Conductive Grease in Track Joints...worth it?

if you are talking about dielectric grease, it is non conductive. it will seal the joint from moisture that can corode the connection while allowing the pin to make good contact with the rail

On a permanent layout, no.  There are better ways to make sure you have good electrical contact.  We did use conductive paste on an Atlas temporary layout and it did provide a significant improvement in electrical connectivity.

I would think that if you are in a humid environment, conductive grease on track joints would be a good idea. I've seen plenty of corroded pins and joint areas on track. Here in Arizona, it wouldn't even occur to me since the humidity in my train room is around 10%, but if you live in Boca Raton, Florida or Mobile, Alabama it might be worth the trouble. 

John S: Conductive grease is what you put on the threads of a light bulb to keep it from corroding in place. Dielectric grease is different. 

The only time in my life that I ever saw Conductive Grease make a noticeable difference in conductivity was field connections in the millitary. 

It was used more for moisture control in antenna connections then anything else. That was when you joined three foot sections to make one long wip.

In this day and age of satellite communications I doubt if they use anything like that any longer.

I'm not throwing a pitch for all modelers to buy some conductive grease, but the electric group used it regiously at the refinery where I retired from. Now I know nobody, will have a layout running in an oil refinery, or any of the such. I know for a fact that this stuff works extremely well on outdoor "G" guage layouts, especially when they're outside year round. A friend of mine had an our door "G" for over 15 years until his death, and I got him a couple of tubes, when he started laying his track. No electrical problems ever at the joints. When they tore it down, it still pulled apart easily. We put it on our gargraves track on a traveling "O" guage model, and had no problems other than in switch points, but thats normal, as you guys well know how wheels and flanges differ, but that had nothing to do with the conductive grease. If you have it use it, I wouldn't make a special trip anywhere to get it, unless we were going in a bad moisture area! ........... 

Good point Brandy. I guess we can say that it works well in the field.

One other thing I forgot to post between the 2 were that conductive grease had metals dus, that was how they made it so it would flow current. We did have some connections to fail over a period of years. When the equipt and their connections were changed out, we converted to 100% silicone diaelectric grease. When doing our preventative maintenance inspections, we never found any polarity/resistence/current flow peoblems. It is still used today, and more especially in the instrumentation dept, since switch from neumatic controls, to the new  electrical/electronic "Buck Roger Stuff".......................Brandy