Hi all, how do you keep your turnout points clean to maintain good electrical contact? I have been successful cleaning with WD40 followed by 99% alcohol.
Recently O bought this stuff called DeOxit an electrical cleaner like CRC but it is supposed to be better. Could I simply spray the points and rails ?
There was a thread in the past week where someone asked about gleaming the contact area. The replie there pretty much cover various thoughts. I can’ remember how to insert a clickable MR link:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/262233.aspx
In my case, with Walthers Shinohara DCC ready code 83s, I make sure my Tortoise wire applies pressure equally in both directions, add a stiffer wire if necessary. In additon, I gently Dremel wire brushed the point and rail sides when new. No problems for 5+ years. (I powered the frogs).
i saw that thread but It did not answer the question about the DeOx. I’ve already wired stock to point rails but I was looking for a quick way to clean points.
I haven’t had any problems with dirty points in my Atlas Custom Line turnouts. I have had a bit of corrosion or dirt occasionally on my rails over the years and if my CMX didn’t remove it I used a Dremel wire brush in my 600 RPM 4 volt cordless drill to remove it. I’ve just never felt warm and fuzzy about using a wire brush at high RPM in my Dremel.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I don’t rely upon turnout points to conduct electricity. I use jumpers and the auxiliary contacts in the Tortoise machines to apply juice where needed. I don’t rely upon turnouts to switch track power on and off on the diverging route. Having a train start moving just because I threw a turnout is a recipe for disaster. I do need to turn the power off on sidings in order to park trains on them. I treat each siding as an electrical block, insulated rail joiners at each end and a DPDT switch to control siding power.
Put me on the list of “Never use point pressure in a turnout for an electrical connection.”
I use flexible wire and solder a feeder to each point. Yeah, it’s a lot of trouble, but I never, ever, EVER have trains stall on a switch.
Hi Gary:
If you have already wired the stock rails to the point rails then the need for clean contacts between the point rails and the stock rails is redundant. Allan Gartner (http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches.htm) suggests wiring the stock rails to the closure rails and then using flexible jumpers to connect the closure rails to the point rails, but it amounts to the same thing.
Dave
Ok then, I thought the wiring was supplemental and the points still needed to connect. Thanks