This was posted by the maker of the plastic rail on the MLS site, sounds interesting:
Hi Guys, I am glad that this product finds interest Let me shed some light on a few questions:
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No this rail has not yet been used in Europe, becasue it is made in the USA, so my business partner for the Brass and Nickel ProRail will pick this line up for Europe as well as the American style ties. What we made sure is that we use some quality products, hence the HDPE plastic for the ties, strong rail chairs so that they don’t flip of when you slide rail into the tie strips or bend the rail. Also the color choices (we actually had a few samples also in Christmas Green and Red) and of course we are supporting our TrainBabes with pink rail
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The rail itself is actually not made out of HDPE but another very good plastic material (required for some of the flexibility). The material is made out of PVC. To be quite honest “Probieren geht ueber studieren” (old German saying - trying is better than theoretical study) so until we put a thousand hours on that rail and measure the wear we cannot in all honesty make any long term claims. With that said PVC is a very strong material, but yet it is softer than of course brass. So I expect personally some wear, how critical - we have to see. I expect much less wear on straights than in curves, but much less in 10’ curves than 2’ curves. I wish it is suitable for long term use, this would help those who are into life steam and battery power.
Did I forget anything?
Definitely lets have some fun in 2010 -
FYI (although it needs to be in another thread) We will have our brand new ProSwitches R7 - that is basically a #6 switch available in February.