@Choo Choo Charlie posted:Ton
I doubt my used Marx and Lionel O27 track is nickel-silver or nickel plated steel. I think it is tin plated steel as tin plating is much more common.
I believe a lot of that black gunk on the train wheels come from the sparking on the track and the oxidizing the grease and oil from lubrication as well as oxidation of dust on the track. A lot of house hold dust is from cotton fabrics and paper dust, both organic and will result in black soot.
Charlie
I can only report what I read in the analysis. My guess is that metal oxide is metal oxide so for the Marx and Lionel track it would be the oxide of the tin plating or whatever metal it is.
All I can say is there is a wealth on knowledge in the links I gave and then links form those links. It really is about two weeks of reading and well worth it before you apply the NO-OX because you might be interested in the horror stories. It seems to really come down to environment and ease of application. Graphite being be far the easiest with the least amount of traction problems. Please don't get me wrong, NO-OX does work, but there are caveats.
A 2012 post in the MRH forum stated the NMRA was going to conduct an analysis of the black gunk, does anybody know if they have? The post:
"I have asked the President of the NMRA, Charlie Getz if the NMRA can undertake investigations with the view to finding out about how this black / oily / muck/gunk comes about and what the rail manufacturers - Micro Engineering, Atlas, Peco etc can provide with formal information about their products.
Charlie has agreed and that the MR industry need to get onboard with this as it is in their best interests to do so.
Derik Voss (NMRA S&D Dept) has referred information from Tony's Train Exchange info files where a Mr Charlie Miller, a retired chemist, has information about the contamination on rails - a good read however incomplete."
The comments by Mr Miller are part of the sales ad for the CMX track cleaning car -- I'm not sure how objective they are.
Tom Stoltz
in Maine
