I was just this morning looking back thru some older mag articles and took note of this one pager titled “Polish those Railheads”.
Decided to see if I could google it and see what else was out there. I ran across this discussion on this forum;
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/212742.aspx?sort=ASC&pi314=1
…but when I went to respond to that discussion it did not let me? I saw some little ‘lock symbol’ on one posting so I wondered it that discussion had been ‘locked’??
I wanted to ask about the ‘oxidation factors’ of the rails, and the use of plastic wheeled rolling stock.
I use the GLEAM method myself. I noticed early on that the oxidation rate of my nickel-silver track had dropped quite a bit, but it still oxidizes. This isn’t really a problem for me but I still use one of those Bachmann track cleaning tank cars. It drags a dry pad under it much like the ‘John Allen’ cleaning cars. Plastic wheels seem to pick up more dirt than metal wheels. They also cause more resistance and the car doesn’t roll as easily as it should therefore fewer cars can be pulled by any given loco. Most of my rolling stock has metal wheels, mostly Bachmann. I still have some cars on the layout that have plastic wheels. Metal wheels cost money and my hobby budget is very small.
Yes, it means that the thread has been locked.
Seemed like a really good discussion, so I wondered why. I hope I did not open up a can of worms by re-introducing the subject.
When I first got back into this hobby I built a fairly good size layout, the Atlas plan #29, the Central Midland. It had quite a bit of track, and as much as I tried it still got quite dirty. I had a number of different track cleaning cars and pads and rollers, and solvents that I tried out, but invarible I got dirty crud on the wheels of much of my rolling stock and locos. I chalked it up to those many freight cars I had not gotten around to putting metal wheels on.
Now it appears that this is only one of the problems with crud. And like some of those posters on this forum, and a few others I always thought the idea of oiling or polishing the rails with something was only going to impede the traction available to the locomotive.
Unfortuntionately I sold that layout anticipating a move out of the country, and now find that I will not be out of the country on a permenate basis…and I miss that layout and all the work involved in putting it together.
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=93274
LOL
Foolish child, of course you might open a can of worms.
Actually, the thread had a lot of interesting ideas and evoked a lot of passion from all sides.
All of the rail head cleaning methods are good - - - gleaming, track cleaning cars, various forms of alcohol on a rag, you name it.
And, as I pointed out in that ill-fated thread, some of us don’t need to clean the track all that often.
In my opinion, and that of many others, the secret to keeping the rails clean is to use Intermountain metal wheels.
Rich
So, gleaming you would have to clean less? not that I mind cleaning every once in a while. but for those who are wondering and don’t know why rails get so dirty, it’s from the arcing electricity between the wheels of the loco(s) and the rails. because DCC is always running at full voltage it gets a bit dirtier quicker than DC.( N scale Magazine sept./oct. "track cleaning article.)