How to tarnish cheap track

[CoggesRailway]

is AMS the same as Aristo?

 

[3Valve]

is AMS the same as Aristo?

Nah mate, AMS is a division of Accucraft.

 

[beavercreek]

It just shows how much better quality the brass Chinese use is than that the Germans use!

Now now Steve.
The tarnishing is apparently due to the lead content in the LGB track as opposed to the low lead content in the Aristo/USAT stuff......

Now that's interesting as the Aristo stuff is easier to belly-bend than the LGB - yet you'd have thought it would be the other way round :thinking::thinking:

Yeah, but I think that the higher copper content also allows it to bend pretty easily (depending on the firmness and girth of the belly of course )

 

[pugwash]

About the pigeon poop, it's the ammonia that causes the trouble. We have chairs and tables outside with circular marks where poop has etched the plastic, luckily only small birds although the ones that fly over my car seem to have belly ache :bleh:
Just an idea, when you polish brass with Brasso it goes black, right (probably ammonia again)? So what happens if you apply Brasso to the rails but don't polish it up? Will it stay blackish, maybe fix with varnish?

 

[CoggesRailway]

So gun blue (bought to tidy up my .22) costs £4 from your local gunsmith. "Fatal if ingested" so I guess some sort of acid. It is what gives black (not blue oddly) tarnish to steel that means it won't rust. The tracks in this pick are AMS which does not tarnish in years, foreground one has had a wash of gun blue with a paint brush, one hasn't. Both laid at same time brand new a week ago. On the gun it goes BLACK. On brass it just makes it look a bit older. Of course, LGB goes old nicely, but costs....
http://s1045.photobucket.com/user/thompo999/media/20130704_165713_zpsd5324dae.jpg.html < Link To