NS or steel

Pitchwife

Dreamer
I just bought a bunch of N scale Atlas flex track on ebay and got to wondering, is there any way to tell nickle silver from steel? If it turns out to be steel I'll just use it where it is easily accessable for cleaning but not in tunnels or anywhere else that would be difficult to get at.
 

jon-monon

Active Member
Clark, the Atlas NS is very easily flexed, like if you hold a piece of it out horizantally, with the ties perpindicular to the ground, it droops.

The steel flex track I had (Model Power) was attracted to a magnet, and the ties make perminant indentations in your skin when you attempt to flex it. It offered similar pleasure to that which is derived from running a cheese grator across your knee cap. Also when it corrodes, it had a very white-grey ashy apperance and the corrosion was non conductive. Corrodes fast and difficult to solder. That property might be specific to MP, but I expect the stiffness and magnetic properties are universal to all steel flextrack. Needless to say, I only bought MP flex track once, and it's now in the landfill :D :D :D

Stainless Steel may be a whole nutter matter.
 
F

Fred_M

I agree on the color thing too, NS is just a tad brass colored and steel is, well, steel colored like a nail. Left is NS, right is steel.... FRED
 

Attachments

  • nsvssteel.jpg
    nsvssteel.jpg
    12.2 KB · Views: 150

Vic

Active Member
From my hobby shop days I don't recall Atlas ever making any steel track....Hoooray for Altlas!!!:D :D :D
 

billk

Active Member
Originally posted by Pitchwife
Does nickle silver have any ferrous metal in it? If not a simple magnett would tell the difference.
Nickel silver is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. No silver. No iron, either, so a magnet would work to eliminate steel (but not brass).
 

shamus

Registered Member
You cannot beat Nickel Silver for all your trackwork. Steel gets dirty very quickly. All Peco products are Nickel; Silver.
Shamus
 
Top