Actually, this is more of a tip.
I clean the wheels on all my rolling stock several times a year (more
precisely both before and after each 3-5 shows our club does). I started
having engine stalling problems several months ago. I'd wipe the track
clean with either a Bright Boy or a "baby lap pad" (a dense cotton
material) put under the Bright Boy (or a flat eraser) and the engine
would go across the offending area again. Then the next day, the same
thing happened again. It got so bad that in some areas I'd test the rail
voltage to see if a feeder wire had broken. I even opened up my SHS NW2
switcher to see if a wire had come loose inside of it.
I then remembered a tip from years ago from a guy on the N-scale Yahoo
group list when I was in N-scale. He recommended metal polish for
cleaning the rails. I never did try in on any of my N-scale layouts. So,
in "desperation" I bought a bottle of "Wright's Silver Polish" at the
grocery store about a month or so ago. I polished a section of track in
an area that almost guaranteed an engine to stall, and the results were
amazing. I spent the next several evenings polishing all my layout's
track. I did not clean the wheels on my equipment again, because this
was shortly after our last show.
It is a good month later now, and I have not had a single stall! My
jerky SHS NW2 has now returned to its normal smooth sailing. I have no
idea how often I have to polish the rail, but the several nights was
well worth the investment to get my smooth-running layout back again.
So, this appears to be a solution for me. I use Micro Engineering code
83 "unweathered" rail (all hand-laid).
I'm posting this just in case someone has, or will have, a similar problem.
- Peter.
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Peter Vanvliet ([email protected])
Houston, Texas
My Model Railroad Site <http://pmrr.org/> (RSS feed
<http://pmrr.org/rss.xml>)
Fourth Ray Software <http://fourthray.com/>
Houston S Gaugers <http://houstonsgaugers.org/>
N.A.S.G. <http://nasg.org/>
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