Has anyone here cold gun blued their center rail on tubular track? I was thinking of doing this and figure that electricty conduction shouldn't be a problem since it's absorbed into the metal, am I wrong?
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All the track with darkened center rails is done with chemical blackening, so the gun blue should not pose any problem.
Larry
It's not a bad idea, but it could get expensive if you have a lot of trackage to do.
Great thank you.
I don't have much track to do as most of it had the darkened center rail.
Originally Posted by Balshis:
It's not a bad idea, but it could get expensive if you have a lot of trackage to do.
Originally Posted by RRaddict2:
Has anyone here cold gun blued their center rail on tubular track? I was thinking of doing this and figure that electricty conduction shouldn't be a problem since it's absorbed into the metal, am I wrong?
May I ask you a few questions?
1) Why do you want to "color" the center rail, i.e. are you trying to duplicate a weathered look?
2) What is the present color of your two outside rail, i.e. are THEY "weathered"?
3) What type of control system are you using, i.e. conventional, Lionel Legacy/TMCC, and/or MTH DCS? For pretty much ANY of the "command control" systems it has been found that pretty much ANY foreign coating on the rails, especially the center rail, will affect "signal strength".
4) Why not simply "color" the sides of the rail/rails, and leave the tops clean and bright, just like real main line track?
I run conventional and RMT was slow at getting the snap track to market so I had gotten some new old KLine tubular track without the shadow rail and I want it to match.
Not sure that instant gun blueing will work on tin coated track. It is formulated to "blue" iron/steel.
It works perfect I will post pics soon. I used Vans instant gun blu. You just put it on and let it darken and you stop the darkening by wiping with a little oil.
Glad I was concerned about nothing!
Originally Posted by Hot Water:
3) What type of control system are you using, i.e. conventional, Lionel Legacy/TMCC, and/or MTH DCS? For pretty much ANY of the "command control" systems it has been found that pretty much ANY foreign coating on the rails, especially the center rail, will affect "signal strength".
This may have been the case at one time or I could possibly be the only exception, but I have had absolutely no problems with Atlas-O 3 rail track, switches and Legacy or DCS signals. I have not removed any of the blackening on the center rails. I get 10's all the way around with DCS. I don't know how to check Legacy signals, but it works just as well as the DCS system. Some of the track was even purchased used and kind of dirty, haven't got around to cleaning it yet.
FWIW, layout has all modern diesels from 2011 to present (mostly PS3, one PS2, one Legacy) and all run in command control. Layout is 6' x 16', 2 loops, 4 blocks per loop with a few sidings and spurs (hope to double the size next year). Wired per Barry's book for DCS, using OGR wire (#14) to MTH terminal blocks, then OGR wire (#16) to all track blocks. One PH-180 per loop for power on each of the fixed channels, TIU powered separately by a Z500 from a set. Legacy was added later, it was new in Sept. '14 (one of the ones that took so long to get). DCS is Rev L TIU, v4.20 from a couple years ago, never been upgraded.
