Aluminum track

[TrainLarry]

  I have 2 sections of '027' track that are aluminum. There are no track pins in them, no markings, and were well used. They have 3 ties, the aluminum seems to be of similar thickness (gauge) of steel track, and they look identical to steel track. Talk about flextrack, though! Searches turn up no info on aluminum track. Has anyone out there seen aluminum track like this before?

  Thanks for any insight into this.

Larry

[cwburfle]

Over the years I've run across some 027 track that was lighter than usual. As far as I can remember, the track always came with a 1960's Lionel train set. I Your post got me curious, so I looked in a box I had handy to see what was handy. This box had some track with black ties, and some with natural colored ties. Other than color, the ties were made of different gauge metal. But I think there was some even lighter stuff. Perhaps they used a lighter gauge metal for the rails.

The black ties measured out to be .015 inches thick. The natural ties were .0215.
The rails, measured at a folded edge were .030 for both. Since the metal was doubled there, the thickness must be .015.

I don't see how Lionel (or anybody else) could have used aluminum track. Unless it's protected, aluminum oxidizes, and the surface becomes unconductive. In the modern era, Lionel (MPC) made Trutrack with solid aluminum rails. It looked good (for it's day), but the trains wouldn't run on it.

[arkady]

I'd forgotten all about TruTrack.  In fact, I never even saw any of it in the flesh, so to speak.  

I'm willing to be corrected, but I believe that aluminum oxide is electrically conductive.  The real problems with aluminum track are poor durability and incompatibility with MagneTraction, which, of course, requires ferrous rails.

Or maybe the MPC folks thought that their traction tires made MagneTraction irrelevant.

 

 

[TrainLarry]

  Thanks for your input here.

The track in question is definitely non-ferrous. Both the rail and ties are bright as the day they were made. No oxidation or discoloring of any kind at all. The rails were made of .015" material, and the ties measure out to .030" thick material.

 Larry

[gunrunnerjohn]

I've never seen that track, sounds like it wouldn't stand up like the steel track.  Nice that it doesn't rust however.

[arkady]

I found a photo of some TruTrack at an auction site:

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/9421358

Apparently there was also rubber roadbed, a la American Flyer, available for it as well.

 

 

[TrainLarry]

The track I have was definitely made for electric trains, as the center rail is insulated, just like normal steel rail.

Possibly foreign made?

Larry

[cwburfle]

I have some trutrack. When I purchased it, the fellow selling warned me that it was only good for displaying trains, not for running them. I tried anyway

As far as I know it was always sold seperately from the track, and only came on blister packs. The straights and curves came on blister packs, and in bulk boxes.

I'm willing to be corrected, but I believe that aluminum oxide is electrically conductive.  The real problems with aluminum track are poor durability and incompatibility with MagneTraction, which, of course, requires ferrous rails.

 

Wikipedia is not the best source, but it is convenient:

Aluminium oxide is an electrical insulator but has a relatively high thermal conductivity (30 Wm⁻¹K^−1[5]) for a ceramic material. In its most commonly occurring crystalline form,

[arkady]

I stand corrected.  Knowing this, the surprising thing is that MPC ever made TruTrack at all.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'll wager that aluminum oxide wasn't that big an issue.  Remember, steel track oxidizes too, and trains won't run on rusty track either.

Aluminum wire is used all over the place in industry and the heavier runs in residential wiring.  Look inside your power panel and you'll find that stuff like the stove, A/C, and main feed are all aluminum wire if you're house is less than 50 years old.

[cwburfle]

Aluminum wire is fine when it is installed properly. Here is a Consumer Product Safety Commission document on it:  http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml74/74040.html

Here are a few excerpts from a NY Times article on problems with it. (full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/realestate/19home.html )

ACCORDING to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an estimated two million homes in the United States were built or renovated using electrical circuits with aluminum wiring. And, according to the commission and specialists in the field, unless certain safety procedures are undertaken, every outlet, light switch and junction box connected to such circuits is a fire waiting to happen.

Daniel Friedman, a licensed home inspector in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said that the problem is caused by oxidation and other factors that lead to overheating where the wire is connected at splices, outlets and light fixtures. Although that typically will not trip a fuse or a circuit breaker — those are activated by excess current — enough heat can be created to cause a fire.

 

[lionelsoni]

Rust is generally an insulator; but it doesn't adhere tightly to the underlying iron and flakes off easily, exposing the unrusted metal underneath.  If moisture and oxygen are present, iron and steel will eventually rust away completely.

But toy-train track is not bare steel.  It is plated with tin, which does not oxidize easily.  So it is important not to clean track in a way that is likely to wear off the tin.

There was an aluminum-wiring fad around 1970.  It fizzled out in a few years when houses with aluminum wiring started catching on fire.  The problems were with the connections to the wire.  For example, aluminum would cold-flow, loosening an originally good connection and allowing air in to oxidize the aluminum.  There were several reforms, both to the devices and to the wire itself; but aluminum never regained much popularity.

It has always been used for transmission and distribution lines and still may be found in houses for large branch circuits.  My house has an aluminum drop; but after that I used only copper, even for the 4-wire all-house feeder from the service entrance.

Any one who uses aluminum wire for a layout (I don't recommend it) should know that you need two AWG sizes larger than copper for any particular current.

[fredswain]

My friend Barry Bogs has a large indoor G scale layout using all handlaid track with aluminum rails. He runs DCC so no battery power. The layout runs just fine as long as the rail is kept clean. He does wish he used nickel silver instead though since he has had some expansion/contraction issues with summer heat upstairs where the layout is. He is also seeing wear on the outer rail in some curves. From a conductivity standpoint it seems to work just fine.