Disintegrating Track

[WelshTyneside]

I've recently inberited some old track and bought some new track. Yeaterday I literally had track disintergrated in my hand when I took them out of storage boxes. Either the sleepeers snapping or the rail lifting wholly of the sleepers. Am I caring for them wrong? Pulling too hard when replacing fish plates?

[JJ73]

How old is the 'old track'??? May be the plastic sleepers are a bit brittle perhaps - I've had track where the rail broke of the sleepers - not much you can do about it - just replace your broken track with new Nickle Silver Track!!!

[Rog RJ]

What make is the track?  There was some dodgy track available that broke even when it was new.  Needed very careful handling, unfortunately I can't remember who made it.

[EnGee]

Depends on how old the track is and how it's been stored, but this was exactly the problem (1 of many!) I encountered with a load of second hand steel track I had.

I know others will disagree  but as far as I'm concerned, If it's steel track you have then there's only one place for it - Ebay!!

[ColinB]

Unfortunately plastic ages and goes very brittle. I find points are the worst, in my case Peco ones, they are alright if they stay on the layout and you don't touch them but if you remove them to refit them somewhere else I find the rail becomes unattached from the plastic. The clips just fall apart. That is why I very rarely buy second hand points. Similarly flexible track becomes solid.

[96RAF]

I have quite a few useless points where the toe end sleepers have fallen off rendering the important bits totally sunstable. I have tried repairing them with copper clad replacement sleepers but its beyond my skill set, so they occupy the bottom of my gash box.