Despite these impressive figures, my stainless steel rail (AristoCraft) has run electric trains far more reliably than the brass rail I have always previously used. Cleaned with LGB rail cleaning engine twice in three years. Brass rail required a track cleaning run every time I wished to operate.
Gary - chilling in Eugene, Oregon http://www.angelfire.com/or/trainguy http://community.webshots.com/user/raltzenthor ----- Original Message ----- From: steve boylan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Multiple recipients of sslivesteam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, October 11, 2002 5:39 AM Subject: Re: Track Help for Ferdinand > Trot the Fox contributed: > > > It's either Copper or Gold, I'm not sure which is absolute best. I believe > > it's Copper. Copper is used in most wiring for good reason > > though. :) Chip-makers are now converting over to Copper conductors > > inside the chips to improve speed and lower temps/power consumption over > > the Aluminum they had been using previously. :) > > > > Trot, the semiconductor-working, fox... > > The top conductivity is silver. Unfortunately, silver rail tends to > oxidize quickly, and is hard to keep clean. It's also much more expensive > than the more commonly-used materials. :-) > > For reference, here's a copy of a list of standard conductivities, > referenced to annealed copper: > > Silver 106% > Copper 100% > Gold 65% > Aluminum (alloys) 50% > Brass 28% > Steel 3-15% > Nickle-silver 5% > > In choosing a metal for trackwork, simple conductivity is not the only > consideration. You also need to balance corrosion, surface oxidation, > mechanical strength, and cost. All the usual engineering tradeoffs. > > (One might ask "So why is so much gold used in semiconductor > manufacturing?" Two good reasons: it doesn't corrode or oxidize, so it > makes a great conductive or protective plating. The other reason is that > it's highly ductile: gold can easily be drawn into very fine wire which > is used to connect the lead frames to the chips. Or at least it was last > time I took a few chips apart, which is now, um, some time ago!) > > - - Steve, feeling pedantic > this morning. >
