Well I can’t say much about brass vs NS but I can speak from experience about the difference between sintered metal and NS. By actual comparison NS has comparatively poor adhesion on NS track.

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My “Athearn” Baldwin S-12 with an Cary built (lead-antimony) Cary Alco S-2 shell along with added lead, a Sagami 2032 motor w/brass flywheels and Ernst gears was able to easily switch a cut of 56 5 oz. 40 ft. freight cars, all with C.V. trucks on my friends (Cal) layout. After the switch to NWSL NS wheels it hard a hard time moving anything over 40 of the cars in the yard. That coincided with Cal’s change to Command Control but that really had nothing to do with it as the problem was wheel slip.

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Although not a direct comparison, my thoughts are that brass wheels would have similar traction to the sintered metal. Having started on HO around 1949 I have much experience with brass drive wheels.

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So far as cleanliness if one’s track is clean kept brass and sintered metal work just fine. So far as electrical pick-up all will work okay but I agree that NS gets a bit of the nod here. A more important consideration to me is having reasonable clean rail without being so clean and dry that arcing is promoted.

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John Hagen

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