to lube or not to lube

R

roch

Member
Jan 1, 2008
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Denver, CO
This may sound silly, but my train squeeks when it passes over parts of the track and I was thinking of putting a little vasaline on the track. I do not want to ruin it after all of the time and effort I put into it so far.

:wave:

Roch
 
:thumb:

Thank you for the reply and advice. :thumb:

I kind of thought it would mess thinks up. The reason I considered using vasaline is because I was not about to spray it WD-40.:eek:

Peace and love,

Roch

Now if I could only remember what my next thread was about...........................sign1

Roch
 
Squeaks are probably in the axlebox of a car or the drive gears of a loco. If you can detect which car is doing it, give it a half drop of oil.
If the track is causing the squeak, it may be narrow. That could be a major problem.
 
I decided to lube a little portion of the track anyway and I will tell you what, my train has never moved so fast. I only used a very little bit of vasaline on about 1/4" of the track just to be safe and the result was amasing.
If I glued wings to my loco it would probably fly. LOL
 
wall1wall1wall1

I never should have used vasaline or anything. The squeek went away but now the loco spins its tires and the track gets dirty quick from dust. I have a very dusty workshop. I also do wood working and the saw dust is something I just cannot aviod. :cry: I used up all of my compressed air so I just blow the dust off with my mouth and try to clean up with the shop vac.

At least I have never sucked up my loco with the vac. I will probably have a nightmare about that now. :curse:sign1

Roch
 
I still have vasaline on my track and trucks so they are soaking in hot soapy water now to be cleaned off when it cools down.

I bought graphite to lube the gears on my loco. I hope that is not a bad thing. I have not applied it yet. Advice about graphite?

Roch
 
Graphite works ok, but you'll be spreading that fine dust all over your track. A good modeling grease is the best thing for gears, but use it sparingly.....
Like Renovo says, rubbing alcohol is pretty good for cleaning the track & wheels....
 
I like to use a light oil or plastic compatible grease on my O trains. However I did notice a multi - purpose dry graphite lubricant is offered at many N gauge trains sites.
 
Finally got all the lube off my track and even tilted the whole layout to different grades and it no longer spins its wheels. :mrgreen:

Thank you all again for the advice. I hope this helped more than just myself. :thumb:

Roch
 
SD90 said:
I wouldn't ever use vasaline on the track!
Click to expand...

Never again will I use any kind of lube on the track. I did not realize that real trains squeak till I visited an area where the trains are not blowing their horns while passing through. I like the squeek now. It sounds more realistic. :mrgreen:

Roch
 
I use graphite for couplers, trucks, and tools. I use small amounts of grease on gears.

I'm firmly in the anti-oil-on-the-track crowd...having once been big into different types of oil and track cleaning.
 
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