Center rail coating on Atlas track

Don't do it. Just clean it with denatured or isopropyl alcohol. You will gain nothing by sanding your center rail. 

Thanks Norm!

I agree with Norm. The blackening on the center rail in my experience is hard to keep black. Goo Gone also takes it off.

Good advice above not to sand. Some years ago the late Jim Weaver or someone from Atlas said their track came from the factory with a light coating of some kind of protectant and to just wipe down the railhead with a cloth and alcohol to clean it off. I think you’ll find the DCS signal will improve pretty quickly. And yes, before long center rail black wears off anyway.

RM

Sounds good I will try cleaning with alcohol and see what happens. Up to now I have been using MTH track cleaner, could that be contributing to my issue? 

Rich, makes perfect sense because in many areas, it appears the black is wearing off and the rail is changing to a copper color. I’m no metal expert but I do know the outside rails are nickel-silver, haha.

Rollers will burnish the blackening off over time anyway. Harshest cleaner I'll use is lacquer thinner after painting and weathering or maybe Goof Off to remove glue residue from ballasting. 

Atlas' railhead surface is fairly wide in comparison to most other three rail track and will collect more dust in my opinion. 

I Scotch-Brited one of my switches years ago with no benefit, it had the classic broken power jumper issue.

NSPHIL, it could be something else like signal collision. You mentioned it's a loop of track. Do you have a break in your center rail with an insulated track clip? If not, you really need to do that for proper DCS commands to the engines.

Thanks Dave, I do not have an insulated clip. Would I place one only on the center rail? I’ll try that for sure!

Yes, just the center rail.

On my layout I just used a Peco track eraser for all my track. I rubbed down the Atlas track and the black on the center rail rubs off very easily and then I wipe it all down with cloth rags to pickup any of the dust from this. Seems to conduct better with a shiny railhead.

I used a green scotchbrite.  Took me all of 1/2 hour to do 12 x 15 layout with 2 large loops.

All,

Sorry to revive this thread...but just so I'm clear about DCS signal collision...I want to place ONE insulated joiner on the center rail and NONE on any of the outer rails, correct?  Just want to be positive as I don't want to risk shorting any engines.

NSPhil posted:

All,

Sorry to revive this thread...but just so I'm clear about DCS signal collision...I want to place ONE insulated joiner on the center rail and NONE on any of the outer rails, correct?  Just want to be positive as I don't want to risk shorting any engines.

That is correct.  Only insulate the center rails.  Leave the black rails uninsulated.  NH Joe