Exactly ! Some are already pointing out it should be. I dont see this thread being threatening to anyone in any form. We are playing nice...lets keep it that way.
You know I have been model railroading for years and just not had the gunk issue except for the loco wheels which conduct current. And that is why I invested in a wheel cleaner for the locos. Simply set the loco on the cleaner and apply power. I haven't had to clean car wheels in years and I run mostly MTs with some metal wheels on non MT trucks. My track cleaning consists of a Aztec car and some Masonite slider cars and I shy away from using anything on the tracks since I have found it causes more issues than helps.
As an added bonus... Both trains will have an Atlas GP40 as the locomotive. Each train will consist of 8 cars. Each train will have 4 cars with metal wheels and 4 cars with plastic wheels. They will each have the same setup. 1 car with metal wheels followed by 1 car with plastic wheels and so on. I mean..Come on ! This is going to be fun !
Make sure you log the running time of each train set to make sure both are run the same amount of time. Also, clean the wheels of both trains before the experiment so you don't contaminate the tracks from the wheels at the get go. If I had to bet , it will probably be inclusive. Unless there will be a drastic image of dirt on one rag and not the other. It's hard to visually tell dirt differences unless they vary drastically.
same number of laps...check will clean each locomotives wheels and each cars wheelset with the compound corresponding to the track its running on prior to starting the experiment...check Gunk check at the end...stay tuned
i Queswtion 1: How much Graphhite is in apencel and how much is other stuff? Questioon 2: You have not answered my question, just made my point more. Yes, in a transformer oil suppresses arcing and shorting. That's because it is, in effect, and INSULATOR! Not a very good one, but an insulator none the less. So if the point of our systems is to get electricity from the rails to the trains, how does using an insulator help that? If I cover my track with black electrical tape, it probably won't oxidize of get covered with with crap, but it for damn sure won't allow trains to run either. Regarding tail chasing, we are all sadly inadequately educated about these arcane topics of electricity and metalurgy and plastics.
Bill, there's a fine balance of the lesser of the two evils. A light coating becomes a dielectric to suppress arcing as that would cause gunk (theorized). But at the same time, it may cause the accumulation of dirty. But if you don't suppress arcing, it will cause much more gunk (again, theorized). So now the question becomes which "method" will yield the cleaner track in the end (but both will be dirty to some extent). Remember, your initial question was "But I don't understand how oil will stop arcing." So I think I did answer that. As for how much graphite in a pencil, about 60% for a 2H or No. 2 hardness. The softer the pencil the more graphite.
Resurrecting this thread. I said I would do a track cleaning experiment using WD 40 on one mainline and IPA on the other. I cleaned one mainline with WD40 and cleaned the locomotive wheels and the car wheels with the same. I did the other track and locomotve and car wheels cleaning with IPA. I ran both trains in opposite directions on each mainline. I ran them both for 300 circuits total at the same time and speed over a few months !!! I stopped the trains in the yard. I wiped down the WD40 track (top track in picture) with a clean dry rag (old sock). Then I sparyed some WD40 on the rag at a different spot and wiped the same section of track down again. I did the same procedure with a new clean rag (old sock) on the track that was done with IPA (bottom track in picture). This cleaning was done on the same 3ft long section of duel mainline track as you can see in the picture. Is this little experiment conclusive ? Not at all !! But I can assure you I WILL only be cleaning my track with WD40 from now on. Just saying !
One would think, then, that there is validity in Mr. Fugate's Polar/Non-Polar discussion as IPA is polar and WD40 in non-polar. I recently had an email discussion with him and he has pretty much convinced me to try a non-polar cleaner (which arrived today). You will recall I had tried mineral spirits but after some time decided to go back to GooGone. So here we go again. We shall see.
I'm a believer. Everyone cant be wrong and proven facts are a strong motivator to try something different. Just the way I feel. Wahls...2.1 WD40...2.4 IPA...18.0
Jim...I would be very interested in what Joe Fugate and you decided to use. Results of lack of 'gunk' would be interesting also. I like the results of the WD40 experiment I did. Anything even remotely better would be exceptional.
I can't speak to whatever Mr. Fugate is using, but I found (Amazon) CRC Contact Cleaner in a non-aerosol form, i.e. liquid. Bear in mind I have a LOT of track to clean, and an aerosol would add to the hassle. I need something I can apply to my Han-D-Wipe first roller that will stay liquid for a bit. This stuff has a dielectric constant of 2.0, almost as low as you can get. I expect to have to apply it more frequently than the GooGone, and that's not really an issue. But I do expect it to evaporate a lot faster, and that could cause problems. Bear in mind my cleaning train (photo back on page four) has five roller cars (with Han-D-Wipes) - one in the lead, followed by an idler car, two six-axle locos, another idler car (all of which tend to scrub the rails), then four dry rollers. With GG, after three passes, roller cars two and three were damp and all five were nice and dirty. It's all about how much crud you can remove, and in that respect the GG certainly did the job. I'm hoping the CRC will remain moist long enough to do the same, and give the the benefits of a non-lemoncene (gooey) chemical. We shall see!
Imagine my surprise to find you can buy WD40 in liquid form in a gallon can ! What in the world would I do with a gallon of WD40... My layout track has double parallel mains that run about 90 feet each. Spraying WD40 on a rag and wiping down the rails isnt to tedious. I am not sure WD40 actually evaporates. I'm going to have to do some more reading up on it.
