round of track cleaning. My conjecture is that the oil degrades
after a while and has to be cleaned off and re-applied regularly.
A very simple rail treatment is graphite. Yes, a good old pen-
cil, or better yet, a graphite stick from an art store (cost about
$1.50, I use a 2B Hardness). Clean the rails and rub the graphite
stick along to give a thin coating of graphite over the surface.
Graphite is also an excellent lubricant, so you might have prob-
lems with wheel slippage. If you have steep grades, this might
not be for you!
One year ago, I treated a section of my mainline with graphite.
Just recently, locomotives started stalling on that section and it
required cleaning. I had to clean the rest of the track at least 5
times over that same year, so I would say that the graphite was
pretty successful! For cost and simplicity this is pretty hard to
5
5. The Masonite cleaning sled can be cleaned with a
toothbrush and bar of soap under the sink.
