Don't know the exact cause, but after removing the bottom of the loco and bending the copper contacts so they made better contact with the axle along with cleaning them off the problems went away.
I also found that I had more significant problems when the tender was not attached to the loco. I do remember seeing an intermittent spark from the connection between the two when I first started running it. After bending the contacts I no longer see the sparking.
I was having the same problems with both RealTrax and Fastrack, so I didn't think it was a track issue.
All is well now, everything is working great.
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