Help, (with a very large capial H)

[Steveford666]

I bought some Aristocraft brass rail and brass Tenmillle rail. They look like el cheapo jewellery. Do they get weathered as they get older or are they always that crappy colour? If they do, Peco hear I come.

 

[KeithT]

I bought some Aristocraft brass rail and brass Tenmillle rail. They look like el cheapo jewellery. Do they get weathered as they get older or are they always that crappy colour? If they do, Peco hear I come.

I have no experience of Tenmille but Aristo very definitely weathers to a deep brown even more so than LGB.
Accucraft track takes much longer to 'tone' down but the running surface cleans easily.

 

[ge_rik]

Steve
At the back of this picture you can see some Tenmille track which has been outside for about three years.

I think you'll agree there's no problem with with weathering. As you can see, I use Aristo, LGB and Tenmille track together with no problems. I just use plain ordinary LGB joiners for them all - but do bond the joins with soldered jumpers for electrical continuity.

Rik

 

[railwayman198]

When I laid was laying my track 6 years ago I was too impatient to wait for natural weathering. I did not like the look of the brass track or the shiny plastic sleepers so I bought a load of cans of Railmatch track grime paint and sprayed the lot, ballast and all. I wiped off the railhead before it was completely dry. I was expecting the stuff to flake off fairly quickly but in fact it's very durable. It does not come off the rail at all but has flaked on some sections of sleeper, which looks o.k.

The two pics show the track being laid and sprayed 6 years ago, then the same section last autumn. Truth is that it looks no better natural weathering, but it is instant if you don't want to wait.

 

[Steveford666]

Thanks for the tips. As I say Aristocraft looks very much like the tut you buy at the seaside. It only needs to be varnished.

I have been putting petroleum jelly on the rail heads and painting the trackbed and sleepers with watered down UVA glue . B&Q do a soft sand and cement mix that is so weak, it wouldn't hold anything. It just crumbles when dry. But it is the perfect colour for what I need. So far I have sprinkled it on the track by hand, but will be using a flour sifter (or what they use for icing sugar on cakes) in future to level it out better before I need to dig out the edge of the rails and the cente. (First mistake, it got heaped in the centre of the track and affected the couplings). But by usung the flour sifter it should be nice and level and cover the sleepers leaving just a glimpse of them. Now I see your Tenmille track Rik, I shall go to just buying the rails and panel pin them to wood sleepers.

But the rails are the problem. They stand out like two shiny brass rails in a pub! I am putting all the track outside until I need them and hopefully by the time it is finished, they will have weathered.

Maplins do a spray conductive grease (for electronic projects) and I wonder if I insert some in the fishplates if that would give the continuity of power flow.

Steve

 

[Gizzy]

Brass weathers to a dull colour after a year or two. My rail sides now look very grey and it is obvious when I've added a new (stealth) section of track, as it's just too shiny and gold. It certainly gets noticed by Mizzy Gizzy!

I leave any new track hidden under a bush, so it gets time to dull down a tad.

Not sure about using electrical spray in fishplates; I use a half pea of copperslip in my joiners, whilst others prefer the LGB paste....

 

[pugwash]

I leave any new track hidden under a bush, so it gets time to dull down a tad.

Dad, dad, where do baby railway tracks come from?
Never thought of that, mines all in the attic, mind you she knows you know :impatient:
I use the LGB graphite paste, considering the amount needed (half a pea as Gizzy said, or a match head applied with a matchstick as I do) smeared into the fishplate before joining I wonder if spray on wouldn't be a bit wasteful and the overspray be messy and cause traction problems later.