I knew it was coming. I avoided it until the bitter end (when the trains barely move). Can't expect 50 year old track to work perfect when it's been used & taken apart again every year since it was made. One thing I did notice that I didn't know - liquid track cleaners just make the grime run into the rail joints & gunk up the pins. Some of the bad connections weren't corroded, they were just gooped up with a thin film of old grease, dirt, & oil. I cut it with WD-40, cleaned everything shiny & dried it off with air & a cut down q-tip, re-crimped the ends of the rails, brass brushed the corroded pins, & jammed it all back together. One other dumb thing to remember, if the tie crimps are loose on the base of the rail, it hinders electrical transfer to the opposite side. They need to be tightened so they bite in good. After all that fooling around, that old engine responded with a roar, just about jumped right out of her stupor & flew the heck around that track. No more slow spots. I can picture Dad standing there, a frumpy look on his face, head tilted to the side, arms folded, "Uh huh, poor maintenance eh? Oh boy, you really did it good this time..."
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