Just to put this into prospctive, the price of 18 karet gold today, Tuesday 3-6, was $1331.40 per oz. Anyone want to give it a go at that price??
Also , gold is very soft, so what to do when / if it wears away after some use?
I definitely did not mean gold but would a metal any metal that doesn’t corrode and is conductive could you plate track with that and would it help track cleanliness? I definitely don’t think using gold would be worth the benefits…
Earliest one I recall was April '70, page 65.
Russ Larson wrote an editorial on the topic in the April 1978 issue. In it, he said the first was the classic “pressurized basement” article in April 1952. Others he cites include the “Muddle of the Month” in April 1970 and the Undecorated RR in April 1977. The 1978 fooler was the “Lunar railroad you can model” on page 87.
Maybe Nickle Plating would work better…
And I’m guessing they still haven’t had a story about G&W buying the G&D.
I didn’t think of “Muddle of the Munth” (note sp.) as a gag; I thought it was poking a little fun, like awarding the enormous Dremel tool to the guys who kitbashed “D&H 302”. I kinda looked forward to seeing more examples … a bit like I delight in the Ig Nobel Prizes every year.
I’d think gold would roll out very thin (on properly-prepared base stock rail) and resist wearing a relatively long time; I have to confess that I actually thought about doing gold-plating on polished railheads using the sort of wet-electrolyte-and-metal-brush technique used for jewelry fabrication, followed by pressure burnishing. This puts a very small mass of whatever karat composition gives the best mix of wear v. Electrical conductivity ‘where it matters’ and while it doesn’t have quite the grandeur of Mr. Otte’s proposal I thought then, and still do, that it might be a useful approach where contaminants pose an ongoing operations issue.
Hello all,
“Brilliant!!!”
Hope this helps.
Good point! and there’s a prototype for that too!! [:P]
Jim
I agree…I’ll give it a thumb through before I buy it.
The January and March issues was great. I was hoping for more issues like those two.
I thought that Rolled Gold was a pretzel.
And in other news, Bachmann announced today that there would be a flex track price increase. Bachmann said that the current MSRP for a 25 piece case of track would increase from $199 to $950.72. A spokesperson said that this was due to a new manufacturing process whereby a thin coating of gold was applied to the track to help keep the track clean.
Isn’t that ‘Rold Gold’?
I’m an unregenerate Mr. Salty (and Snyder’s of Hanover Bavarian) fan myself.
Note when I say ‘roll out very thin’ it’s in the range of plating used on electronic contacts designed to be made and broken multiple times. And just on the contact patch of the railheads and perhaps on those zinc treads. I would not put it past a Bachmann that puts 3-pole nonskew motors in premium engines while doing a Snidely Whiplash impression to raise their price to match the spot market while quietly pocketing the difference. But an effective anticorrosion layer for even a large layout might involve micrograms, and some of the YouTube videos on refining gold from electronic scrap might produce that from ‘sources on hand’…
I’ll give you Synder’s, but much prefer one of the many local ones - they don’t call Reading “Pretzel City” for nothing. Uncle Henry’s, or Tom Sturgis - THOSE are pretzels!
–Randy
I actually thought that was one of the larger edition in a while. I’m not complaingin though, as it still was packed with content.
.
I was ten when that one came out. I remember it well because I thought it was a great idea and became something I wanted to do. I was so disappointed when I found out it was a gag.
.
I just had time to read my April issue yesterday, and I must say that was a great one.
.
Frankly, I would love to put some of my wife’s unused jewelry to good use, but I will never mention it. I am sure I would hear about the brass locomotioves that rarely leave their boxes.
.
-Kevin
.
How often do you check up on the condition of the foam? I have seen results of foam decay, and they are horrifying…looks like a chia pet.
Thank you for the concern.
.
None of the brass locomotives are stored in their original boxes/foam.
.
I had BATTLEFOAM of Arizona customs cut foam for each of the locomotives to store them standing up in plastic shoe boxes. They are also always wrapped in protective plastic sheeting from BRASSTRAINS dot com.
.
-Kevin
.
What page of the March Issue is the joke on?
I’ll look for it.
The APRIL Fool’s joke is in the APRIL issue.
Try ask MR and the news & reviews section in the APRIL issue good luck hope I didn’t make it too easy.
Plating track will not be practical, as the model equipment will wear it off. I have also noted some club track worn so far that on a curve the harder resistance surface, like the outer rail is worn in, making it like an L rail instead of an ][ rail. Just glean it and it will be good. But I still believe in a track cleaning train, I have cleaned crud off club car wheels as thick as the flange and they were derailing till I figgerred the dirt was that thick. I think no matter how gleaning you get yer gonna get dirty track and wheels. I found it. What no golden girl? At least a golden spike… I recall one of the earlier April fools mags, but it was noted as the April fools page and a bunch of funny articles were on a couple or more pages. Now you’ve got me wanting to pull out some of them mags…