Southern Pacific Switching Layout

[Russ Bellinis]

In his clinic on making trains run reliably at the NMRA convention in Sacramento, Joe Fugate mentioned that he did an experiment on his layout. He cleaned the track with alcohol, and left it dry, then he ran a locomotive with the lights turned off in his basement, and noticed a regular "light show" from all of the arcing and sparking between the wheels and rails. Every time there is a spark, it will leave a small pit and black carbon deposit on both the wheels and the rail. He then cleaned the rails again with the alcohol, and put on a little mineral spirits (works like the Wahl clipper oil mentioned in another thread). When he repeated the lights off experiment, there was no more arcing. the way to put the oil on without getting too much is to put just a little bit on one spot, and then run your locomotive over it and then over the entire railroad. Let the locomotive wheels spread the oil over the rails. If the oil is put on heavy enough to attract dust or dirt, you have too much. You won't see the sparking, in normal light unless it is really bad! The test is to treat your track, then run the loco after dark with the lights off.

The other method I've seen mentioned on forums is to treat your track with No-ox.

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