traction problems, slippery rails


M

mcgilles

New Member
my model railroad is N scale but my question and any answers would really apply to any, so I'm hoping to get more traffic here.

the rails on my layout are slippery, due to running one locomotive which accidentally got some WD-40 on its driving wheels. that locomotive and one other I have are having a lot of trouble making it around the track, they are slipping. one is a 4-6-2 so its easy to see that its not getting any traction. it will drive itself around easily, add even one car and the wheels start slipping. what should I do to fix this problem? is there any good way to clean all of the track? how can I clean the wheels? I've tried isopropal alcohol figuring that would clear off about anything, but it made only a small improvement. any advice would be appreciated.
 
Turn the sanders on. When the sand hits the rails, you'll get better traction.


:cool:

I used to have that problem, and I took a small engine (a SW1500 is the smallest I got), hooked two track cleaners on it, one in front, one behind, and let it run the main. After a few laps, the problem seemed to clear up. Not sure if I got WD40 on the rails, and not sure if it would work, but its an idea.

Good luck clearing it up.
 
goo gone and a rag will get the film off the rails but you may have to do it a few times if the engine keeps putting the wd40 back on the rails. After you clean up the mess look into traction fluid known as bullfrog snot. alot of n scale guys are likeing this new product
 
thanks! I'll give that a try and see what happens. maybe it would be a good idea to get a track cleaner car. is there any particular version that seems better than others? I found one for $75 which says it actually has a vacuum built into it to pick up loose debris, as well as a multi-stage cleaning. it can do a dry sweep or use chemicals such as 409 to clean the rails. looks pretty heavy duty!

would something like that work in DC mode also? looks like it would work much better in DCC where you could provide full voltage to the car to work with then drive it slowly with a DCC locomotive. that's in the works for me but all I have are DC right now.
 
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