GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

In one of Joe Fugate's clinics at the 2011 NMRA convention in Sacramento, he mentions that he uses mineral spirits after cleaning his track. He puts it on the rails very thin and wipes off the excess. He suggested an experiment to do if you doubt the use of a conducting lubricant. Run your locomotive on dry clean track in a dark room and watch the sparks between the wheels and the rails. Remember that every spark is putting a tiny pit in both the rail and the wheel. Then turn the lights on and put a thin coat of mineral spirits on the rails, shut off the lights and run it again. The sparks will disappear. I think this is the reason that the Wahl clipper oil works. The difference is that you can buy a gallon of mineral spirits at a big box home improvement store for the price of a pint of Wahl oil.

I remember seeing this somewhere else, but i remain skeptical.

At our club, a friend of mine tried to lubricate the inside-bearings of a single Amfleet car with Wahl Oil. It wasn't very long before his train was leaving a trail of it across our mainline. Pretty soon, NO train could make it up the steeper grades anywhere on the layout, even after constantly track cleaning and attempts to clean the wheels. This was especially bad because it shut us down early during the show season, and we had to drum up extra locomotives (and unusual consists!) to get the trains up the slick rails on the grades.

I recognize that my layout is flat and my trains short, but I feel uncomfortable with this technique, given the above expierience. Unless the mineral spirits aren't as slippery as the Wahl Oil, it seems like a bad plan.

Besides, i've only ever noticed excessive arcing on the old sintered wheels on some of my Athearn blue-box kits, and my American GK E60 electrics.