Help! one more question

[tdrmjr]

Thank you for all of your help!! I now have a good idea what to do.  My only other question is will the power source for the old style track work on ez track?  Do you need an adapter?


I bought a large tub of trains at a yard sale with the hopes of giving them to my 5 yr. old for Christmas. They are the old style track. Ho scale with lots of gates, stations and other accessories. My father in law picked up the power source for me while on a trip out of town. There are no hobby shops near us. After hooking everything up the trains will run a little but keep stopping.  I think the tracks are not making a good connection. They are old and the clips are not holding them tight enough.  I am trying to figure out if I should just scrap the track and buy the new ez track. Does the easy track use the same controller. We have already sunk $65.00 into a controller. Are there any adapters to make the crossing gates and other accessories work with the ez track?  I know nothing about trains. Thanks for any advice.

[jonathan]

Since your equipment is probably a little dated.  You will want to clean the tracks as best you can.  The most economical way would be a 'bright boy', or similar track cleaning pad.  They look like a pencil eraser, shaped like a parallelogram.

Also,  I'm sure the old locos need some wheel cleaning and just a hint of lubrication on the gears and bearing.  Use a light, conductive oil, like Labelle or conductalube.  I clean wheels with rubbing alcohol and a toothpick, among other methods. 

That is bound to help some. 

There are more involved processes, but if you want to get them running quickly, these things will help, until you can spend more time and money on both cleaning and newer locomotives.

Hope that helps,

Regards,

Jonathan

[Joe Satnik]

Dear jr,

Atlas makes a package of 48 rail connectors that would replace your worn out old connectors.  Item #170.  Enough for 24 pieces of track.  Less than $5 delivered, buy-it-now on e-bay.

What brand is the track?  Is it brass or silver colored?

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik 

[simkon]

I think when he mentioned connectors, he wanted something that would make the track inter-compatible with E-Z track, but no such product exists. Also, unless you bought a Bachmann controller, you would not be able to hook up the new controller to E-Z track without first buying a Bachmann feeder wire.

[Joe323]

I think when he mentioned connectors, he wanted something that would make the track inter-compatible with E-Z track, but no such product exists. Also, unless you bought a Bachmann controller, you would not be able to hook up the new controller to E-Z track without first buying a Bachmann feeder wire.

OK Here's my 2cents:

Actually it sounds like he might have power pack and terminal track already He could connect to the EZ track just by cutting off the plastic end that joins the EZ Track together then using standard rail joiners.  He would also need some cork roadbed to raise the old track to the same level as the EZ track. 

In terms of power terminal joiners (Atlas sells these they could replace the terminal track if he wanted).  Also if I am not mistaken the Bachmann power pack uses the same plug as a mono audio feed mini jack (Radio Shack Catalog #: 42-2420) and cut the other end off.  He could then solder 2 rail joiners to use as a power feed.

Fact is when working with older snap track soldering is a good skill to learn, since it will  fix the track in place relative to each other and improve electrical contact.

[Jim Banner]

Is plywood sold in the US actual inch sizes or is it a metric near equivalent?  That is, can tdrmjr use scraps of 1/4" plywood to raise some standard track or is American plywood too far off .250 inches to work?  Keeping in mind that tdrmjr has no local hobby shop, using plywood might be a better solution than cork.

Jim

[simkon]

I believe most plywood is in the nearest metric equivalent for most brands because it is sold internationally. For example an 8x4 is actually 2440x1220mm not 2438.4mm x 1219.2mm for most, but not all brands.

[Joe323]

Is plywood sold in the US actual inch sizes or is it a metric near equivalent?  That is, can tdrmjr use scraps of 1/4" plywood to raise some standard track or is American plywood too far off .250 inches to work?  Keeping in mind that tdrmjr has no local hobby shop, using plywood might be a better solution than cork.

Jim

Possibly but plywood seems at least to me to cut to shape and has no bevel.  However in this application If you mean just raising the substrate by a quarter inch under the section where the old track (ie putting an extra sheet into the benchwork under the old track to raise it to the EZ track  is and skipping the roadbed entirely) that would work.  The ballast could then be simulated using sand dirt etc between the ties.   If the scenery is done correctly I doubt you would even notice the seam.

[NarrowMinded]

1/4" plywood in the US is 1/4 +/-  a hair but it works Fine for matching ez track, I have also used 1/4 foam core project board, it's light weight and easy to cut with a box knife.

NM

[RAM]

As Jr.  said, you can buy a package of 48 rail connectors that would replace your worn out old connectors.  Now the question is.  Will this be a temporary layout or are you going to mount it on plywood.  If is is going to be mounted on plywood the old track should work.  If it is going to be temporary I would go with the EZ track.

[jward]

one possible solution to the problem of height is to use wood shims, available at any lowes or home depot, to get your track down to base board level. the shims come in packs of 10 or so, they are about 3/8" on one end, tapered down to nothing on the other end. you can either cut them off at the point where they are 1/4" thick, or even better, plane them so that they taper down from 1/4" thick. as packaged, they are about 8 or 9" long, using the full length of a planed shim gives a much better grade than the cut down shims. i know people who have used these to depress yard and siding tracks just like on the real railroads, and they do the job very well.

[richg]

one possible solution to the problem of height is to use wood shims, available at any lowes or home depot, to get your track down to base board level. the shims come in packs of 10 or so, they are about 3/8" on one end, tapered down to nothing on the other end. you can either cut them off at the point where they are 1/4" thick, or even better, plane them so that they taper down from 1/4" thick. as packaged, they are about 8 or 9" long, using the full length of a planed shim gives a much better grade than the cut down shims. i know people who have used these to depress yard and siding tracks just like on the real railroads, and they do the job very well.

We use those shims in our club layout and I use them at home.

Rich

[Doneldon]

Old track, especially if it's brass, will always have electrical conductivity problems no matter how carefully the tops of the rails are cleaned.  Rail joiners aren't the best way to transmit power in the first place and they are really poor once they get old.

                                                                                                                                          -- D

[Jim Banner]

The conductivity of brass, especially the older, redder brass with a higher percentage of copper, is higher than the conductivity of nickel silver, steel, stainless steel and aluminum.  However, the electrical contact between the rail heads and locomotive wheels, and between rails connected to other rails only by rail joiners, can be troublesome.  This is particularly true if you let the tops of the rail heads corrode.  Corrosion is an easy problem to deal with - clean and polish the tops of the rails, ending up with #600 wet and dry paper wetted with Varsol.  Wipe the rail tops dry, then apply a very small amount of conductive oil.  A few drops (8 to 10) on a 3" square of clean cotton rag, will do 100' of so of track.  Repeat the oiling every few months (more often if your layout is in a dusty location) and polish up the rail tops again in a few years if they need it.

As for the rail joiners, the best solution is to clean the ends of the rails where the joiners will contact them, then use new joiners.  If your layout will be permanent, apply some flux and solder the joiners in place.  You can still unsolder them later if you have to.  If soldering is not your favourite job or you do not want to commit to a permanent layout at this time, use a bit of silicone electrical grease on each end of each rail before inserting them into rail joiners.  The grease will exclude air and moisture, preventing corrosion.  This will ensure good electrical contact between rails and joiners for many, many years.  Note that once the rail ends and joiners are greased, you can no longer solder them.  Then again, once the rail ends and insides of the joiners are greased, there is no need to solder them anyway.

If you do not clean and solder the joiners and you do not clean and grease the rail ends, then you can expect connection failures between rails after a few years, usually right after you have finished your scenery and track ballasting.  At that point, there is no use trying to solder the joiners - they will be too dirty for the solder to take properly, flux or no flux.  But all is not lost.  It is still possible to solder bonding wires across all the the joints, although cleaning the foot of each end of each rail, soldering on a wire, then cleaning off any excess flux and possibly reweathering the rail will certainly make you wish you had either soldered the joiners or greased them in the first place.

While the original discussion was about H0 brass rail, the suggestions here apply equally well to nickel silver and steel track.  Stainless steel and aluminum rail are generally used only in large scale and are typically connected electrically by bonding using either wire bonds or rail clamps.

Bottom line, brass rail can give excellent service if cleaned once in a long while and oiled fairly regularly.  Joints between sections will require attention whatever the rails are made of.

Jim

[Joe Satnik]

Hmm, 

3 days, 10 responders, 13 replies, none by the original poster. 

Good info, though.

Sincerely, 

Joe Satnik