If Track Were Wire

[CSX Robert]

BATMAN

How well does NS track conduct electricity compared to copper of the same size.

Not very well. It varies depending on which nickel silver alloy, but copper is around 16 times more conductive than nickel silver.

[rrinker]

TomDiehl

Code 83 rail is closest to AWG 12 wire. I found this nifty little calculator on line:

http://www.66pacific.com/calculators/wire_calc.aspx

NS rail doesn't conduct as well as brass rail, it has more voltage loss per foot. This part of the discussion came up on a thread about track cleaning. I don't remember the exact figures. The only thing that made NS rail desirable over brass was the claim that it didn't need cleaning as often due to corrosion, but I've questioned that for some time, especially in light of the number of track cleaning threads you see in here.

 I dunno, the only time I ever really needed to clean the track on my previous layout was after painting the sides of the rails. And that was in a completely unfinished basement - no drop ceiling, plain cement floor, cement walls. I did ban all plastic wheels from the layout though. And ran trains a LOT

 There's two kinds of dirt - particulate matter and grime that gets on the rails from the environment, overspray from painting, palster from making scenery, glue from ballasting, etc. That's going to be there no matter what kind of rail you use. Then there's the oxidation factor. Brass oxidizes with a very much non-conductive coating, and that's the sort of thing you need a slightly abrasive cleaner like a Brite Boy to clean off. Nickle-silver oxidizes with a coating that isn't much less conductive than the NS itself (or so I've heard - it seems more likely that NS is just highly resistant to oxidation). So, if you have dirt and paint overspray and so forth, you'll need to do a lot of track cleanign no matter what. If you run a lot of trains, it'll help keep the track clean, so get to that layout and run trains!

                              --Randy

[retsignalmtr]

Code 83 NS rail looks like it has the same cross section (if it was round) as 14 awg copper wire. if NS rail was as good a conductor as copper it would not be necessary to have as many feeders as we do. When I was a kid I used two sections of brass code 100 flextrack under my 4 X 8 layout as a feeder buss. Worked good. The best way to find out is to measure what the resistance per foot of wire and rail is.

[TomDiehl]

Code 83 rail is closest to AWG 12 wire. I found this nifty little calculator on line:

http://www.66pacific.com/calculators/wire_calc.aspx

NS rail doesn't conduct as well as brass rail, it has more voltage loss per foot. This part of the discussion came up on a thread about track cleaning. I don't remember the exact figures. The only thing that made NS rail desirable over brass was the claim that it didn't need cleaning as often due to corrosion, but I've questioned that for some time, especially in light of the number of track cleaning threads you see in here.

[BATMAN]

 If code 83 NS track were wire what gauge would it be? How well does NS track conduct electricity compared to copper of the same size. A bit of a strange question for sure, but it came up in conversation today with some visitors to the house.  Thanks.

 

                                                                    Brent