Micro Engineering rail "weathering"

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I'm making progress on my Pavonia engine house TTRAK module and it's getting to be track time.

I think it might finally be the chance to use up a bunch of ME pre weathered track I bought 20 years ago and haven't found anything to do with since.

I have some questions about the weathering they've applied though.
Essentially: Is it electrically conductive?

Do I need to clean it off where I'm going to solder feeders? If so, how?

Your experiences with it will be appreciated.

[wazzou]

Do you have a wire brush wheel attachment for your Dremel?
That’d be my recommendation.

[djconway]

You can not solder to paint, the surface has to be cleaned, an ink eraser is a good tool for cleaning the rails.

[peteski]

It's not paint - the rail is weathered (darkened) chemically. Micro Engineering actually sells their rail weathering liquid so modelers can use it on their bare rails.

That weathered rail does not take solder well.  I recommend cleaning the area to be soldered.  What wazzou suggests sounds like a good solution.  I suspect that @robert3985 will have some very useful and detailed recommendations.

[ednadolski]

I use the Dremel wire brush on the base where I want to solder on wires, or at the ends if i want to solder the joiners.  800 grit or finer sandpaper also works.

IDK tho if Pliobond will glue weathered rail to wood ties.

Ed

[nkalanaga]

To the other question, yes, it is electrically conductive.  You might want to remove it from the railhead anyway, as most rails are shiny on top.

[ATSF_Ron]

Ditto what Wazzou said. I did that and solder took to it just fine. Having said that, I’ll never buy the weathered rail again. It was 1990s, so idk if the formula has changed, but I always had issues with keeping it clean. And it was an indoor layout in a spare room. Since then I’ve bought the unweathered rail and spray painted it. Zero contact/cleaning issues.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Cool.

I guess my other question is joiners. Will they conduct sufficiently?

I'll clean it up where I need to solder.

Buying this stuff was a mistake, but I'm glad I'll finally be able to put it to some use.

[rodsup9000]

 I wished I would of used weathered ME's weathered track on my whole layout. I like the looks of it a lot better than the non-weathered rail, but couldn't justify to cost. It is much harder to work with in getting the tie nubs to break free when trying to form it. Once free, it about like working with the non-weathered track. When soldering to it, as @ednadolski said, use a wire brush in a motor tool and clean the area well. I file the ends first to accept ME rail joiners and then used the wire brush to clean the rail ends where the rail joiner will be be going.

 Once laid, I clean the top and inside of the rails with a Bright Boy and run my cleaning train of 5 Roco cleaning cars over it at least 10 times and it good to go.
 

[rodsup9000]

 Not a good photo, but you get the idea

[peteski]

I'm pretty sure the darkened layer does not conduct electricity itself, but it's so very thin that can be scratched or abraded easily enough to expose bare nickel-silver.

[robert3985]

The wire-wheel Dremel tool is what I've used in the far past with only a couple of sticks of the ME weathered Code55 flex. 

If you don't have a rotary tool nor the wire-wheel tool, a cheap, small stainless welding brush from Harbor Freight also works well.

When installing rail joiners, make sure you use tight ME rail joiners.  If you wire-brush the weathering/blackening away from the rail joints, make sure you do the entire rail at that point...meaning top, sides and bottom.

Nope, the blackening is not electrically conductive, so as has already been said, remove it from the railheads using an abrasive Brite-Boy style track cleaner making sure to get the inside railhead edges clean.

I found that after bending the sticks, there were bright nickel spots where the plastic tie strips had shifted, so the whole weathering thing only made soldering the sticks together much more difficult, since I ended up painting it anyway since I needed to hide the bright non-blackened spots where the tie strips/spikeheads had shifted from their positions when the stick was straight, AND I wanted to paint the plasticky-looking ties for more realism. (COMMENT: Micro Engineering has started weathering their rails before adding the ties to it sometime after my experience with it, so I've corrected my post to reflect that change for the better.)

When I first got into N-scale back when I joined the local Ntrak Club, I relied on full-sized rail joiners to conduct electricity, but I soldered them since my HO experience as a kid was that unsoldered rail joiners always had a problem with electrical conductivity especially if the track got painted, weathered and ballasted.  I would NOT rely on unsoldered rail joiners to conduct electrical current for any application, but especially for a portable, modular application. 

For me, since my layout is sectional and portable, I solder a 22AWG solid copper feeder to each and every piece of rail that will conduct electrical current and DCC signals, making my cut-down mini rail joiners' sole purpose just to keep the rail ends aligned.  With TTRAK modules, putting a feeder on every piece of rail shouldn't be too much of a PITA, and will ensure a near total lack of electrical problems. I'm not aware of TTRAK's standards, but I'm assuming the modules require power buses and connectors.

Photo (1) - Shortened ME rail joiners cut down to fit between ties with 22AWG solid copper feeders soldered to underside of Code55 Rail Craft flex at Echo Yard:


If anybody is interested in how I cut and apply these tiny cut-down rail joiners, which virtually disappear when the track is painted, weathered and ballasted, I'll post a link here if requested.

I like to solder my feeders to the undersides of the railfoot between ties with the plastic between-the-ties spacer cut away.  Doing this with the blackened ME rails will require that the blackening be removed before soldering.  I like to flatten the end of my feeders, put an appropriate bend in the flattened part, amply tin the flattened portion then solder them to the rails after bending the stick but before gluing it in place. I drill a hole with clearance for two insulated 22AWG copper feeder wires, located centered between rails, which makes threading the feeders down very easy.  Adding under-the-railfoot-feeders to track already glued down is another story.  After the track is glued to the roadbed, I flip the module over and glue my two insulated feeders into the hole with gap-filling CA so pulling them off the rails will be very difficult.  Using an accelerator really speeds this process up.

As always, I highly recommend (especially for portable modular track work) using Superior No. 30 Supersafe Soldering Flux and 96/4 Tin/Silver silver-bearing solder for any track joinery as well as attaching feeders to your rails since this combination is 5 to 6 time stronger than "normal" tin/lead electrical solders.  Unfortunately my go-to store (H&N Electronics) is no longer in business, so the No. 30 Supersafe Flux will have to be ordered directly from Superior or an authorized dealer since Superior has a $100 minimum purchase policy.  Dealers are listed at the superiorflux.com site.  Also, any 96/4 silver-bearing solder will work just fine, but if you can't find it locally, you can get it here:  https://www.kappalloy.com/solder-alloy/kappzapp-solders/kappzapp4/  The 1/32" solid-core silver-bearing solder is ideal for N-scale trackwork, but, since it contains silver, it's more expensive than tin/lead solders, but well worth it IMO.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[mmagliaro]

Weathering not conductive.  Definitely have to clean where the rail joiners go and where you solder.  Dremel or fine sandpaper works.  What everybody else said.

I had some of this years ago and hated it.  The appearance isn't worth all the effort of cleaning everything for joiners and solder and you definitely have to polish the weathering off the railhead or nothing will run.  Then there's the issues with moving the ties along the rail that others have mentioned.  I think you're better off using unweathered rail and then painting the sides of it with a small brush or a paint marker yourself after it is installed.  You are going to have to touch up the weathing at every rail joint anyway because of the Dremel-ing or sanding you need to do at those points.

[Angus Shops]

I’ve used both (weathered and not), mostly based on what was available at the LHS at the time. The weathering definitely needs to be removed for soldering, but I used whatever appropriate micro file was on hand at the time. The weathering definitely is a hassle, so I used the weathered track in locations where full lengths could be used to cut down on the cleaning. I also solder feeders to the bottom of the rail, but I cut out the ‘spacers between the adjacent 3 or 4 ties, slide the ties out of the way, file the weathering off the bottom of the rail, solder the feeders and then slide the ties back into place - more room to clean the rail and no melted ties. Also, while de-weathering the rail ends for joiner installation, I take the opportunity to take a couple of passes with the file over the end of the rail to remove any burrs that result for flush cutting of the rail to make installation of the joiner easier. Otherwise installing those ME joiners can be a painful, frustrating experience.

However, in my experience, I’ve found that the non weathered track requires almost the same clean up prep as the weathered track to ensure good solder joints.

Incidentally, the last time I needed ME code 55 joiners, my LHS was out of stock and I was advised the Z joiners would be adequate substitutes - and they were, and they’re about 1/2 the length of the ME joiners.

[robert3985]

I’ve used both (weathered and not), mostly based on what was available at the LHS at the time. The weathering definitely needs to be removed for soldering, but I used whatever appropriate micro file was on hand at the time. The weathering definitely is a hassle, so I used the weathered track in locations where full lengths could be used to cut down on the cleaning. I also solder feeders to the bottom of the rail, but I cut out the ‘spacers between the adjacent 3 or 4 ties, slide the ties out of the way, file the weathering off the bottom of the rail, solder the feeders and then slide the ties back into place - more room to clean the rail and no melted ties. Also, while de-weathering the rail ends for joiner installation, I take the opportunity to take a couple of passes with the file over the end of the rail to remove any burrs that result for flush cutting of the rail to make installation of the joiner easier. Otherwise installing those ME joiners can be a painful, frustrating experience.

However, in my experience, I’ve found that the non weathered track requires almost the same clean up prep as the weathered track to ensure good solder joints.

Incidentally, the last time I needed ME code 55 joiners, my LHS was out of stock and I was advised the Z joiners would be adequate substitutes - and they were, and they’re about 1/2 the length of the ME joiners.

Cutting the spacers on 3 or 4 ties and sliding them back from the solder joint is an excellent idea when using a soldering iron.  I don't do it since I solder mine with my American Beauty Resistance Soldering Station using the tweezer tool, which positions, heats, solders, and holds the joint in position until the solder freezes...all in about a second.  Bzzzaaap!...a little smoke/steam from the flux evaporating...get off the pedal...hold...done.

I do cut the spacers and slide 3 or 4 ties back when soldering the rail joints however, even using my resistance solderer, just to be sure I don't melt any spikeheads.

I wasn't aware of Z-scale rail joiners, but that's a great piece of advice! Yeah...the regular ones are way oversized IMO, so the half-length Z-scale joiners would be much less intrusive.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore