Hello. Are there anybody who really encountered with c55 rails wearing out? I mean that it may be happened at small radiuses or at turnouts with heavy trafic during a long period of working. Please tell about Your experience in it. ---------- Vadim.
Boy, I really don't think you could wear out any model railroad rail. It seems to me you would have to run many many thousands of hours over it to see any appreciable wear given the relatively light loads applied to it. Maybe someone else here will have a different experience.
I had a friend that wore out some rail with his American Flyer hudson S gauge loco. It was very heavy and wore out some of the curved track. He was running it constantly. That shouldn't happen in the smaller scales although I did wear down the plastic frog points on my Atlas HO switches from many years of running.
It took about 20 years to wear out some Shinohara code 60. I think that was from constant cleaning with a bright boy track cleaner. N scale.
The correct answer is yes, it will wear out, but most likely not on a typical home layout. I know of two specific cases - our locomotive test track here, which would be used 8-10 hours a day, with hundreds of locomotives running on it every month. And the track at the Chicago Museum of Science. In our test track case the track will just wear down and lose it's flat top form, however, even with this kind of usage it took years. More often something would cause the rail to separate from the ties (ok so I shouldn't have set boxes of locomotive parts on the track!), and require replacement.
I've worn the nickel plating off of the frogs on some of my turnouts. this was due to the overuse of a fine sanding block following the painting of track. the plating is pretty thin. I think the same result may occur with the use of a bright boy over a long period of time.
At one of my LHS, they had an oval of track set up for a display. The track didn't wear out but the wheels of the engine they were running on it had grooves worn into them. Craig
Thank You for all Your answers. Firstly, i polish all my rails before using my layout. (one times per whole layout life) I do this, avoiding pores, where dirt may be collected. Then, periodically I use only vacuuming, and more rarely - Alcohol washing and turning wiper mashine without sanding. I mean my Atlas C55 will work for years. I also believe - that "thin" places for wearing out - wings of turnouts. -------- Thanks, Vadim
A friend who built his layout in the early to mid 80's with c80 track now has track that is getting close to being c55. It is a small layout, probably 4'x8', but yeah 20+ years of running and those early days of track cleaning cars that used friction causing materials and not rollers and fluids has worn it down.
