brass and nickle silver

[Brakie]

Brakie, you are correct as far as appearance of the metal/oxide being covered by paint, but oxides effect the conductivity of the rail (and wheels) in the contact area (top and inner face of the ball or head). Here, the conductivity of the metal and its oxide, the rate of oxidation, and (to a lesser degree) appearance of the rail is important. As for TE, interfaces of like metals - steel/steel, brass/brass, nickel/nickel, are usually relatively sticky. Different metals slip more easily, a characteristic relied upon in making bearings/bushings for rotating machinery, yes ? It's not that brass doesn't do the job, only that (in some ways) nickel-silver is better IMO. Bob

Bob,The advance modelers of the 50/60s would spray paint their track before laying it much like today's modelers does NS track...

Brass track gots its "evil" name from magazine "experts" and Linn Westcott back in the mid 60s...Of course this help push NS track making track advertisers happy...I used brass track as late as 1995 on one of my ISLs with zero problems and zero oxidization. This track was given to me as "junk"..I used for 3 years on that ISL.