I am new to G scale formely modeling in N scale. I live in the Northeast. What is the recommendation I go with? I heard I should really go with stainless steel but was also told it is very expensive and to save a lot of money I should go with brass. What say ye all in Garden Railways land. My first ever post of hopefully many.
M.D.YOUNG - Welcome to Trains.com!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
Question: Will you be pushing electrons down the rail, or dragging them in your tender? (Rail or Battery Power).
I use LGB and (new) PIKO brass track. Make that flex track. My track cleaning time is about ten minutes a month. That is with a pole sander with 600 grit automotive wet/dry saqndpaper. Most of my equipment is track powered with 2 using battery. Brass develops a nice patina that acts to hide the rails somewhat.
Stainless will require some cleaning if you are rail power as other debris will contaminate the rail tops.
If you are planning battery power then cleaning will not be so much a problem.
Tom Trigg
I started with brass 20 years ago, and have made the big switch to stainless about 5 years ago. I do not miss all the cleaning i had to do before each run. now it's once a season with a follow up consisting of running any slider equiped engine before runs.
Dave
The head is gray, hands don't work , back is weak, legs give out, eyes are gone, money go's and my wife still love's Me.
Dave, Thank you. Do you recommend any particular brand and where do you recommend purchasing online? Thanks for the info. Mike
My preferance is Aristocraft. your best bet is shop the on-line retailers list on this site. and check www.aristocraft.com they have specials like buy 2 get one free. That, btw that is the brand I use with very few extra rail clamps. I have about 270 foot of track and 4 of the 10wide switchs on a 160 ft singel track main line w/two 50 ft + passing sidings. The track comes with screwed on rail jointers I bought a bag of extra screws to repace missing or lost by me. They all so have track guide of sorts of what they sell. 4ft thur 20ft diameter..
Look here, lots of info re: the above referenced question.
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/199029.aspx?PageIndex=2
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/202284.aspx
Living in the UK I was not aware of stainless steel track, only brass. The most freely available brass track some six years ago - and still is, Aristo-Craft. I like the Aristo brass track: whilst the tiny screws can be bothersome to locate at times they do maintain a good electrical continuity. That is how I have found it and no pastes, soldering or other time consuming methods have been needed. Aristo also has a larger range of track dimensions than most other manufactures; another plus.
I have two stainless switches, bought when brass was scarce about three years ago, but I find them 'hard' in comparison to brass. I keep them only as possible replacements: should they be needed.
One of the criteria often mentioned for stainless steel track is that it rarely requires cleaning and I have read that stainless prefers not to be cleaned so not to remove a patina that exists on the rail. However, I prefer to clean my track: lots of dirt and other things such as snail trails, bird droppings, salt, if you live near the sea as I do, can be on the railhead. Brass cleans easily and in my case, not having a large back yard, takes no longer than ten minutes or so. Health gurus over here do tell us that a brisk form of exercise, for up to 20 minutes, is good for us. I sure they are correct, especially for those of us retired from full time work.
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
Track or battery power?
Makes a big difference in the decision.
Greg
Visit my site: http://www.elmassian.com - lots of tips on locos, rolling stock and more.
Click here for Greg's web site
We use brass track out at the Colorado RR museum, and it works very well. We've got track-cleaning cars we run in the trains from time to time to keep things polished, and every now and then we have to tighten up a rail clamp or two, but that's pretty much it. I don't know how often the track is cleaned, as it's up to the club members who are operating to clean the track if they feel it necessary. I've never put anything on the tracks and had it not run for dirty track, though--at least not track that would have had different performance if it were not brass. (Steam oil, tree sap, etc.)
I've not used stainless track, so I can't really offer a firsthand comparison of the two. Those who use it seem to love it, and I can certainly see where they're coming from. My only "complaint" about stainless track is that for it to look prototypical in the garden, you've got to paint it. Shiny silver rails aren't very realistic. Brass track at least weathers to a dark patina over time. It's still not rust, but it's better than shiny yellow.
Later,
K
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