track plating

[Anonymous]

what was the original plating on O Guage. Tin, Zinc, alloy or what??

I have lots of track that is tarnished and missing plate.

I rejuvinated an old Erector set by having a local plater replate with Cadmium, came out beautiful

Any thoughts

[ben10ben]

It's always been tinplated that I know of.

By the way, Erector Sets also used tinplating at on time, starting in 1959 or so and going through the end of production in 1962. Cadmium plating was used through most of the '50s, and nickel from 1913 through the early '50s.

[lionelsoni]

Modern plumbing solder is almost pure tin. I use it frequently to plate steel and brass. I wet the base metal with tin, using flux as necessary, and then wipe the excess tin off with a paper towel while it is molten. The only part of the track that needs the tin functionally is the very top of the rail. So, unless you want the look of an entirely shiny rail, you can just tin a strip down the top, without disassembling the track.