Southern Pacific Switching Layout

[FCIN]

Here is the FINAL track-plan:

Track plan looks good Justin! Plenty of room to work the container plant and the track arrangement is quite prototypical even if it's been reversed a little.

Just to refresh my memory, what are the overall dimensions of the layout? I'm assuming that it's two 24x80 inch HCD's butted together, but not 100% sure.

I'm also wondering where that "black stuff" you mentioned on the track is coming from. Surely those lens cleaners aren't spreading some sort of "stuff" on the rail when you clean them. Really got me puzzled.

Good idea that Russ has there about putting a little drop or two of mineral spirits on the track after cleaning it. I've never tried the "lights out" experiment myself to see if there is a spark show between the loco and the track, but might just try it out this morning. I found a bottle of a product called "Rail Zip" that is actually transmission fluid that I might try out on the layout myself, as this is another recommended thing to put on the track to improve contact and eliminate that sparking issue. Haven't tried to use it, as I have this vision of a fine layer of oil or whatever on the rails actually attracting the dust to the track - but might just try it out on a test track section.

*** EDIT ***
In regard to the "lights out" experiment mentioned above.... I ran all six of my DCC equipped locomotives on the layout this morning in the dark and observed no sparking what so ever at any speed. Locomotives include a Kato SD40-2, Athearn GP15-1, Atlas MP15dc, Atlas ALCo C-420, BLI NW-2 and an Athearn CF-7. So I'm not sure where people are seeing this sparking issue. Didn't try running anything on the DC test track, but it certainly isn't an issue for me on the DCC powered layout. Guess I'll just stick with cleaning the track now and then with alcohol and not worry about putting any type of oil on the rails. Was fun to try this out.