From the good ole days.

Going through and inventorying what I have in the way of turnouts and what could be used on a new layout I came across these antiques. Been in my track storage box for years and I don't even remember where or when I got them but I must have a small treasure trove of old Atlas N scale brass track. They have been packed in a box and then in a sealed storage container and boy has Father Time and Mother Nature not been kind to these. So for a little hysterical, or is that historical, look at early N here be.

The curved turnout is nickel silver laying on top of the brass. The top straight turnout has a short section of nickel silver attached to it.



And a shot of some of the early turnouts all Atlas.



Thought I would give you a look at some old stuff before everything but the curved turnout becomes a sacrifice to the Train Gods.

Also turned up a batch of old Aurora (made by Trix) turnouts that work great still and are manual that will be a nice addition to the short Pecos at only 4 inches long for use in the yard.

 

Don't know how much brass you have by weight, but consider melting it, pouring ingots, and offering it on eBay. Some artist might want it to make silly statues or other dust collectors.

 

Well I could go the rare early annnteeqew gen u wine brass N scale turnouts, put a $400 price tag on each, and finance my track purchases plus another geared loco from Alpine. Then the Aurora ought to get a silly price also. However mine are manual and still work flawlessly. Then there are my Jouef manual turnouts that are steel. But they also work flawlessly, corrode less than the other stuff , including nickel silver so they will see use along with my Peco ST-5s. Fortunately just about all my old stuff is of the small 3.5 inch to 4 inch footprint and still works extremely well. Counting the Atlas newer stuff I have squirreled away and the much older stuff plus the Peco I am in good shape turnout wise. I also have two Bmann turnouts that are of the small variety at a measly 4.25 inches of real estate taken. They appear to be knock offs of Trix's small turnout. With the plastic rail mine track about the only thing I don't have are some wood rails and turnouts.

 

When did Atlas make N scale brass tracK? I thought all N scale was nickel-silver from the get-go.

 

What is this geared loco from Alpine you speak of?

 

The old brain was trying to remember Aspen and instead Alpine came out. Oh well Alpine is mountains and Aspens grow at higher elevation.

 

Ahhhh gotcha. Was actually thinking that, but the possibility was there that I was missing something. Leave no stone unturned so to speak.

 

A long time ago one could walk into a hobby shop, and that was back when you could find shops devoted to entirely trains, and supplies for scratch building and details, and find brass track right next to nickel silver and occasionally steel. There was even brass flex track. A lot of folks back then on a budget bought brass because it was cheaper. Folks complain about issues keeping NS track clean today don't remember or did not experience the headaches with brass. As little as about 15 years ago I still remember seeing some brass flex next to the NS in the LHS.

Steel was one of the first alternatives and the few steel railed turnouts I have I really like even though they are ancient. Work flawlessly still and have a nice dark gun metal type color. And they stay cleaner longer.Plus they are stronger built and less flimsy than some of the offerings today. The steel versions I have are by Jouef a French company no longer around, but they did have a track line that still turns up occasionally today.

A bit of trivia here. It is most likely Bachmann that we owe to advent of NS rail in this country. Back before Bmann was bought by a Chinese company and was an American company, and back in the very early days Bmann switched from brass track to steel track, and then later the NS track in all scales. I would have thought that Lionel would have been the pioneer here but a little research seems to indicate Bmann.


ses a

 

Are you certain that PECO was not the first with NS rail?

 

While on the subject of turnouts, or switches if one prefers, a few words while perched upon my soapbox. This is for the newbie to the hobby and not the old grizzled, white, gray, or thinning haired parties with the age broadened, or is that beer broadened outlook.

Folks have to watch the budget at times in the pursuit of the model railroad empire and it is hard to pass up a bargain on what may seem to be good used turnouts. Depending on the age of that remote powered turnout it may not be a bargain, instead a fire ready to happen. Those of us in the old geezer club have either experienced the problem with turnouts melting down or know someone who has. And in the early years of N scale some were notorious for experiencing electrical failures regardless of whose brand they were. Those brands that have survived have improved greatly on their reliability as far as that issue. However I just don't know a foolproof way to tell the age of a turnout that is in that bargain box of used track. Maybe somebody does and can supply that info. One good bet though is that if it is no longer made it is suspect. Now I will buy good used track and turnouts and have before. However the powered turnouts are all destined to become manual turnouts. To me not worth the risk and resulting troubles.

I pulled some old turnouts out of a storage box yesterday while going through what I had and what I needed. Some of those powered units were at least 20 years old and from back in the old unreliable days. Just for S&G I applied a small battery to a couple of the leads on some and low and behold they still worked. However I am not about to risk an investment of years and money in a few suspect turnouts, The ones I retained that I could use are all manual turnouts now. The few that will be remote and powered are all brand new with a much greater degree of reliability and safety.

And a note on turnout maintenance. Turnouts have moving parts that can benefit from some occasional light lube to those parts especially if they are older. Like the locomotive lube video, a single drop of carefully applied, plastic safe, very light oil can keep a turnout mechanism working well if it has a tendency to sometimes hang up. You just have to avoid over lubing and keeping it off the tracks.

Low voltage can start a fire as easily as 120 volt house current and can either be DC or AC it doesn't matter which. A 1.5 volt battery powered motor can be the cause. How I know this is because a considerable portion of my life was spent investigating the cause and origin of fires and explosions and was considered an expert in all three court systems in the state and by the Fed. Stop and think for a moment that the heat source is there once the motor seizes up and unless a circuit protection device trips it continues to heat. The plastic components provide fuel, and then that spreads to the foam and cork and other combustible materials we all use. In short stay away from the old electrical stuff from power packs to turnouts unless you are one of those electrical gurus.

 

I am pleased I got started in an n-scale club and thus had some experienced modelers as mentors.
They use Peco on the club layout. I liked the looks and continued with them on my home layout from 1975-200?, i.e. about 25 years.
I never installed turnout motors on them.
They looked great, but after 25+ years of manual use, they became the major place for stalling on the layout.
I still have a large number in my stored inventory.

 

Notice I said in this country. Peco could have very well been the pioneer over on the other side of the big waters but the credit appears to be Bmann among what used to be the US based manufacturers for the first introduction of steel then NS for here.

 

Oh drats! You mean I have to toss my olde 'Troller' pulse pack? Sigh. It is actually already gone and man that was hard to do. I was tempted to have someone build a new Standard DC pack inside of it but that was not realistic.

This thread or a new one?
I expect many of us have lots of 1970s/80s stuff laying around. Should I start a new thread or add on here?

 

Feel free to add in on any of the olde stuff laying around. Notice the old spelling of olde. Some folks have the electrical knowhow to be able to rebuild and improve some of the old stuff like power packs etc. Others are far better off and safer to just mount it on a wall plaque, or in a display case, and replace it. When I built the new test track I opted to replace the old train set power pack with a new state of the art MRC. That 20 plus year old thing was getting very shaky on operation and I just did not need the grief of having to haul my old body back upstairs after getting a fresh cup of Java because the smoke detector was sounding in my room. Not to mention somehow frying one of my newer locos. And the remains of the old brass track? Well it was sacrificed yesterday to the often fickle Train Gods and Mr. Murphy.

 

This should bring back memories:

 

Approximately what year are you suggesting that Bachmann began using NS rail in their track?

 

Some where around 24 years ago the Bmann was producing NS track and prior to that steel, again as a US based manufacturer. Peco may have been onboard earlier but not as a US based manufacturer and Peco imports back then were limited in this country for whatever reasons. You still found brass track right along with steel back as little as 10-12 years ago. It was easier to find Marklin track than Peco. And the US based suppliers of that brand are far and few between still. I have three Marklin dealers within an hours drive of me and only one that carries a very limited line of Peco.

I don't know the reasons why, it could be costs associated with importing or modelers just not liking their tie spacing but you almost have to go with a overseas dealer to find a full range and inventory of Peco track.

But as I said for a US based company the Bmann was an early innovator right along with Atlas and both had their firsts.

It is interesting that brass track is still available and still preferred by some modelers although a PIA to keep clean.

 

24 years ago - call it 1990.
Kader bought out Bachmann around 1981, so from that point on they could no longer be considered a "US based company."

PECO has been distributed by Walthers since about 1979 (and most any hobby shop can order from them), so availability was then a non-issue. Maybe your local shops simply chose not to stock it. I have 30-year-old Ntrak modules built with PECO code 80 track, so I had no trouble obtaining it even decades ago.

Marklin - are we still talking about N scale?