O27 track. Copper colored rails?

That's a new one for me Mannyrock.

Can you share a pic?

It's usable, but the plating is gone via sanding, wirebrush, chemical,.etc.  It may be harder to clean, and cause occasional random horn blasts, but for the most part, it should be fine.

The layer you're seeing acts as a "primer" , the plating sticks better to it than it would to steel or could possibly react chemically to direct long term contact....Similar to how chrome is done.

Would it make sense to use the track with copper colored outside rails on sidings and regular track on main lines?

Thanks for those answers.  I suspected that he had used too much sandpaper.  Only the top edges of the rails are copper colored, not the sides of the rails.

Arnold, I think you are right.  I'll use them on sidings.  The color doesn't bother me, but if they start to give me problems it will be easier to remove and replace them if they are on a siding.

John, take an old piece track, sand a rail vigorously with 60 grit sandpaper, and I think you will see the copper color.

Mannyrock

Oh, easier than that. Ive worn out 0-27 past the copper via trains alone. Mind any flakes, they can cut you easy. Break um off and keep running

Lionel track was plated with tin - which is why it's "Tinplate" RR'ing. Tin is an expensive metal that is used to prevent (for a while) rust, and is also takes solder very well (the solder I use is a tin/antimony mix). Tin is not "cheap" - but it has been used to plate some "cheap" stuff (steel soup cans, for example; older beer cans; old toy trains).

I do not know the exact steps of Lionel's (and others) track-plating procedure, but copper often plays a big role in plating many metals. Chromed steel auto bumpers go through a copper stage.

The copper cannot possibly hurt anything - it's supposed to be there.

Speaking of which, my Grandfather's procees patents were used by the automotive industry post war. Enabling bigger better Detroit chrome of the 50s was his doing. He sold that, but retained the gauge patents for work. I helped recalibrate/rebuild or make new gauges for all the big corporations growing up. Pallets full while they were down for retooling. He had been inspired by an old metallurgist at Raleigh Bicycles in England, and knew he could improve the large scale processing here. He hated the rust prone chrome from earlier times enough to search out why and he found it.

I have cleaned tracks with white vinegar, ocasionally the track will turn a golden copper color after cleaning. This happens even when I flush it with water and neutralize the vinegar with baking soda. I also have had it happen while drying the tracks in the oven.  Why this happens I don't know. You would think it would happen to all tracks in the batch, but it usually only happens to a few of them. I'm guessing that the metal/tin compostion of the various makes of track varied slightly over time and those of a particular mixture will turn the golden brown rust color. Sounds like a master thesis topic for a metalurgist.

@Mannyrock posted:

Thanks for those answers.  I suspected that he had used too much sandpaper.  Only the top edges of the rails are copper colored, not the sides of the rails.

Arnold, I think you are right.  I'll use them on sidings.  The color doesn't bother me, but if they start to give me problems it will be easier to remove and replace them if they are on a siding.

John, take an old piece track, sand a rail vigorously with 60 grit sandpaper, and I think you will see the copper color.

 

Mannyrock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still dunno. I just sanded, tops and ribs, of old black tie and silver tie O27 track to various degrees with 60 grit.  For the heck of it, I also did the same on "modern" brown tie O27 track. All I see is bright silver metal underneath the tinplating. Thinking that I may have sanded through any copper layer with 60 grit, I then did the same with finer grits - again no copper layer.

I've seen enough car restoration shows to know that copper is used in the chrome plating process, but this is still the first I've heard of in as respects to Lionel's O27 rails. 

I've also stripped and restored a lot of Lionel tinplate engines and cars. At times sanding the metal down to prepare the surface to solder a joint. Again, never seen any evidence of copper

Copper has never been cheap and, from what I read about ol' Josh, he would have promoted its use in this plating process if he used it.

I would love to see a pic of what you have.