Hi all...after spending most of my 50+ years in HO scale, I've begun to dabble in G Scale, hoping to eventually make a garden railway one of my post-retirement past-times. My plan is to go with reliable Code 332 brass rail for most of that project, but in the meantime I'm working on a static indoor G scale diorama with handlaid track to display my Spectrum Shay and Heisler. I'm planning on using Code 250 rail in the diorama, and incorporating a couple of scratchbuilt turnouts. For realism's sake, I'd love to use NS rail, but the cost is a little prohibitive, so I'm considering weathered aluminum rail. I've scratchbuilt HO turnouts in NS in the past, but I've not tried my hand at soldering aluminum rail. For those who have tried, how easy (or difficult) it is to solder hand-built aluminum switch frogs and such? I've seen vague online references to it being tricky, which makes me a little hesitant to dive right in to aluminum. Since trains won't actually be running in the diorama, I'm less concerned with electrical continuity than I am with the ease of fabrication of realistic-looking aluminum turnouts. Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks!
Don
soldering aluminum is tricky, your best bet is to find someone with a mig set up for welding it or a tig
Welding aluminum is a highly specialized skill. It the refineries I worked at, being a certified aluminum welder was a top bracket - with bragging rights.
That said, you might want to post this query on the Kalmbach Garden Railroad forum, for those folks could better advise you............
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
If you don't care about conductivity, I'd use epoxy.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
Thanks guys...after reading your tips and suggestions I think I will steer clear of soldering aluminum rail for the time being, as I'm pretty sure I'd just make a literal hot mess of everything trying to solder aluminum turnouts. I like the suggestion of just using epoxy for the static diorama, that way I can still avoid the expense of NS rail. And as for my future outdoor railway, I think brass will fill the bill sufficiently, especially since my concept involves trackage that for the most part will be slightly elevated above the viewers.
Thanks again!
The issue with aluminium is that it acts like a huge heat sink and takes a lot to heat it up. As previously mentioned, welding aluminium is extremely difficult and requires special equipment and skills. This is why body shops are having a hard time these days with repairing more vehicles made out of aluminum. Granted, aluminum was commonly used in wiring, so it can be soldered. You might need a soldering torch like plumbers use to solder copper pipes. This can be bought at a hardware store.
I did a wacky thing and did a search for "how to solder aluminum".
Might try doing that, too.
Aluminum doesn't show up in model railroading much, and the need to solder it even less, so you likely won't find an answer here. Unless yer lucky.
Do yuh feel lucky...........?
Ed
Kyle Granted, aluminum was commonly used in wiring...
Granted, aluminum was commonly used in wiring...
Quite true.
so it can be soldered.
THAT does not necessarily follow. When I've worked with aluminum wire, I've NEVER soldered it. No need.
welding aluminun is not that it requires special skills as much as the proper equipment , most singel phase migs don't have the amprage , the .250 rail would require around 200+ amps with argon shilding gas , welded a lot on it with both tig and mig and was once certified with stick overhead(what a pain to weld).that being said i would not recomend any home welder to try it as i stated in post find some one with the correct equipment.
I did Google soldering aluminum, although I narrowed my search to more precision, hobby-based applications, so needless to say I didn't come up with much. The most I could find was that it is somewhat easier to solder aluminum alloy vs. straight aluminum ("easier" being relative), but from reading the scant info on it, I got the distinct impression that even that is tricky. I was a little surprised that there wasn't more info on soldering actual aluminum rail out there, hence my posting here, but after learning about its other drawbacks (especially garden railways), I can see why it isn't a very popular option as rail, and thus not a ton of info about it.
For the purposes of my diorama, I suspect I could always just blacken and weather brass rail enough so that it doesn't look like brass.
Thanks again for all of the info and tips!
If it is not functional rail, could you just glue it or pin it in place?
CG
CentralGulf If it is not functional rail, could you just glue it or pin it in place? CG
That's one of the options I'm now considering. Ideally I'd like to energize the track so the locomotives' headlights and fireboxes are lit, but I can certainly do that without needing the turnouts to be "live". So gluing and spiking would suffice for the turnouts. I guess my only reason for soldering the turnouts would be for the practice, as I'd ultimately like to build a number of them for the future outdoor railway. (But then again, maybe a diorama isn't the best place for practice turnouts.)
I'm currently finding that brass rail is not all that much cheaper than NS (Llagas Creek, for example, has 6' sections of Code 250 brass rail for $12.95 and NS for $15.25). So now I'm back to considering NS, for the diorama anyway. Oh well, at least I've weeded aluminum out of the decision-making process.
Kyle The issue with aluminium is that it acts like a huge heat sink and takes a lot to heat it up. As previously mentioned, welding aluminium is extremely difficult and requires special equipment and skills. This is why body shops are having a hard time these days with repairing more vehicles made out of aluminum. Granted, aluminum was commonly used in wiring, so it can be soldered. You might need a soldering torch like plumbers use to solder copper pipes. This can be bought at a hardware store.
As I recall Aluminum wire caused fires?
Joe Staten Island West
joe323 As I recall Aluminum wire caused fires?
Nope.
Inadequate terminations (bad connections).
Not the wire so much as the poor connections made with it. Electrical connections need to be "gas tight." The term refers to the inability of air molecules to get between the conductors, so the connection needs to be physically tight in order to achieve that.
Unfortunately, aluminum wire connections are more likely to come loose than copper connections due to the physical properties of aluminum. When that happens, the aluminum oxidizes rapidly and heats up at the connection. The overheated connection can then start a fire if it is close enough to combustible material.
The same thing can happen with copper wiring, but it is far less likely and therefore less of a risk.
More on aluminum wiring connections (Whooppeeeee!):
When making aluminum wiring connections, one is supposed to use glup/goo/spooge "in there". Glup/goo/spooge is the technical term for the "stuff". It is reputed to minimize connection failures. Most people who bother to use it figure it surely can't hurt and likely will help. Only real downside is it's kinda messy. Which could explain the extremely common non-use of the stuff that I run into when examining aluminum wire connections. And, of course, it takes time.
Also important is getting the wire connections to the proper tightness. As you can imagine.
There are a lot of new products out there than people realize. I have been using Solder-it products for quite a few yrs. now..especially the Silver bearing solder paste on everything that I used to use 60/40 for and the paste is much easier to use and also 5 times stronger. As far as the Aluminum goes..it is not that hard at all to weld or solder. Go to a welding supply store and You can buy all the Aluminum welding rods You want, that You can use a plain ole' Butane 750 torch to weld with. Including making new or repairing broken mounting ears on cast Aluminum alternators, can even be drilled and taped. I have used it many times when I owned My own semis'....it's been out for years, may be a little pricey for some, but gets the job done.....also been welding for quite a few years. Sold all My equipment or gave to My Son's yrs. ago when I retired.
For small job's try the product in the link.....It also will solder pot-metal, which is what Atlas frogs are made out of and people still say it can't be soldered....which is incorrect!
http://www.rings-things.com/Products/EURO-TOOL-Solder-Aluminum-Pot-Metal-Paste.html?gclid=CjwKEAiA1vjCBRDd-9q3w4OF6WUSJACWv_sVP2WnrncVtXxjUHNIX036Ctm4vhyB5YYP8pAQ3vJPvxoCeOHw_wcB
''Merry Christmas, All''
Take Care!
Frank
When I was an electrician, we used a product called NoLox. It's a greasy mess! You had to literally smother the terminal (or wire nuts) with it. It's a barrier to prevent oxidation, which would create bad connections, allowing arcing and high temperatures which caused the fires. I checked on Alumiweld and it's only 25% conductive as copper.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR