Re: Cab Roofs on the NG

Original Terne was soft iron sheet washed in lead. Over time iron was replaced by soft steel, and the lead was replaced by zinc. After the last maker went out of bussiness about 2010, Revere Copper bought the equipment and introduced two products, zinc washed stainless steel and zinc washed copper. The stainless steel is too hard to make a traditional rolled seam railroad roof. The copper works much like the original material.

The weird part is that terne was created to be a cheap alternative to a copper roof... and now we coat copper in zinc to recreate a cheaper alternative to a copper roof... using copper...

Randy Hees

Director, Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City, retired
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