My old clubs layout had a mixture of brass, nickel silver, and steel rails. The problem was the brass and steel rail was only used in the inaccessible places. Fiber ties, and wood ties were everywhere. Speakers in the sound locomotives would pickup lots of old rusty track nails. The layout was started in the early fifties.
Pete.
I was in college in the late 60s, and then I took down my layout. My Dad passed away in 1970 and my Mom moved, so I boxed everything up and moved it with me from apartment to apartment, until I bought my house in 1980. My new layout started in earnest in about 2004.
I vaguely remember that the transition to NS was beginning in the late 60s. I built my layout with NS this time. I still remember bundling up all my old brass track, turnouts and all, and taking the pile to a train show where I gave it to a second-hand dealer, feeling he might know some who could use it. I just couldn't bring myself to throw the lot in the trash.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I purchased nickel silver flex and turnouts in 1960. It had fibre ties and was made in England by Wrenn. I am using a couple of the manual turnout controls made then in my yard now. They are all metal and work really well.
CN Charlie
wjstix Back when I started in the hobby (1971) "real" model railroaders hand-laid track. Flextrack back then was viewed as maybe a small step above train set sectional track, but only something for kids or beginners to get started with. Kinda like "click track" is thought of by many today.
Back when I started in the hobby (1971) "real" model railroaders hand-laid track. Flextrack back then was viewed as maybe a small step above train set sectional track, but only something for kids or beginners to get started with. Kinda like "click track" is thought of by many today.
And you hand laid NS rail.
Yes, while I was in the Navy I was hanging on to a model railroad club in Sandiego, and they were hand laying NS rails
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
My high school model railroad club started the layout in 1957. By 1958 we were ready to lay track. There was a big discussion about nickel silver vs brass. Brass was cheaper, and funding was tight so we went with brass.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
I worked in several hobby shops starting in 1970. We had both brass and nickel silver from both Atlas and TruScale.
The Severna Park Model Railroad Club, started their current layout in 1966, it is all hand layed nickel silver.
Some other brands only offered brass, AHM, TYCO, etc.
Sheldon
cefinkjr Was nickel silver rail commonly available before then?
Having re-discoverd it with N-scale in 1969, I used it regularly for HO though the 1970s, but as I recall it didn't become "the thing" until the mid-1980s along when the code 83 track started becoming "the thing". Couldn't believe the instant "brass is horrible" reaction from folks who had just discovered it.
I started the hobby in 1971 with brass track (and fiber ties).
As I recall, NS was available, but not as prevalent and cost more. As the 70's went on, NS became dominant and brass faded.
Paul
LION purchased NS rail, some shiohara switches during the war (Vietnam) and so that was late '60s. I was in Japan at the time, be\ut even when I got out of the Navy in 1970 I was able to purchase NS rail here.
I believe the fiber-tie track is the earliest version of "flex track" going back to the 1950s. Brass rail was still common in sectional track for train sets (Tyco for example) into the 1970s, but by then I think all the track manufacturers who still offered brass were also offering nickel-silver (and had been for some time).
Follow-up:
I grabbed my Model Trains magazine '1963 Yearbook'; it has an ad from AHC that says AHC's own brand of flextrack with fiber ties was available in 3' lengths for 49 cents each (or 25 for $10), 69 cents each for nickel silver. Atlas 3' flextrack (not clear what type of rail or ties) was 75 cents each.
I think the Brits were using Nickel Silver rail in the 1950s and some mention of it started to appear in American magazines during that decade. By the early to mid 1960s Atlas and others started offering NS as an alternative to brass -- slightly more expensive which was a disincentive to me personally. I'd need to look at my files of old train catalogs to see if the final era of Atlas flex track on fibre ties coincided with their introduction of NS as an alternative to brass. (I do recall an early 2 foot long Atlas flex track Code 100 with plastic ties and brass rail that was just about the least flexible flex track I have ever worked with, so they may have kept the fibre tie era going for a while).
There were other makes of fibre tie track of course.
Dave Nelson
I got back in the hobby in 1977 and everything I saw was still brass but it wasn't long after that I saw nickel silver start showing up at the hobby stores. I'm guessing 1980, give or take a year. It was a little more expensive than brass but quickly made brass obsolete. I think brass had diappeared before the end of the decade.
I found some HO flex-track with Code 100 nickel silver rail stapled to fiber tie strips. I think this was left over from a project I was working on in the mid '70s so I'm pretty sure it is at least 50 years old. Was nickel silver rail commonly available before then?
ChuckAllen, TX