@Ron045- it's definitely not dirt on the wheels, but that video is helpful... keeping it in mind when I go to do maintenance on my engines.
For the track stalls, I test the track area in question with another engine to see if it stalls in the same spot or not. Sometimes I'll use a lit caboose and roll it across the spot. If a 2nd engine doesn't stall at the same spot or the caboose doesn't blink out, it's time to examine the wheels on the engine that did the stalling. In all my cases, placing a brand new engine on the track resulted in a stall at the same spot. In this particular case, I pulled out a brand new engine I had just acquired (pristine wheels) and it also stalled.
I'm guessing from the responses that most people do not have this issue when they first install track, so my problem is probably the result of storing the boxes of track in a slightly warmer and more humid closet, while waiting for my layout to go under construction...
