I've just been given an interesting tip for regular DC and am wondering what opinions are as to how it might work for DCC. Its this....rub very clean rails with a graphite artists pencil, this apparently greatly improves electrical contact and puts a protective layer on the rails and loco wheels. One would assume that if it works for DC it would work as well for DCC.....but assumeing is always an iffy proposition. Thoughts??????
Cheers Gene
"gene" wrote
Well, if your wheels and rails are already clean, then graphite shouldn't be able to improve an already solid contact. There *is* one teensy little problem with the concept, however: graphite is an excellent dry lubricant.
Thus, you have probably not improved your rail-to-loco contact one whit by rubbing graphite on the rails, but you *certainly have* cut your loco's tractive effort by some unknown but healthy percentage.
Sounds like another of those urban model railroad legends that pop up from time to time.
-Pete
It works very well indeed in terms of improving the electrical contact, but at the expense of a loss of traction, so if your layout has lots of grades or sharp curves it might be problematic. The number of times my layout needs to have track cleaned has dropped dramatically since I began using graphite. People who exihibit layouts, often in dusty halls, report that a single application is enough for a whole day, as opposed to having to go around with track rubbers every hour or so.
A couple of advantages - the "slipperyness" of the graphite tends to result in dust sliding off the rail, and the gray colour makes nickel- silver rail look more like the steel of the prototype.
It's well worth a try...
John
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