Hi Stan,
Thanks for the advice. I never knew that Bachmann sold their ties separately. You’re right, the price is excellent at TW!
I have some LGB ties that have turned white after a couple years of near equatorial sun. Some I believe is the consequence of an over-eager crewman interpreting “Spray this lithium grease into the rail joints” as “Cover anything and everything with lithium grease.” Some, frankly, I just do not know, but almost all of it is decades old and who knows what hit while in long term storage.
- Eric
Different amounts of sun will have different effects. From all the pictures of Stan’s layout I have seen, he is in a wooded area with a lot of shade in general.
Greg
And in the winter, snow covers the ties, plus being further North, less sun and much less heat than what Greg has.
Greg Elmassian said:
Different amounts of sun will have different effects. From all the pictures of Stan’s layout I have seen, he is in a wooded area with a lot of shade in general.
Greg
Greg
In general very true. Most of our layout is in shade. We do however have a few sections in Sun most of the time. For many years we sent a tie strip from that area back to Bachmann for testing. They have held up well compared to other tie strips in the market. LGB tie strips in that area held up well but discolored. Aristo tie strips not so well.
Stan
Not doubting your good experience Stan, just making sure we are comparing apples to apples… there’s 3 comparisons here,
- Bachmann to other manufacturers,
- and climates in 2 different parts of the USA,
- and mostly shaded in summer and winter
Just trying to give the OP the most helpful information…
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
Not doubting your good experience Stan, just making sure we are comparing apples to apples… there’s 3 comparisons here,
- Bachmann to other manufacturers,
- and climates in 2 different parts of the USA,
- and mostly shaded in summer and winter
Just trying to give the OP the most helpful information…
Greg
Greg
Indeed it is important to compare all aspects. I am very confident that the sun in an open field in FL is much harsher then the Sun in our yard in MA.
And the sun on a roof in Hong Kong is likely even harsher on plastic.
Jeff is in NH so the sun here is likely very similar to the sun in Jeff’s yard
When looking at the relative quality of UV protection between the products I do suspect the relative comparisons are about the same. So if my Aristo European ties fail more quickly than LGB ties in the same section of our layout I think it is fair to say that that Aristo European ties will fail quicker then LGB ties even in the sunniest environments.
We have over 30 years of experience with Aristo European and LGB ties. With Bachmann we only have more then 18 years of experience so I do not know what will happen in another 12 years. That said the Bachmann ties that are 18 Years old look better then LGB and much much better then Aristo Europenan ties put down around the same time.
Stan
Hi Stan,
Have you ever tried to paint the Bachmann ties at all? Would that possibly have a negative affect?
I’d like to cover some of the sheen of the SS as I had done with my AL track in the past. I would normally assemble the track (pre-bending when needed) and then painting it all together with satin black spray paint.
I wouldn’t mind even having to re-paint the ties in the future if that was needed. I still have some very old Aristo ties that faded years ago, but seemed to have been saved by painting them.
Thanks to all for your advice and concern,
Jeff
Jeff check out what John Caughey has done to weather his rails, looks fantastic, since it’s real rust!
Greg
Gregg, are you still using the Turtle Wax knockoff of Armor All to spray the ties?
Went back to actual armorall in the “original” formula… spray tracks every 6 months with a garden sprayer… much quicker… still looks good about 10 years later…
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
Went back to actual armorall in the “original” formula… spray tracks every 6 months with a garden sprayer… much quicker… still looks good about 10 years later…
Greg
Why did you make the change back? Were you getting bad results with Turtle Wax, or did it become hard to find?
Rocky Canyonero said:
Hi Stan,
Have you ever tried to paint the Bachmann ties at all? Would that possibly have a negative affect?
I’d like to cover some of the sheen of the SS as I had done with my AL track in the past. I would normally assemble the track (pre-bending when needed) and then painting it all together with satin black spray paint.
I wouldn’t mind even having to re-paint the ties in the future if that was needed. I still have some very old Aristo ties that faded years ago, but seemed to have been saved by painting them.
Thanks to all for your advice and concern,
Jeff
Since I was mentioned … I don’t have those ties, so I held back, but if your rails stay in gauge and the rails don’t roll … I’d paint.
My Aristo’s were 12 years in direct S. Aridzona sun. More days of 100+ than you can comprehend … My ties had faded to 3 shades of grey.
I painted my ties in different shades of brown, from tan to black walnut (new ties), Cammo Brown is an excellent 1 year old tie … btw. It’s flat too.
I painted them in place … A fun note: While at Costco I grabbed some new Goodyear windshield wipers and low and behold, each one had a plastic guard that would snap over a rail and it’s wide base covered the rail’s foot, I ended up with several changes (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)… back to those 100+ days and 9’ was a nice stretch to paint, both sides and from both ends, from slightly above. Paint and Ponder.
I stained my stainless. Took about a year to do 140’, more rain would have helped …
Rust is not one color and the randomness of nature is hard for me to paint… so I enlisted rust.
Steel wool pulled and rolled into ‘snakes’ a thousand clothespins later. I dissolved the steel wool and used an Acrylic clear coat to mist over the rails. Some clear coats blew the rust away!
I think it was worth it …
I find that the color makes the rails less tall. Win win.
Fantastic weathering effect, a lot of work, but the results! Take a bow!
Steve, They seemed to have changed the Turtle Wax product… and it’s thicker and does not “flow” as well across the ties… the original Armorall was pretty watery and with low surface tension would wick into the nooks and crannies… The newer formulation of Turtle wax “knockoff” is more like a gel. When you spray 850 feet of track, you want the process fast and efficient… and easy! The thicker product did not flow and cover evenly unless you used way more.
Greg
John Bouck said:
My LGB ties have been out in the weather for 15 years without any fading, disintegration or anything. But things change. LGB is gone and I don’t know who makes their track now. Or if they use the same formula.
LGB is gone??? I am not sure about that statement,but I have already been wrong once or twice today, and its only 7:15am
I think he meant “the original LGB is gone”. and while he of course knows Marklin owns LGB, who is actually making the track (and thus the quality/materials) is unknown.
Greg
My LGB ties have baked in our desert sun for 15 years and they are like new! I took them up to use in the indoor layout and they will have their second life.
I figure our lack of rain actually helps the ties and rail.
In case my experience, here in Ottawa, is of interest…
We have track/ties of just about every make, out on the railroad, except B’mann.
I can add “Rail Craft/Micro-Engineering” to the mix.
I have yet to have any of them fail, and we have never treated any of them with paint, wax or anything.
Possibly the biggest influence on the lasting abilities of the ties around here, is that all of out track is nailed securely to SOLID wood roadbed, raised or in the ground.
We experience all four seasons, with temperature ranges from -40C to +40C…full sun, and shade. Snow, rain and ice…
We started laying track, back in 1983 (LGB)…progressing to Railcraft, Aristo, Kalamazoo, and even a length or two of Pico (Not Piko)
Fred Mills
In rehabbing my railroad this past spring, I was kind of surprised at the number of ties that looked good, but failed as soon as I started adjusting the track. I have Aristo stainless track with the Aristo USA style ties. My railroad is in mostly partial shade, and does tend to stay damp most of the time. Back when the track was laid in 2002, the ties were painted, but the paint has worn away over the years.
I was cutting out the broken ties, and a few more on the same tie strip would fail, but a few were still good. So I have a mix of new and old ties all along my railroad. Most of the ties that are in service are originals. All told I think I probably replaced maybe 10 or 11 feet of ties, a few at a time, along the nearly 160 feet of track that I have.
You can buy iron oxide in garden centers and depending on the type it will turn anything to a yellowy rust color, or rust color there is even a black iron oxide that turns a dark blue tint . Pretty cheap and Wal-Mart sells it