Hello all,
With the doubling of the price of track, I was wondering if anyone has fiddled around with the idea of alternate materials to be used as rail? Homespun, if you will.
Mike.
Best alternative is aluminum…even steel has gone way up! Of course it rusts too…
Andre’
Currently aluminum is the cheapest for regular track. I have seen pics of one person’s layout who borrowed an idea from the ride-on scales and made his track like the larger scale’s groovy track. That’s flat steel wedged into grooves on ties.
If you are running on battery power, I remember an old article in either Model Railroader or RMC where someone had a garden railroad with slotted ties using strips of masonite for rails - apparently stood up well for years with little maintainence other than treating with something like Thompson’s water seal (it was probably used motor oil given the time frame of the article - 1950’s I would guess).
Brian
I’m pretty sure that was on the West Coast in the late 80’s early 90’s…I forget what the gentleman’s name was now…but he did a pretty neat job…I actually considered doing that one upon a time…milling wooden rail and spiking it to wooden ties…
I’ve heard of a small mfg. that makes or made a code 332 steel rail There was an ad back in 1985 I think in GR. Anyone hear of this?
Mike
Doesn’t quite answer the question, but AMS is coming out with new 332 track in January. Intro pricing is similar to the “old” prices of 6 months ago. I preordered a bunch while the price is right.
For an alternative to commercial track, check out this website: http://www.gscalechuffchuff.com/
Good luck!
Scott
Scott Brochhausen said:Interesting, that is. Bookmarked for later study.
For an alternative to commercial track, check out this website: http://www.gscalechuffchuff.com/