The limited haulage capacity of modern RTR models

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I have the impression, though no direct knowledge to back it up, that pickup is much improved on a railway which is used regularly, ideally on a daily basis.  This seems to allow a degree of self cleaning to take place, and track or loco cleaning is a much less frequent necessity, about once a month in my case...

 No doubt about it. Run regularly any oxidation on the contacting surfaces is continuously removed. These removed oxides are a very fine dust, and are the near black component in the track dirt. The reason the dirt sticks to railhead or tyre is usually some lubricant where it should not be acting as a binder. Plenty of regular running produces an advantage here too, there's more chance of the gob of dirt being pushed out of the contact track by mechanical action while still soft. These gobs can then drop off into point crossings and between stock and point rail on occasions.

 

Not just pick up but also traction improves somewhat as the contacting surfaces polish up. That includes the rail surface, new rails are 5 to 10% down on friction compared to well used.

[Allegheny1600]

I might be in a minority here but I find that DCC helps operation wrt cleanliness - IF it is switched on an hour or so prior to operation.

I suspect that the high frequency of the (AC) current in the track, acts in a similar way to the old "Relco" system, which I had tried in the 1980's and swore I would never touch again!

As suggested above, polished rail also helps both with electrical pick-up and traction, even though it seems counter-intuitive for the latter.

I've been using 'Helmsman' track cleaners for several years now which seem superb to me but another thing I've read of is burnishing the rails, has anyone here tried this, please? I've tried short sections of rail with a nickel-silver spoon and also with a graphite block but tbh, not much success.

Cheers,

John.

[The Johnster]

You may be on to something there, though I never thought my Relco made much difference.  The club I was in swore by them while I swore at them, though, and they were standard on all club layouts.

[DCB]

I try to avoid cleaning the rails on my 1 in 30 ish gradient as I find locos tend to pull 1 or 2 more coaches on dirty track than that scrupulously cleaned with an abrasive block,  Track is Peco code 100 steel. Some controllers have Relcos others not.   I find Romford wheels seem to give more traction for a given weight than Mazak wheels (Bachmann split axle) but it seems that may be down to tread profile as I believe Bachmann are RP25 so more compatible with code 75.

An unexpected feature is the way pick up is improved by a shower of rain on the outside branch, at least when used by heavy cast bodied locos with Romford wheels, that is while its actually raining. 

[newbryford]

I might be in a minority here but I find that DCC helps operation wrt cleanliness - IF it is switched on an hour or so prior to operation.

 

 

I would concur that DCC keeps stuff cleaner for longer - that's certainly my experience at exhibitions.

 

 

Cheers,

Mick

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

 When I first started using DCC on an established DC operated layout which I thought had decently clean rails, there was a very noticeable change to the track dirt distribution in the first few weeks of operation, as dirt deposited on driven wheels of the newly decoder equipped locos, which previously had stayed pretty clean. After about a month that stopped, and thereafter the rail cleaning drag only required about a quarter of the previous operating frequency to keep the rails clean. Whatever the reasons may be, my experi9ence says that DCC has it over plain DC in this respect. (All metal wheels on layout, plastic and traction tyres not permitted.)

 

 

...As suggested above, polished rail also helps both with electrical pick-up and traction, even though it seems counter-intuitive for the latter.

I've been using 'Helmsman' track cleaners for several years now which seem superb to me but another thing I've read of is burnishing the rails, has anyone here tried this, please? I've tried short sections of rail with a nickel-silver spoon and also with a graphite block but tbh, not much success...

 The movement of metal wheels on the rails is the effective action. (One might devise a roller rig to produce the effect, but it is more fun to simply run the trains!) What actually happens with nickel silver alloys worked in this way is copper depletion of the contacting surfaces. This can be both inferred because the oxide dust from the track and wheels has a higher copper : nickel ratio than the alloys, and directly detected on well used rail where the nickel content of the running surface is higner than in the bulk alloy. (Back in the day I had access to a very well equipped materials analytical lab, and there was ample time to prep and fit in samples of materials in which we had personal interest.)

[The Johnster]

Check your back to backs as well; if the wheel is not sitting correctly to the rail haulage, and pick up, are bound to be affected adversly.