My Use of Oil on Vintage Track
Keep in mind that I run vintage Flyer on vintage re-bent steel sectional track. All my observations on based on that system. My layout is five scale miles, with no switches (turnouts) and my locos run in forward only. After I first built the hirail layout, I cleaned off the track rails using a rag dampened with 90% alcohol. The rails were as clean as I could get them; IOW's, free of dust and grease. I found that my vintage Flyer locos would make only about a lap or two around before I had to clean off their wheels. Also, there was a lot of sparking between the pick-up wheels and rails. To my dismay, the locos ran a little erratically, as though I needed more feeder wires to even out the current on the track. I was unhappy with the way my trains were running and I started to consider upgrading to a newer track system.
I remembered reading in some old Gilbert factory literature about cleaning the track rails with kerosene. I reasoned that what made kerosene different from other solvents was that it had oil in it. Out of desperation, I applied a light coat of 3 in 1 oil to the track rails. The difference was like magic. The sparking stopped. I was able to run the locos for a week or more without cleaning the pick-up wheels. The speed of the trains evened out and I was able to reduce the throttles on my transformers from around 80 to 60 or less. Naturally, there was a loss of traction on the 2% grade. However, after about 2-3 days, that improved a lot. I'm thinking that the oil dried some and soaked into the rails. Now the traction is okay. It's not terrific, but I can haul one action car and three others including a caboose, using vintage non-pulmor steamers with diecast boiler shells (I don't run diesels nor steamers with plastic boiler shells). So my conclusions are that on my RR, the oil improves electrical continuity, reduces sparking and acts to keep the pick-up wheels from collecting dirt.
I have a small jar of Bullfrog Snot on order. It is used on the rear drive wheels to make traction tires. Since it isn't a modern electronic devise, I will allow myself to use it on my all-vintage pike. When I have observations on it's use, I will post them here.
I remembered reading in some old Gilbert factory literature about cleaning the track rails with kerosene. I reasoned that what made kerosene different from other solvents was that it had oil in it. Out of desperation, I applied a light coat of 3 in 1 oil to the track rails. The difference was like magic. The sparking stopped. I was able to run the locos for a week or more without cleaning the pick-up wheels. The speed of the trains evened out and I was able to reduce the throttles on my transformers from around 80 to 60 or less. Naturally, there was a loss of traction on the 2% grade. However, after about 2-3 days, that improved a lot. I'm thinking that the oil dried some and soaked into the rails. Now the traction is okay. It's not terrific, but I can haul one action car and three others including a caboose, using vintage non-pulmor steamers with diecast boiler shells (I don't run diesels nor steamers with plastic boiler shells). So my conclusions are that on my RR, the oil improves electrical continuity, reduces sparking and acts to keep the pick-up wheels from collecting dirt.
I have a small jar of Bullfrog Snot on order. It is used on the rear drive wheels to make traction tires. Since it isn't a modern electronic devise, I will allow myself to use it on my all-vintage pike. When I have observations on it's use, I will post them here.