Nickel Silver track


ICG/SOU

ICG/SOU

HO & O (3-rail) trainman
I was thinking about all the Code 100 track (mostly flex track) that I won't use for the rebuild, and wondered about the percentages of nickel and silver in the track. Is there a way to melt this stuff down and separate it into nickel and silver? With the price of silver now, I'd hate to just toss it.

Anyone else thought of this?
 
according to wiki nickel/silver contains exactly 0% silver

"The usual formulation is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc"
 
Nickel-silver track contains no silver. The silver color is from nickel and zinc which are 'silver-colored'. But since it is mostly brass, the value of brass (which is copper + zinc) is going to determine the scrap value, and that in itself is possibly worth looking into. Granted you may not get a lot, but it beats tossing it in a landfill.
 
Is the track destroyed from tearing it up? I'd reuse it in out-of-view places like staging, in tunnels, etc.
 
Usually when you try to rip up Flextrack the rail seperates from the plastic ties. Unless it's just laying there on the roadbed w/out being glued down or have ballast attached to it, you can sometimes save it for another layout. In all the layouts I have constructed it's almost impossible to remove all flex track w/out bending or kinking it in someway.
In the past when I was going to redo a layout I would buy a case of flex track before I ever got started because I knew I couldn't save it all from the old layout. Don't get me wrong, I have tried to scrape it off w/wide putty knives, tar remover scrapers, chisels, roof scrapers, home made scrapers & a little dynamite & save at least a foot or 2.
 
I've salvaged a lot of track, but I have never glued it down and probably never will for that very reason. My tracklaying technique has always been to use the tiny nails in the holes in the ties, then the typical ballast treatment using 50/50 glue/water mix. Track comes up easily when it's time to make a change.
 
ossroy said:
I've salvaged a lot of track, but I have never glued it down and probably never will for that very reason. My tracklaying technique has always been to use the tiny nails in the holes in the ties, then the typical ballast treatment using 50/50 glue/water mix. Track comes up easily when it's time to make a change.
Click to expand...

I'm just learning about this, but looking at the large layout I bought I can see the mistakes. The track was glued down, it was soldered poorly, and where tables come apart he split the track right at the joint.

Maybe I'm doing this wrong but I painted the boards a dirt color as a base. Then I laid down an adhesive backed rubber sound deadener that I rolled gray. Then I loosely nail the track down to the board just so it doesn't move around. This also helps me level the joints.

I'm going to do the 50/50 Elmer's and water mix to glue down the ballast and fill the slope in off the edge of the rubber deadener.

That way if I want to change things all I need to do is a little scraping instead of scraping. Plus the track run a lot quieter without being glued to the board.



Tom
 
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