Can anyone recommend a brand of electrically conductive grease to use with track joiners ? Is this stuff really necessary ?
Thanks,
Mike
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I do not know of a grease but I used Rail Zip on the pins of my AC Gilbert AF track.
Ray
They make copper grease and silver grease. It definitely prevents corrosion. CRC 2-26 would do the same job for less money.
Mike, that's for a totally different purpose, it's not electrically conductive grease.
Original German made LGB offered a special grease for their G scale tracks, I may have a tube somewhere. Check if someone has it in stock...
If you have good track joints connection, such grease is not needed
I would use a dielectric grease available at any auto parts store. Read about it's properties by clicking this highlighted word.
A dielectric grease is an insulating product, and does not conduct electricity. The first two sentences in the link explains this.
Here is an example of a conductive grease.
Larry
How about Caig Labs Fader Grease?
I know the mfg says metal to plastic, but I have used it on metal to metal.
They also make this stuff. I have not used this particular product.
Most Caig products are less expensive when purchased from resellers, as opposed to purchasing directly from Caig.
I use just the plain old rail joiners with Atlas O track and have had no problems so far in 3+ years. I don't do much track cleaning either, have been thinking about it though. 
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I use OX-GARD by GB. it is a conductive grease that prevents oxidation. It is rated for use on aluminum to copper connections in residential wiring. I have been using it on American Flyer track pins for over 10 years, it works great. As I recall both the local Tru Value hardware and Home Depot stock it.
An industrial strength conductive grease is called NO-OX-ID. It is extremely effective. It can be purchased in small amounts for consumer use - look on Amazon. I'm sure it would work well, I'm not sure you really want to put any sort of grease on track pins. Grease has a way of migrating and getting where you didn't expect it to go - like on traction tires....
An added "bonus" is the conductive grease makes insertion of pins into tight rail openings easier.
I used Caig silver grease on all my track joints and still have perfect conductivity with no mysterious slow downs or flickering lights.
That is consistent with my experience. One does have to be careful to grease the track pins without leaving any excess residue. It is straightforward with Gilbert track, I have never tried it with the round Lionel track pins.
Atlas track is solid and doesn't use joiner 'pins'. The joiners are more like clips that slide over and around the lower part of the track, not touching the top rail at all. Could any type of this grease still migrate to the rails ? Also, to fit the layout, I'm cutting about 25 pieces of track along with plastic joiner clips. I also have to cut the plastic joiner clips from all 3 legs when connecting to the Ross switches. In those cases where the plastic joiner clips were cut, the connections aren't as tight as with the plastic joiner clips. That's the reason for the grease, or should soldering be considered ? Thoughts ?
Mike
Atlas makes a transition connector to Gargraves which should work for Ross connections also. 6096. IMO not the greatest connection.
Mike, I tried those and were not good at all. Kind of flimsy and tough to slide the pin in. One pin actually broke off inside the Ross rail. Maybe soldering those joints not connected by the plastic clip is the way to go.
Mike
