What do you do with old brass track?

So if you’re like me and have been a model railroader for years you probably have at least a few pieces of old brass track kicking around.  But what should you do with them?  I don’t think you’ll find too many people who would choose brass track as their first choice to still run trains on, and as such there isn’t much of a resale market for brass track.  So do you throw it out?  Store it indefinitely?  The other day while looking at wheel stops and bumping posts for my industrial complex it struck me that I could use some of the old brass rail to make a Hayes style bumping post.  I am also hoping being metal that these will be more resilient than the Walthers plastic ones, which in my experience are not strong enough to stop a locomotive under power.  In Walthers defence, I don’t think the prototype versions would stop a locomotive under power either but if I can lessen the chance of an expensive locomotive or car hitting the concrete I will.  Those with an eye for absolute accuracy may note that the Hayes bumping posts generally use H beams and not rail, but there are many different types of bumping post out there some of which do use bent rail. 

so after finding inspiration from various pictures online I set out to create a version for my railroad.  My design is really an amalgam of several different types but they serve my purpose well, without being too fanciful.  In my design I used square brass tube, brass rod, and a brass strip in addition to the rail.  So far I have been making these by eyeballing them, although especially if I’m going to be making too many more I may make a jig.  The first one I built (the one on the right in the photo) I soldered the strike plate directly to the square tube, however this proved to be difficult to do without causing the brass tube itself to come loose.  I ran into the same problem when attaching the brass rod.  For the second I soldered  a smaller piece of square tube to the brass strip separately and then just nested the assembled strike plate into the larger square tube.  Another important design consideration when I was building these was to make sure they would fit between the rails without touching either side.  These being all metal would definitely be a problem if they touched both rails like the prototype photo above.  Another option would to be to gap or insulate the rails just before the bumper.  This is the installation method for the Tomar bumping posts.  So I will close out this post by giving a list of other fantastic uses for old brass rails that where given to me after I posted a photo of my bumpers on facebook.

• Track running into building (preferably if they are only going to be used for cars)
• Abandon sidings or spurs
• Scrap rail along the line
• Rail loads for gondola or flat cars
•  Track for cars or locomotives on display (on the railroad or on a shelf)