I bought an MTH trolley set for Christmas. It came with all curved pieces. I bought a few short straight pieces (gold outer rails, black center rail) to suit my layout plan. The trolley stalled out on the black center rails. I used a pencil eraser to scrub enough of the black junk off to get a little shine and improve conductivity. Is this normal or is the black supposed to be normally conductive?
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I know with Atlas track, we always clean the tops of the rails off.
Gilly
I bought an MTH trolley set for Christmas. It came with all curved pieces. I bought a few short straight pieces (gold outer rails, black center rail) to suit my layout plan. The trolley stalled out on the black center rails. I used a pencil eraser to scrub enough of the black junk off to get a little shine and improve conductivity. Is this normal or is the black supposed to be normally conductive?
This is normal. clean the black off the top of the rail. I clean off the black with a track cleaning pad. I really like the MTH trolleys. I think I get better slow speed control with an atlas power supply or the old MTH IR controller. (better than the ZDC1, or a Z1000). Also, the bump and go functionality is quite good. Improved by using Lionel 662283 Die cast bumpers. They screw to the rails and the mass of the bumpers along with the give in the bumpers allows for much quieter function and slower speed impact.
I have been using Railtrax for years. I've seen some track with a solid coat of black on top of the center rail, some with a light coat and some with none.
I did not remove the coating in the beginning and it would run but there definetly glitches along the layout. I did as Marty R did to remove the coating and it does run much better.
Realtrax or Atlas, I don't think it matters. Clean the black gunk off the top of the rail for two reasons: 1) it improves conductivity a lot, 2) if you do not take it off with brightboy eraser or whatever to remove the black coating, the center rollers on your trolley/loco/whatever gradually will - and you will be cleaning black gunk off them for ages.
So why would the manufacturer put black on the center rail if it interferes with basic operation?
GarGraves makes a track system with a black center rail that works perfectly and everyone tries to copy the best.
That is why when Lionel came out with Fast Track the decided to use a shiny rail system that works.
Real Track has had a problem with that center rail from day one. I thought they fixed it but I guse I'm wrong.
So why would the manufacturer put black on the center rail if it interferes with basic operation?
Because it looks better - flat black makes the non-prototypical third rail "disappear" somewhat. Even with the blackening on the top removed you have the sides that are black and it does make a big difference vis a vis a shiny center rail. Like Gargraves, it is possible to actually blacken the metal and it will conduct fairly well - well enough anyway, but Atlas and MTH seem to use a coating instead, which I prefer. Why? Well, I imagine it might be cheaper to make, too, but it is because with the top of rail non-black it does not look that bad and you can see if the rail is clean . . .
Ross track also uses a blackened third rail. I have never had conductive issues running any trains on the track. I've run prewar, postwar, and modern on it.
So why would the manufacturer put black on the center rail if it interferes with basic operation?
MTH stopped blackening the top of the center rail of RealTrax several years ago. You just got "lucky" and purchased old stock.
I use a track cleaning block to remove the top coating of Atlas and RealTrax. Ross and Gargraves track need not be unblackened, however, it is necessary to clean off the oily, protective coating on the top of the rails.
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