Nickel-silver or fake?

[sealion]

Hi,

I want to start a N layout, I bought some locomotives on ebay, but the flexible tracks are to big and I needed to buy them locally, the problem is that the N scale has very little market here, and hardly can you get what you need.

I found a seller and bought some nickel-silver tracks and a switch. The switch is an Atlas code 80, and the color is perfectly silver, but the tracks, even if is very slight, I´m afraid they have a redish tone, they don´t look like the old brass H0 tracks I had when kid, but the switch is more clearly silver.

So, did I got nickel silver or it is brass? .

The brand of the tracks is GT, made in italy. Any idea if the are good enough to my first layout?

Thanks!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I don't believe it's brass. I've used ns track from several makers and some of it had different color variations.

 

[UP2CSX]

Welcome aboard! First, there are lots of things avilable in N scale, assuming you are in the US or Europe. If you're not, it would be good to tell us that.

I'm not an N scaler but I've never seen brass N scale track. I suspect the the track has the reddish color simply because it's slightly oxidized. You can use some 80% rubbing alcohol to clean the tracks and I think they'll look silver again. There may be some very old brass track in N scale I don't know anbout so I'll leave that to another of our members who knows N scale track better than I do. If it it truly is brass, getting nickel silver is almost mandatory because the light weight of N scale locomotives demand the best electrical contact possible for reliable operation.

 

[sealion]

Thanks for your answers!

I will try to cleaning them to see if there is oxide.

BTW, Im from Argentina, thats why getting N scale stuff is not that easy. There are several shops here in Buenos Aires, but they maybe have 100 locos in H0 and not even 10 in N.

Well, I will post any news about the layout Im working in. The base is 3´x 4´.

Thanks Again.