Old School Rail Update

[Track fiddler]

Well,  I learned a lot why nickel silver rail is the best available track we have today.

It was my thoughts for many years that stainless steel rail with stainless steel factory terminal joiner wire feeds would be the cat's meow.  A Dremel cutoff wheel in industrial Diamond would make quick work for cutting those Flex track rails.

Stainless steel is of the hardest steels there is.  There's too many downfalls to use a rail like that in our model railroad track.

Just like a hader diamond that cuts a less dense diamond.  The hard stainless steel rail would wear on the wheels of our locomotives and rolling stock a lot faster.

And even if they started making locomotives and Rolling Stock with stainless steel wheels with the exorbitant cost,  what would we do with the rest of our stuff

The different ferocitys of metals do not mate and have reactions.  A parked MR train on a siding or in staging that sat too long probably would have some kind of reaction on the bottom of the wheels.

Stainless steel is towards the bottom of the totem pole in conductivity.

I had nickel silver rail in a box for a year and a half.  It did corrode and had to be cleaned even though it was never exposed to any elements.  But the point is made no matter what kind of metal you have for rails, it's the contaminants that dirty it.

https://questtech.ca/blog/best-conductor-electricity/

I guess it doesn't matter what steel you use.  The track still gets dirty.  (Black Crud)

Although I do appreciate the idea of Old Ed's Code 83 Platinum Rail ...If you can afford it.

It was quite an interesting thread and felt the need to type my conclusion.  The opposite in the end of what I originally thought after all the points were made

 

TF

[TF - The link above has been substituted for the previously posted photos of the same.  In the future please provide links to online articles or websites rather than posting photos or copying & pasting them verbatim, as this runs the risk of possibly violating copyright laws.  (See forum policy sub-section "Please respect copyright material")  Thanks for your cooperation. -T]

[SeeYou190]

I didn't really understand the part about brass.

We use brass for everything that isn't wire. Buss Bars, Terminal Strips, Plug Contacts, Connectors, etc.

-Kevin

[Overmod]

The reference is about fairly high-voltage AC power distribution, and the situation with model rail is different in a number of respects, particularly with DCC.

Much of the electrical concern with common metals is a bit overrated in practice, in part for reasons that have been brought up and covered in the various recent 'two supply conductor' discussions.  It was fairly obvious to me just from forum discussions that copper feeders to each segment, a practical alternative at tracklaying time, give as close to 'copper conductivity characteristics' to any length of rail that is necessary for either PWM DC or DCC.  And either modern microspot welding (see the YouTube video on fabricating Nixie tubes to see one in action) or resistance soldering ought to make short work of feeder attachment with high integrity with minimum "tie melting", and probably of practical joint soldering for through electrical integrity where that is desired.

There is no particular reason why more organized methods of gleaming can't be used to make proper railhead shape and finish easy in a true scale model of actual track -- which is at the same time fully reliable for practical operation (in the same sense slotted screws are retained for steam-locomotive motion by many modelers).

Some methods of 'surface oxidization' are more complicated than others.  A problem arises in that many 'polishing' methods are intended to facilitate a 'long-lasting shine' rather than good electrical contact across the polished surface -- which is a reason Brasso isn't a really good answer to brass contact-patch cleaning, although most of its composition is very good for the purpose.  Silver tarnish of the usual kinds is relatively soft -- in the 'good old days' it was removed by nothing more complex than salt as an abrasive -- and I suspect that little more than lightly-treated Allen-style weighted Masonite pads would both restore long-idle track to good conductivity and keep good shine with only periodic 'maintenance passes'.

The great mutual-wear concern I see with stainless rail is that it makes any practical wheel construction 'sacrificial' in wear, possibly to an extreme degree in sintered metal construction.  I do not know, and have not tested, whether modern laser-sintered additive manufacturing is a practical way to make hard wheels for modern 'expensive' RTR equipment; there is certainly the potential to use refractory metal and braze for this (I am tempted to say if you can make working rocket nozzles that way, hard wheels ought to be little challenge, but the material requirements are somewhat different...)  On the other hand, if the stainless rail can have its contact patch reasonably machined to 'match' RP25 contact patch, it's possible that much actual wheel 'wear' might be avoidable with proper bearing design and alignment, etc. to reduce issues with line contact, fretting, etc.

Cuprosilver with comparable copper content to 'nickel silver' -- in other words 'just enough to hide the copper color' -- ought to be an interesting material for rolling fabrication.  It would be interesting to see how it does in drawing.  Perhaps a combination of the two methods would be practical for actual 'high-end model' production quantity...

I do not know what its resistance to rolling-contact deformation over time might be, but it ought to be no worse than nickel silver, and a certain amount of surface working may improve perceived 'healing' of some types of small surface damage, perhaps including any microarcing, without periodic partial 'regleaming'...

[dstarr]

Nickel Silver makes good model rail because you can solder to it, it is the right color, white, rather than yellow brass, and it is soft enough to cut with rail nippers and bend into curves.

Stainless steel is impossible to solder to, and it is harder and stiffer than necessary for model rail.  Stainless is not exceptionally hard, for good and hard to make saw blades or plane irons, you want a high carbon alloy steel.

The electrical conductivity of model rail is not very important.  Your layout should have a power bus made of nice heavy copper wire, #14 house wire is good, running around underneath.  You should have feeder wires from the bus to your trackwork at every other track section.  Without the power bus you are relying on the rail joiners to conduct power around the layout.  Rail joiners are tiny folded bits of metal with an inside that is impossible to clean.  Over time the inside of the rail joiners oxidizes and sooner or later first one and then more rail joiners stop conducting electricity from rail to rail and your trains stop running.

  Soldering all the rail joiners is not a good idea.  Humidity changes from summer to heating season cause your benchwork to expand or shrink.  You need loose rail joiners to allow the track to follow the benchwork. 

[tstage]

dstarr

Stainless steel is impossible to solder to

Impossible? - No.  Difficult? - Yes.  You need an acid flux in order to solder properly to stainless steel.  So, it can be done.

Tom