Over on his Little Rock Line blog, Allen H is experimenting with using graphite on his rails to improve electrical conductivity between the rails and loco wheels. As graphite is used as a dry lubricant, it seems to me that graphite will cause wheel slipping problems, but I'm nevertheless interested to see what Allen finds.
Rod has chimed in with an explanation of how we (in our little group) clean our wheels and tracks. We've both mentioned this process several times in online forums, but it always seems to be new to someone, so I've created this page to illustrate the process.
To be honest though, after reading the articles that Allen has linked to I'm wondering whether there's such a thing as having your track 'too clean'. There seems to be a lot of opinion that using graphite is the way to go. I'll be interested to see what Allen thinks after he's been using graphite for a few weeks.
Regards,
Ron
Great demo of what we do Ron. All I would add is to use very fine cloth for doing the loco wheels as I have found that a heavy cloth does not get into the corners of the flanges leaving some gunk. Interesting to see how the Graphite goes as I have always used it to make things slide, example like keys into locks and freeing up sticky tumblers.
ReplyDeleteRod.
Thanks Rod. Yes, the fact that fact that graphite is used as a lubricant (ie to make things slippery) is what intrigues me about this process.
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