Peter, The only instance where I can think that electricity would affect rail length is when a single power feed is used for a very long length of track. (Say 100' or so). There is negligible resistance to the rail itself, but when the power is required to pass through multiple rail joints, the potential resistance at those joints could produce enough heat to expand the rail by fraction of a percent. If that expansion is not allowed for, then you can easily spring a rail out of the spikes. I don't think "pre-stretching" would help, anyway.
Having said that, I don't know anybody that has any knowledge of accepted wiring practice, and accepted track laying practice, that would do that..... I do know someone who is ignorant of those practices, but he is happy running his "Casey Jones" around his plywood empire at top speed to see where it jumps off the track! Darrell (no track on my layout yet!) Smith --- In [email protected], Peter Vanvliet <pvanvl...@...> wrote: > > I came across the following quote in my notes; I have no idea from > where this came (probably one of the Yahoo Groups mailing lists from > years ago): > > "Be sure to pre-stress rail by setting up a flow of electricity > before you use them. I used the unregulated output of my 18 volt 5 > amp power supply to drive a #1151 taillight bulb (20 watt 12 volt > bulb). The power supply is used to drive my DCC boosters and the tail > light bulbs are used as current limiters for my DCC power blocks. I > ran the light for about 30 minutes on some code 70 and code 83 rail. > The test with actual trackwork was with the code 83 rail but the code > 70 rail showed some warping as well after the current flow." > > My question is this, is there any merit to this, or is it just a > model railroading myth? And, more importantly, do any of you who > hand-lay rail do this? > > Curious in Houston (where we run the A/C one day and the heater the next), > - Peter. > > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > Peter Vanvliet (pvanvl...@...) > http://www.fourthray.com/ > http://www.fourthray.com/Peter/ > Houston, Texas > ------------------------------------------------------------ > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
