I agree, lets start another controversy :) I have a loop of 50 ft and several yard tracks. over the first year of operation with about 35 captive cars (all steel wheels) I used GooGone with two "centerline" rollers. One had wet roll, and the second had the dry clean-up roller. BUT all the time I was having to take a dry cloth to wipe up black residue off the rail, particularly at transition from straight to curve. A year ago, using tips form the SoCal railroad group, I tried rubbing alcohol. I carefully cleaned the rails and each wheel on the cars and engines. So far trains have run very well and the cars are showing no signs of gunk accumulation. Periodically, I will run the centerline cars with rubbing alcohol on the rollers to gather up dust and "make me feel like I am doing good for the RR." I also follow a tip from Roger Nulton to use a small piece of unpainted HOMOSOTE to wipe the tops of the rails whenever a week or so has elapsed between when I operate trains. Terry Dillon, running the PRR in Burbank CA Question for the group: has anyone successfully replaced the Flyer compatible couplers on the Centerline cars with scale couplers of any type?
________________________________ From: Peter Vanvliet <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2012 10:03 AM Subject: {S-Scale List} Next Controversial Topic: Track Cleaning 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. -- Peter Vanvliet ([email protected]) Houston, Texas My Model Railroad Site (RSS feed) Fourth Ray Software Houston S Gaugers N.A.S.G. --
