Please tell about your experience of using NO-OX and Aero Car Hobby Cleaners. 1) I tried to use NO-OX, NO-OX is nonconductive and looks like vaseline, It attract dust to rails and wheels, interrupting DCC. May be i do something wrong? 2) I tried Aero Car Hobby Cleaner, ACT 6006 but it also ABSOLUTELY non-conductive liquid and don't leave conductive layer after drying. ------- Vadim.
Vadim, I have no experience with the two products you ask, so I can not offer any information. However, I do not use any product to keep my rails clean. I have Peco Code 55 track and turnouts. I use a Bright Boy to remove dust or other material from the rails, perhaps once every one or two months. Other than that, I believe that less use of cleaning chemicals or abrasives is better. This has been my practice for more than 60 years and it has not failed, even with nickle-silver rail before Peco.
I used NO-OX on my last layout. I swear by the stuff. When properly applied, it works perfectly. The only thing I ever did was vacuum the track in the 2 years I had the layout. The secret is to make sure you have your track clean before applying and not to put too much on the track.
I use Aerocar on my layout and have never had a problem with it. I use a Tomix cleaning car to apply it and let it just sit after a few passes. Seems to conduct just fine to me.
Regarding NO-OX, you must first be sure you have the correct product. The manufacturer's name for the product is NO-OX-ID "A-SPECIAL". It is re-packaged and sold by Bar Mills as NO-OX ID Iron+Rust. It is a brownish grease-like substance. Secondly, NO-OX is not used for cleaning track. Its purpose is to stop corrosion and reduce the need for frequent track cleaning, although occasional vacuuming is still necessary. NO-OX should be applied only to track that is already clean. Thirdly, only a tiny amount of NO-OX should be used, far less than you would expect. For example, the recommended amount for N-scale track is 1/4 teaspoon of NO-OX for every 500 feet of track. You would need somewhat more for HO track but still a lot less than you might expect. Click here for application instructions. - Jeff
Jeff, but how about dust adhesion to wheels and rails with small resudues of NO-OX greese? I have this, and it prevents for contacting. LUX or TOMIX Vacuuming cannot delete adherent dust. Please explain, what i doing wrong? ---------- Vadim
If you wiped the track down really good after the NO-OX had sit for 24 hours you shouldn't have had residue left. I'd just wipe the track down again with a clean lint free cloth. From my experiences, I'd say you put too much NO-OX on originally. As far as cleaning, I use a small shop vac fitted with some small attachments to vacuum mine. With the extensions and attachments, I was able to reach all of my track. Dust is one of the things we will never be totally rid of IMO
I applied NO-OX once about 2 1/2 years ago. Have done nothing but vacuum since. Layout runs great! Just remember when using this stuff, less is more!
I completely agree with Ed and Train Kid. Wipe the track with a clean, dry, lint-free cloth to remove excess NO-OX. - Jeff
Thanks to Your respond, Jeff, Ed and TrainKid! Probably, I did not fully understood all moments and finenesses of NO-OX application! 1) Can You tell me about NO-OX principal of working? Does NO-OX leave Iridium thin layer on rails or something analogous? 2) Some kind of dust can fly from opened windows and, then, falls down like snow on opened parts of LayOuts. If there are any gluey surfaces (like grease or NO-OX residues) the dust will be strongly collected on it and disrupt DCC contacts between wheels and rails. (lExample: ike on over-lubricated locos, et.al.) 3) Which track experience do You have using NO-OX? I plan to test it on C55 Atlas and weathered(tops were well sanded and well polished) C55 ME. Atlas C55 tracks requires moderate cleaning. On the contrary, ME C55 track requires much more often cleaning of oxid layer. According to Ion-impact Mass Spectrometry data, ME track has MUCH MORE Copper content. This fact explain stronger and faster oxydation of ME C55 track. -------------- Vadim
I was just going to say this, but Ed beat me to it. This is what we did at my NTrak clubhouse, where we have some corrosive industrial chemicals in use (by others) not far away, and where we got sick of cleaning the track with bright boy type cleaners every week. 1) We all showed up with bright boy type cleaners and cleaned the you-know-what out of the track. 2) We then cleaned all tracks with a bit of the ACT stuff. 3) We then wiped all that off with rubbing alcohol, and let it sit for a bit to evaporate completely. 4) We then applied No-Ox, and let it sit for a most of a week. 5) After about four or five days some of us went up there and wiped off the excess with gun-cleaning patches. Every now and then we need to do a little light dusting, and the gunk on the rails now will come off easily onto a lint-free cloth. We now longer have to basically grind through tarnish anymore. No-Ox has been great.
Yhanks, SteamDonkey74! But, can You tell me about NO-OX principal of working? Does NO-OX leave Iridium thin layer on rails or something analogous? -------- Vadim
No-Ox is based on a product used by a lot of utilities who have contact surfaces that they use to prevent corrosion. A lot of things that prevent corrosion are also not terribly conductive of electricity, but No-Ox is different, or at least in my experience it has been working well for us in our club. Now, it's not that I NEVER have to clean anymore, but before we had to pretty much be the equivalent of N scale Sperry Rail Grinders and remove that tarnish, whereas now our cleaning mostly consists of just running a bit of lint free cloth over the tracks to pick up any dirt accumulation. It's cut track cleaning time spent way down. We haven't had problems with wheel slip. If you're having problems with wheel slip you're using too much. Adam
I've had no problems with slippage or traction. The one thing I forgot to mention is after applying the NO-OX is to NOT RUN ANYTHING with traction tires until the NO-OX has sat for the 24 hour period and the track has been wiped down. Don't ask me how I found this out... lol If you read the instructions, you will see that after applying the NO-OX you should run some engines around the layout. You will get a lot of slippage at first when you do this. I ran engines for a couple of hours, then pulled them off the layout and let the layout sit for 24 hours. I wiped the track down after this period. You will get a lot of black looking residue. Don't use anything but the cloth or you will take the NO-OX off. I had to wipe mine down a couple of times before I didn't get any residue. I actually used NO-OX on a bawky Bmann brill trolley. I put a dab on the pick ups and within a few minutes the trolley was running as smoothly as any of my other engines.
....may be someone tried to use Iridium or palladium treatment of rails, and NO-OX is doing the same? ----- Vadim
I don't know what's in the No-Ox. I don't know how it's handled in Russia, but companies here don't always put their product's contents on the label. Some of that is to protect their proprietary formulae and keep copy-cats from making knock-offs. Sometimes, the only way to get some content information is to get the material safety data sheet (MSDS) and read that. It could have those things you say.
Thanks [FONT=Trebuchet MS, Georgia, Verdana]SteamDonkey74[/FONT] But Iridium and Palladium treatment are also very interesting! At jewellery stores i watched as Galvanikal Stick worked, It looks like soft-tip pen with wire, soaked with palladium salt solution inside, in aim to cover jewellery products. May be someone already used it at railroad modelling for rail covering from oxidation? Iridium is more rigid than palladium, and also very inert as gold or palladium. Iridium is often using for covering military jack contacts, and other electro-mechanical contacts where strong contact properties and mechanical stability are required. ------- Vadim
Years ago Linn Wescott wrote an article for Model Railroader about using No-Ox. In the article it states that the No-Ox compound creates an oxide of copper that is much more conductive than normal copper oxide. This conductive oxide provides protection for the raid against normal oxidation. Used it on my previous layout, (a piece of which is being made into a portable module) and for the next three years the only track cleaning needed was the wipe downs with lint free cloths and the vacuum cleaner to clean up loose material.
