rail cleaning

[Anonymous]

Im 13 and wondering about my tracks. Sometimes my engines will stall or sloww down and then speed up again. Im not sure if it is from dirty tracks or if the engine is the problem. IF it is most likely the rails could you tell me some good cleaning tips. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Tom,

The problem you describe may be caused by three things. First, the rail may be dirty as you believe. The top surface of the rail can be cleaned with an abrasive like a Brite Boy cleaning eraser or a variety of cleaning solutions. I use a Brite Boy from time to time.

Second, the wheels on your locomotives also become dirty. I put some rubbing alcohol on a strong kitchen towel and let the trucks on my diesel locos run in place on the towel. After you are finished with this technique, run the trucks over a section of dry towel to remove the alcohol otherwise you will spread it on your track.

The third problem is possibly poor conductivity through your rail. This is most often caused by long runs from the power pack through the rail to portions of the rail. If your power must run through several loose rail joiners then you will have less voltage at the other end. The best way to eliminate this problem is to run 'feeder wires' under the table to several locations along your track. Just make sure you dont create short circuits when you do this. I recommend you get the book by Atlas which discusses two rail wiring for your layout.

Good Luck - Ed

[Anonymous]

In addition, you may also wi***o consider using
a common household cleaner called GOO GONE on a small saturated paper towel etc,BUT, like the
directions say, use a clean cloth to wipe it off.
Also may be used between the track and your loco
with your power pack on while spinning your wheels. Clean rails /wheels manatory for peak
operating performance.

[Anonymous]

To supplement my previous reply.As Ed pointed out
long track runs may be a problem. I'm no juice man
but perhaps with a electical ac-dc tester you can determined a drop I think by, throttle up, say half way on your pack, touch the power pack terminals with the 2 probes, get a reading on the
instrument, then proceed down track to see if there are declining #s, by touching the two probes to the rails and if so, like Ed said previously, run additional juice lines..

[Anonymous]

Tom, I agree with Charles and ED to a point, but if your locos are slowing down as they move away from the feeder wires then speeding back up with no prompting, then I would go with the idea that the wheels and track are dirty and follow their instuctions. Oh yeah, one more thing, you could make a rail cleaning car by mounting a brightboy to a very heavy car. If you want more info on one of those, feel free to E-mail me at [e-mail]

[thirdrail1]

I suggest you clean your track, locomotive wheels, and locomotive contact wipers, if it has them, with Radio Shack TV Tuner Cleaner and Lubricant. I live within 1500 feet of the Gulf of Mexico and since using this have had not electical contact problems on my N scale railroad. use a 1/2" foam bru***o apply to the rails, apply it with paper towels over the rails, one truck at a time on Diesels, and just spray a very little bit on wipers.

[Anonymous]

I have had similar problems and usually cleaning the tracks with alchol does the trick. I have also noticed that tempertature and humidity have an effect. I live in the desert and on cold winter days my layouts just don't work as well as on hot summer days. Also I have noticed that if you run your layout a lot the problem deminishes. Also I lube the locomotive wheels with conductive oil and have found that that makes a BIG difference.

[Anonymous]

If your rails are dirty and not your wheels then I suggest you try to by a rail cleaning car. If you have a subscription to MR then you can get one at a low price. There are many varieties and I think they work quit well.

[Anonymous]

bobp.i use centerline track cleaners for my track i use code 100 atlas track. these units do a better than average job.the trick to cleaning track is to clean frequently and throughly. there is no such thing as cleaning to much. also be sure you clean the wheels on your locos, this is just as important as cleaning track. if you try to set up a regular schedual it will not become so much of a burden to clean. i have been in this hobby for 47 years and there is no substitution fo clean track and clean loco wheels.