DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Around the time of Sukkot, metal (alas, steel) zip ties become available here in addition to regular nylon/plastic ones. They have a different pawl end and no teeth on the other side, and are actually not as good for their intended purpose; they can't even be cut by "normal means" (i.e., side cutting pliers), though my pruning scissors are good for both types. I've already started looking into track power after seeing it can be replicated, though I'm too scared to plug anything homemade into a socket and don't have adequate safety measures.



After I cut one tie into short strips and found they were conductive, I wondered if they could also function like most types of model track (whether two rail or third rail). Yesterday, I took two and attached the wires of my old USB cable to feed them 5V and was surprised they didn't get hot or emit sparks when touched by another conductor. I considered building a chassis with metal wheels and pickups to power an LED from the track, but the LED alone was enough. One thing that really deters me is if the rails would touch each other directly while live, they could cause a short circuit that would make everything overheat and/or start a fire (including the power source, e.g. a laptop). Wonder how manufacturers make parts like junctions and points yet manage to prevent this. According to an unsourced claim in the Wikipedia article "Rail transport modelling", there used to be "trackside batteries" at a time before electricity became widespread in homes. I couldn't find any photos or other mentions of those that weren't copied from there, so I have no idea if I could simply place a 3x AA pack and wire it to the rails. If possible, I'd prefer using a rechargeable battery like one of those huge Li-Po bricks for certain RC vehicles.

Another use I could find for a parallel arrangement like this with current would be a sensor/detector that would react to a metal piece touching both simultaneously, like an alternative to a button or slide switch. For example, turning an engine's lights on until it exits a tunnel or triggering something in a trackside building. I've seen two different level crossings with that type of detector to lower the barriers, so that's how I know about it. While they may not be as good as aluminium or copper (yet more effective than large amounts of aluminium foil), I'm still happy to know I could use them for either of these purposes. For the time being, I'll keep building rolling stock with on board battery power instead. However, I will still try to replicate different pickup methods like wheel scraping wipers and copper coils on axles.