In the 12inch to the foot world track is worn down and needs regular maintenance and replacing but what in the scale model world.

I have over the years found it necessary to replace the occasional st of points but have never had to replace track -

How would identify track that needed replacing ?  

Probably, but but not enough to affect anything. Plastic frog wear and abeasiv e rubbers excepted. Steam hammer blow, weight spreading (10-20 tons per square inch), tread wear on the inside, slipping, sanding and oxidation affect the prototype, steel rails oxidize continuosly, that rust keeps getting removed. Check the  rail code with a micrometer. High mileage models will show wear on the tread if plated, but the plating is at best only 50 microns.

Nigel

I agree with Nigel in pretty well everything he says there.  I have some sections of Peco track that would be 50 years old.  
The older rails have held up well but the plastic sleepering has given way, particularly on curves, largely because it was living in a shed for well over 30 years with the extremes we get here (from 0C to 40C plus.  I have removed oxide on occasions with Aluminium Oxide and Wet and Dry Paper to burnish the rails. Mine is all Code 100 so I would expect that under  4 or 5 thou of an inch lost (… if that) for the most severely used and abraded track.

However some track manufacturers rail is quite brittle so wear could be much higher.  I have some sections of Roco and Atlas but mainly Peco track on the layout and I have not detected on some of those sections which are at least 35 years old. However I have seen some horribly worn Lima and other brands of track over the years but I doubt most of us would be using them.

Cheers

Trevor

Peco track at least is remarkably durable.  I had a couple of hundred yards (it's sold in yards not metres) outdoors in Australia for as much as 12 years.  A few points needed replacing because the blades are made of a different metal which had eventually had enough of a temperature range between 0 - 50C and no longer seated nicely against their stock rails.  A couple of tie-bars also gave up and became sufficiently warped that the point would no longer throw reliably.

But the plain track, Peco Code 100 Streamline, hardly ever gave trouble.  I had a couple of heat buckles but even then allowing for conditions that was a remarkably small number of failures.  The actual rails themselves never wore out despite the conditions and having to be rubbed down before every running session.  A few of the oldest sections of track I thought showed signs of wear and tear but nothing I could measure.  The plastic bases also survived though they became brittle over time.  But if left alone no harm came to them.  


Even when the layout was dismantled most of the plastic still flexed readily and the metal rails looked perfectly good though definitely not new.

Thanks gentlemen,

Based on your replies I will just sit back and run my trains since it is almost certain the track will last longer than I will…..  :sad: :shock:

Anyone have info regarding how E-Z Track endures the years?

In private use track is unlikely to wear out,  but I would bet that Pendon,  or Miniature Wonderland in Germany , some high use sections would require replacing.. 

[user=1916]ZeldaTheSwordsman[/user] wrote:

Anyone have info regarding how E-Z Track endures the years?

The plastic goes very brittle and the connectors will break.


Nigel

Whilst the prototype needs renewal for a variety of reasons - for example the PW engineer used to recomend changing the rail fittings in Watford (Fast Lines) Tunnel every 6 months due to the acids in the water which dripped continuosly inside the tunnel. As for Model Track, think on the large number of Hornby Dublo 3 rail layouts there are whose track - and trains! seem to go on for ever (and are, perhaps, a lot more reliable than any DCC stuff of today- personal view borne out by experience) also Hornby gauge 0 Tinplate track - especially the electric three rail which must all be pre WW2 at least. I have some Bassett Lowke Rail on my Gauge 1 shelf line which is at least 100 years old, however, nowadays I tend to use standard G scale track for the Gauge 1 as it can live in the garden maintenance free. My GNR 112 tank is about 100 and my carette LNWR coach dates from 1909 so not only track but model trains last.

Essentially echoing what others have said above, model track rarely wears out as such. The only obvious wear I have ever seen was the plastic 'frogs' on insulated points (which could be repaired with resin such as Araldite glue). Electrofrog points (the Peco term for them, anyway) don't suffer from this problem at all.

I have had track break. Not the rails themselves, but points and sleepers can disintegrate over long periods in adverse conditions. Peco code 100 track is pretty close to indestructible, but some other brands I have tried in the past had very brittle sleeper bases and chairs.