nickel silver tracks and steel alloy tracks

[gfdbear53]

What are the differences between the nickel silver tracks and steel alloy tracks?

[ACY]

The nickel-silver track conducts electricity much better than steel track after being oxidized (when oxygen, or air comes in contact with it).

[Doneldon]

gdf53-

It's actually not that oxidized nickel-silver rail conducts electricity better than oxidized steel, it's that the NS oxidized surface allows better electrical pick-up by the train wheels than does the oxidation on steel, more commonly known as rust. Plus, rust will pit and corrode the rail surface over time, further reducing electrical conductivity to the wheels and cause the track get dirtier faster, making the problem even worse in yet another way.
                                                                                                                                                            -- D

[rogertra]

There's only one difference between steel rail of any kind and nickle-silver.

You'll never regret buyiing nickle-silver.

[Joe Satnik]

Steel has fewer track choices....

[atari]

Does it hurt to mix them?

[ACY]

Does it hurt to mix them?

Not necessarily, but the track won't match unless you re-ballast it, and the train won't run as well on the steel, and may have more dead spots without a great deal of attention to keeping it clean.

[railsider]

As you can easily see, the steel rails have BLACK ballast, and the nickel-silver has GRAY. There is also a significant difference in cost ... the steel is cheaper, so it is supplied with "sets" that you buy in a box.

As pointed out, the cheaper steel rails will rust, which produces a resistant layer between the rail and the wheel, thus delivering lower voltage to the motor. The better-grade Ni-Ag (though it actually does not contain real silver) does conduct slightly better, but not so you'd notice. Its main virtue is that it won't rust.

That said, some perfectionists actually paint their track to make it look like *real* rusted rails. So, in theory, at least, steel rails will eventuallay look more realistic  ... and as long as you clean the top surface regularly with a track-cleaning car or something like Bright Boy, you'll have a nice pike.

Mixing the two will look odd because of the colors of the roadbeds. In real life, ballast does come in different shade of gray, black and sometimes brown, but it's pretty consistent for long stretches. You would also introduce differences in voltage to the motor from one section to the next, of course.

Many builders actually paint and detail, and even add glue and fine sand, to EZ track roadbed for more realism.

In general, gray/Ni-Ag is the better stuff, but both kinds work. What you want to avoid is brass track, rare these days but often sold second-hand. It oxidizes very badly, though it looks like nice old rusty rails. Use it for display lines that you don't actually run on. This antique comes as track on fibre-plastic ties, of course.

Railsider

[Hellhound]

Skip the steel, when it starts to rust you will have electrical contact problems.

[jward]

if you ever decide to solder feeder wires to your track, or solder your rail joints, you'll soon discover yet another disadvantage of steel. it is hard to solder to, and the rosin flux in the solder will definitely cause it to rust......i found this out the hard way many years ago......

[Pacific Northern]

When I first started my layout a few years ago I was given some steel E-Z track.

I certainly would not buy any more but I continue to use the steel track along with the N/S E-Z track and also flex track.

I keep the steel track to one end of my layout. To date I have had no problems with using the track and it does not appear to take any more cleaning than the n/s trackm so I have no reason to replace it.

I run mainly dcc sound engines so dirt or corrosion would certainly be noticable. I did add ballast over all e-z track on the layout so the differences  in colour of the stock roadbed is not noticable