I must have been too aggressive while track cleaning last night and knocked a rail loose. My Peerless tank car started riding the ties while backing over the bridge and just about took a dive into the river. Luckily no damage resulted and so I set the proper gauge and superglued it in place. Now everything is back on track
Well, I sometimes use an old Bright Boy eraser followed by a finger wrapped in a paper towel or I use a Woodland Scenics track cleaner system with the long pivoting handle and various cleaning pads. Last night I was pushing a balsa stick along the rails with a little pressure and I must of tweaked the rail the wrong way along the bridge. Oops. If my layout was any larger I would lose my mind trying to keep the rails clean. Dirty rails sure do wreak havoc on DCC loco performance. All is well now and tonight I spent about an hour running trains and switching cars without a single hiccup.
You know you have good track and equipment when you can switch all night and nothing goes on the ground, a good hoghead helps too I was wondering what you used to clean track. we have used those track cleaners from Micro-mark for years, they are large enough to fit in your hand good, but a bit soft, they do a good job, but can get grooves in them if you press down a little too much. The Walthers bright boys seem and bit small and seem to gum up. Need to learn more about track cleaning options. Never thought of Balsa, its soft enough not to harm the track, that's a good idea. We need better options for cleaning track!! Track cleaning technology has not kept up with the times!!
