yard or laid along the right of way waiting to be installed. I use other pieces as part of scrap loads, bent and twisted. Recently I saw where it was used as fence posts around a railroad facility.
I wouldn’t throw it out, but I wouldn’t use it on the mainline either. I suppose it could be used as abandoned trackage.
Have fun,
Richard
I remember fiber ties on my track more than 50 years ago. I’m guessing it was steel.
Was there steel track on flex track with modern plastic molded ties?
I had some fiber tie flex track - the rail was brass. The staple-like ‘spikes’ that attached the rail to the fiber tie strip were probably steel.
–Randy
Could well have been brass. Rephrasing the question: When was steel track available?
I bought Atlas steel rails and Atlas fiber tie strip from the H&H Hobby shop in El Paso Texas in the early 1950s, the Flex was available but I couldn’t afford it on my paper route money. Rails cost 5¢ each or 10¢ for three and the tie strip was $1.25 for a 25’ roll. The premade track was 45¢, steel rail with steel staples on the flex fiber strip. The fiber strip in the roll wasn’t flex, I had to cut every other tie to make my curves.
By 1956 the steel flex had increased to 65¢ and the rails went up to 4 for 15¢.
I bought the spikes in a 500PK and they didn’t go very far. I was hand laying my track and making my turnouts (soldering) at 14. Didn’t have very many derails either.
Mel
Nickel Silver is non magnetic, by the way, there’s no silver in it …
Steel track [usually sectional] is magnetic however
The O gauge layout at the New York Society of Model Engineers (NYSME) in New Jersey is laid with steel rail. The club purchased a huge amount back in the pre war days. They had it custom drawn (or rolled?) for them. I believe that they sold half of it to a club in Baltimore. It’s nice to see an hear steel wheels on steel track.
I don’t know when it was first available in HO scale, but my guess is that it’s been around for at least 60 years. Steel looks more realistic than brass, and it’s cheaper to manufacture. Bachmann, Life-Like (Walthers) and Mehano still use steel rails on a lot of track. With Bachmann though, it’s easy to avoid on the E-Z Track system. Black roadbed means steel, and gray roadbed means NS. One other way to tell them apart is by the color. NS has a slight gold hue due to the brass used in the alloy, while steel has a more pure silver color.
NS track being non-magnetic is the main reason I built a new chassis for my Tyco Turbotrain. It used a slot-car chassis originally that relied completely on magnets to hold itself down, and the sprung track wipers lifted it off my layout’s NS track.
Thankyou for the reply.
Thankyou for that answer
Thankyou for that answer. I appreciate it.
Thankyou, appreciate the info
Our club has some steel track with plastic ties. I would assume it was early Atlas but I can’t be sure. Steel rail was offered in the 50s…I don’t think it was available in the 60s…We only have very short sections of it and it seems to work ok.
This is important to remember. Brass is also non-magnetic. Usually you can tell NS and brass apart just by the color, but NS has a bit of a brassy hue somtimes and every so often you’ll get some brass that looks less “Brassy”. Just take a closer look.
Brass is not the worst thing, and I know folks with perfectly good layouts that prefer it because it’s dirt cheap but it will require a bit more maintenance and cleaning.
I’m going all NS for my layout, but I’m keeping a box for Steel track as I run across it, I’d like to make a small portable sci-fi layout using a Tyco Turbo Train and those require steel tracks to maintain contact magenetically or even on flat ground the very fast Turbo Train can fly off curves.