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Well, for the sceptics out there, here is some news on the GLEAM process. First, this all started in November, '05, whilst reconditioning a friend's guitar. When it came time to work on the frets, I was pondering a way to make them smoother so it would be easier to bend the strings for certain notes. I used a small block of wood and some 600-grit w/s paper.; Not bad, but I wanted MORE SMOOTH. Brandishing a small pair of crome-plated steel scissors, I BURNISHED the frets and the finish was amazing!! Noticing a section of HO N/S nearby, the thought occured to me: Try the RAILS!!![:D][8D][:0][^] That's the true root of all this. (And the strings bend Twice as far for the same effort!) Being a low-voltage contractor for 20 years, and HO-ing since I was 11 yrs, I know VERY WELL of the daunting task of 45 minutes of cleaning for evry 15 minutes of operation. Scouring the rails exposes some clean metal between valleys of grit and grime. More so, the black stuff is CABON FLUX RESIDUE caused by the current trying to flow through a moving target. The more pick-up wheels per loco, the less flux-per-wheel generation. Metal composition of the rails can determine rate of oxidation within your region's relative humidity. The GLEAM process removes the real-scale imperfections of the extruded rail stock ...ANY GAUGE, ANY METAL......... Leaving a smoother POSITIVE CONTACT SURFACE for your wheels, for both POWER and TRACTION. The Burnishing creates the mirror finish by sealing the metal pores with the same metal; there is more shine because there is more metal! I noticed there is also INCREASED DRAG on the radius. Basically I feel these cancel each other, because our trains climb up the helix with no apparent loss of effort. I would like to do some tractive tests soon. For a perfect example, our N-scale layout was gleamed in November 2005. All I do is a periodic dry wipe with a paper towel, THAT"S ALL! 4 months now of NO ABRASIVES or track cleaning fluids, polish, B-boy, NOTHIN'!!!!!!!!! Poor William is out of a job! Plus ALL THE TRACK gleams like I just did them, including the sidings and spurs! And it is apparently working on our huge multi-level HO Display under construction. They nail the rail, I FURNI***HE BURNISH! Now, my ratio of clean-to-operate is like 5 minutes cleaning to 10 hours of operation. I wipe a little more right now only because the full-scale dust from construction does settle on the rails, and causes erratic operation. Do not fear that this will ruin your rails, because you do this ONLY ONCE! And please check out my other topics on my profile page !
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