brass rail code 100 track

[Anonymous]

hi wondering how brass rail is. have mostly nickel silver but have sume brass rail from a old tyco set would like information on benifites or negatives. just curios thanks.

[Anonymous]

RAINS!!!!! lol i was looking in someones profile and they said they love it i like it to it looks cool tyco rules!!!! i love rains and ayouts...lol cant wait ill outh aroina eace out im!!!!

[Anonymous]

Avoid using the track anywhere except abandoned sidings...Constant cleaning is the problem. As brass tarnishes it won't conduct electricity. Search the forum for threads.

[IRONROOSTER]

Appearance and poor conductivity are the two problems. As Trainnut1250 says, you have to clean it alot. When brass was more universally used, some modelers had cars with masonite hard board pads to scrape the rails. They ran the cars in regular service around the layout. Today you can also buy cleaning cars. Painting the rail helps appearance.

The only real reason to use brass now is that you have a bunch and can't afford ns track. If that's the case keep all your track in the open and buy a bright boy and run it over the track before you run trains.

Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

Listers,

I have a fairly large layout with 100% brass rail and about 95% brass switches. My layout fills a room approximately 16 x 40'. I use Digitrax DCC. The layout is primarily a large point to point switching layout. A full operating crew (once a month) is about 12 people. I DO NOT have any problems with corrosion or electrical contact!

That said, I concur that nickel silver looks better and I would have used nickel silver if I didn't have so many 150+ brass switches and many, many feet of brass flex track when I rebuilt the layout in 1995.

As I said, no problems with corrosion; no problems with electrical contract; no problems with DCC; no problems alledgedly associated with brass track! Oh, yeah, the train room is next to the "crew lounge" that has a working wood buring Franklin stove/fireplace. The train room gets a little dusty but that just adds to the weathering effect. And, no, I don't clean the track every other day. I do run on the main several times each week. However, my operators rarely complain about dirty track on little used sidings.

My recommendation to anybody just starting to build a layout is by all means, use nickel silver.

Bob
Pres & Supt, Central Pennsylvania Railroad
A Penn Family Line
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

thanks for all the help