Spot solder-plating tubular a success

[FJ and G]

One other question I have. Isn't resin-solder more impervious to rust than tubular rails. I believe it is and if so, treated rails would actually be much better able to resist rust than even new tubular, as well as have better electrical conductivity.

[FJ and G]

It wasn't as easy as I expected but it works. I tried a series of experiments yesterday, but first, why would you want to solder-plate tubular?

In a word, "rust."

Resin solder provides good, if not better conductivity than the tubular tracks and it adheres to the rail--sort of. That's the sticky point.

I figured that super-heating the entire tubular rail would facilitate the flow of resin. So I got out the propane torch and fired away.

Wrong.

What I ended up with is a blackened rail and large beads of solder (perhaps this would be a way to blacken your center rail quickly?)

Next, I got out the Weller 100-140 W soldering iron, fluxed the rail and tried painting the rail with solder. More successful but the solder still clumped.

So I got another rail to experiment on and this time I sanded it with course sandpaper. Fluxed it, then painted the rail. This time I was much more successful but it required about a half dozen passes with the soldering iron to even out the solder and a few beads did fall into the webbing and base of the rail (most were easily scraped off).

The results were still somewhat uneven (bumpy). So, I took some medium grit sandpaper and hand-sanded until it was smooth.

This process isn't for everyone. Probably easier just buying track, unless you want some arm and hand exercise.

But the process would be good for spots of rust on sections of track already laid down; much easier than pulling the whole section and throwing it away.

There's a question I have for you. When you perform the sanding operation, little bits of solder dust land in the ballast. To remove them before running the trains, I used a shop vac and strong magnet. Anyone else have techniques for removing tiny metal shavings?