The big difference as I see it when making a reverse shove. Is whether or not the couplers are truck mounted or body mounted. I have some early N Scale, Kadee, flat cars with body mounted couplers. I can shove them all over the layout with minimal problems and they have the original wheel sets and knuckle couplers. Other observations. Most of my success with my N scale model railroad and earlier HO scale. Location, location yes location of the layout. Out in a garage or shed is not the best environment and for the most part the only place I could have a layout. Track work, track work and did I say track work. Wider curves are the best curves. Live frog #6 switches are the best switches. Block wiring solves a lot of the inherent problems with shorts in the moveable points of a switch. The most important factor of course, is clean wheels and track.
Yes, that is my experience too. The pushing on the coupler causes the trucks to swivel and presses the wheel-flange up against the rail. Pointy flanges then catch on point blades, and ride up the rail. This is especially the case when the diverge route is set. OTOH, rounded flanges as found on the MTL standard wheels and most (all?) currently produced metal wheels will rarely catch. We operate my layout using CC&WB, and there is a lot of "pushing" of cars. Since replacing all my wheels with low-pro Atlas and medium MTL plastic wheels, with a sprinkling of metal wheels where the extra weight warranted the cost, we rarely have derailments during switching (other than those due to "operator error", of course.) I'm surprised to hear that, BUT I don't use #4 switches of any make so perhaps that's the difference.
MEK, Acetone, Turpentine, Toluene are no longer available in many places because they are high on the carcinogen list, and also if not disposed of properly present hazards to the ground water. Aside from that, I run almost all metal wheelsets on my railcars and I have never seen any issues with gunk or buildup on the track or the wheels.
So far, mineral spirits are not banned anywhere I know of. And, that is one of the better choices. Besides, "banning"is usually restricted to "homeowners", with "commercial" people still having access to the stuff they need. So, makes some friends with commercial licenses.
