For the last few months, my layout has been wired, not completly, but enough to run the entire layout. I havent ran trains for a few weeks, and last night, when I wanted to, all of the locos would not perform well, they were all sputtery and at spots, would just stop, if i gave them a small tap, they would sputter down another foot of track, only to stop again, the wheels and track dont look dirty, and like I say, two weeks ago (at most) I was running them flawlessly. What gives? Any ideas of possiblr problems?
Sputtery locos
- Thread starter Kevinkrey
- Start date
Nevermind, a little rubbing alcohol, and its good as new, the track looked fine, acctually it looked fairly clean, and I had not done much dusty work but I had an instinct telling me to clean it. I also am in the process of finishing the wireing.
I'm finding that I need to clean my track quite frequently, but my house tends to accumulate dust quickly and I let my trains go-round and round for hours at a time. I'm using DCC and it appears that as crud accumulates on the track, the decoders start misinterpreting the DCC signals that are continuously broadcast by the controller. Even though they are still rolling along, they start doing things like changing speed for a second or two.wall1
I also like to take a paper towel and wet the center of it with my favorite cleaning fluid (vm naphtha) and allow the engines to spin clean their wheels on it. Just lay the towel on the track and hold the engine in place so that one truck is on the track and one is on the wet part of the paper towel.
I will also testify that Conducta-Lube rocks.:thumb:
May I suggest the Track cleaning car.
I built one for my N scale layout , it is quite easy to build and it really helps.
The link is for an HO scale cleaning car:
Track Cleaner
I built one for my N scale layout , it is quite easy to build and it really helps.
The link is for an HO scale cleaning car:
Track Cleaner
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This is what I use to keep track clean....When viewed at a normal "layout height" you can barely notice it...
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This is what I use to keep track clean....When viewed at a normal "layout height" you can barely notice it...
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Is that bent metal or a strap with a weight on the bottom?
Hey KevinK... it's a little device I manufacture and sell. It's a specially treated strap with a weight to keep a steady pressure on the rails. It keeps the track really clean and I don't have to worry about cleaning it...:mrgreen: