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Brite-Boys: Good, Bad or Indifferent?
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<p>I'm not going to knock anybody's opinion, because we all should run our railroads the way we want to., BUT</p><p> To validly prove this thing one way or the other will require some scientific testing complete with control groups. At this point we have mostly unproven theory mixed in with a little witchcraft. I would think at a minimun you would have to start with three sections of new rail, all manufactured from the same lot, to minimize differences in alloy and manufacture. One section of rail should be the control group and remain uncleaned in anyway. One section should be chemicaly cleaned, alcohol or what have you, one section to be cleaned with the brite boy or other abrasive. The sections should be subjected to the same levels of heat, dust, and humidity, and have trains run over them the same amount, and with identical make ups of engines, wheels, etc. Ideally no variables such as curves or grades should be introduced.</p><p> Additonally some objective and not subjective crieteria of how clean is clean and how dirty is dirty is needed. Until then we are all just expressing our opinion or otherwise swaping stories. Perhaps there's a graduate student out there who's lokking for a project, or an engineer who could set up a test protocol several of us could use.</p><p> Personally, I use the briteboy and don't seem to have problems. I suspect those advocating a finer grit have something, but once again I'm just guessing. I also wipe down occasionaly with alcohol, but more to degrease than anything else. I'm loath to try anything that leaves an oily residue (clipper oil) because of the potential traction problem. At any rate, I simply don't have much of a dirty track problem. Perhaps this is simply a matter of perception on my part (otherwise known as fooling yourself) because the nickle silver rail is such a major improvement over the brass I used years ago.</p><p>JBB</p>
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