DCC, On30, and dirty HO track...

Pete, I have no experience with the specific loco you have but I can say that although some people make this big deal about track having to be super clean is not entirely true. Sure you should keep it free of dirt, paint and glue but this should not prevent locomotive with multiple wheel pick up from running good. As long as your wiring is good and you have decent feed of power to all sections, you shouldn't have a problem especially with something like the MMI K-28 which has plenty of wheels for pick up.

I run my 4-6-0s, 4-4-0s and shays with no problems at all even of fairly dirty track. I have 4 wheel locos such as Porters and Davenports and even those, when the wheel pick up is good, I have no problems. I hate to say that some of these 4 wheelers from the factory have (less than desired) pick up to the wheels which a simple tinkering will fix. 

Although my track is hand laid, when I am creating a layout I will always use HO track to test my track plan with temp track and even the larger locos go through #4 and #6 turnouts (atlas, Peco etc) with no problem. Now the 4 wheelers will sometimes not make it through these turnouts for the unpowered frog. This is why I power all my frogs when I hand lay the track. If I were doing a layout with flex HO track and commercial turnouts, I wouldn't worry one bit about it, but if I were going to run the 4 wheelers, I would power the frogs. I know this was more than you asked, but I thought you would want to know my experiences.

I'd have to say that dirty track can hamper any scale train if it's bad enough and since DCC sends its signal thru the rails, keeping that track fairly clean will be a needed item. Can you make a track cleaner to run around from time to time...there's been quite a few renderings here on the forum, but none that I recall for 0n30- yet.

The track needs to be kept reasonably clean for proper operation.  Keep your train room environment clear from sources of dust and dirt.  Investigate the Keep Alive decoders from Train Control Systems. 

In general, in the world of On30, the operating characteristics and necessity for clean track and wheels is much more similar to those demands of HO trains than those of the 3-rail O gauge trains with which many of us are familiar.

Jim

It also depends somewhat on the decoder.  I can only really speak from an S Scale perspective, but I've found the Lenz JST Gold decoder a little more sensitive to dirty track. 

With the Lenz, sometimes my consisting gets messed up and I'll have to restart the train to sync things up again or I'll lose the headlight and have to turn it on again.  The Soundtraxx Tsunami appears to be less sensitive to dirt and the new Lionel/Flyer S Scale DCC electronics seem pretty resilient to dirt.

Occasionally, when I look at my track, I'm amazed anything runs, particularly through the turnouts. 

When I start having problems, I run a Centerline track cleaning car with Goo-Gone soaking the roller (it's worked for me for over 15 years to no ill effect...) for about 3 orbits and that seems to take care of most problems.

Rusty

I just aquired a centline for my 3 rail...will have to try it next time we set up{carpet}.

They make HO scale cleaners, I'm sure, and if its a boxcar or close it can be recovered in an 0n30 sized body to be less conspicuous. Centerlines are still around and can occasionally be found for a reasonable price.

You can always get and use one of these.

Could that have been back then that lovely brass track that oxidized at the blink of an eye to provide a non-conductive surface?

No, I used nickel silver track...

I wasn't to fond of old ho. But I recently played around with an DCC ready Athearn GP7

and found it to be way beyond what I had expected. On the old Bachmann black plastic track, I would have a little trouble if I let it sit about a month. About 10 passes and it always cleared up.  

I forgot to mention - get a bright boy cleaning block for the track and one of those wheel cleaners w/wire brushes you hook a wire to each rail and clean the wheels while the loco is under power in your hand or upside down on a loco holder. That or use a q-tip with alcohol for the wheels. That's all I ever use.

I, too, had good success with Rail Zip for cleaning Z, N, and HO scale track, and even with Large Scale track.  Have used the stuff for many years, and I still keep it around for use as needed, even on O gauge track.

Regardless of scale, I run a home-made track cleaner car on most of my trains to wipe rails whenever I run trains. This not only keeps rails clean for consistently reliable no-stall operation, it absolutely minimizes the need to eventually clean wheels. I've been doing this for 20+ years in HO, N, HOn30 and O gauges.

There is an old HO trick of using a masonite block to slide on the rails under a boxcar, with two alinement pins going up into the car. I simply modified that idea by using a metal plate with a denim cloth pad which is easily replaced when it gets dirty. The cloth pads collect the crud instead of allowing it to be redistributed on wheels and rails.

I can live with the appearance of a track cleaner car on most trains for the sake of operational reliability and clean wheels. With some creativity you can make your own track cleaner cars with a discrete appearance to run in regular trains, for any scale or gauge or type of equipment.

Pete:

I have an HO layout in my basement, appx. 8 scale miles of mainline track from staging yard to staging yard.  I am located in the Chicago IL area, so dust is not a big problem.  The layout rooms both have suspended ceilings to cut down on dust.

I am running NCE DCC.  I have had no issues with dirty track, but I do occasionally run around a Centerline track cleaning car with the roller coated in light machine oil. 

With a constant appx. 13.5 VAC on the track, the signal is not as susceptible to dirt.  I've had my track get so dirty in sections that I literally ran a razor blade over the top of the rails to get off the accumulated dirt, and equipment still ran, the dirt came off in curly strips.  That occurred after five years of operation. 

All of my rolling stock has metal wheels (mostly all are Intermountain or Kadee replacements).  Occasionally I will take some of my "problem children" and clean the wheels on the motive power (usually the Proto2000 diseasels, and the Proto2000 0-8-0s. 

I've had less problems with dirty track in HO than I do in three rail O.

Regards,

GNNPNUT

Thanks everyone for the feedback!  I'm probably going to dismantle my current O Gauge layout and sell off the 7 stall Korber roundhouse, Bowser turntable, freight yard, Ross switches, and the Gargraves track.  Plan is to build a smaller On30 layout reusing most of the buildings and trees.  Will also sell offmost of my of my O Gauge locos and rolling stock.

I hope OGR films your layout as you have one of the best O Hi rail layouts in my opinion. Best of luck on the new layout.

I have several friends with extensive HO layouts, all of which now use DCC. One layout previously used DC but was recently converted to DCC. Dirty track used to be a regular cause of extreme frustration. They all now use automatic transmission fluid (ATF) as a track treatment.

A foot long ultra-thin "smear" of the ATF applied to both rails with a finger tip, Q-tip, etc. will be picked up on the wheels and distributed throughout the layout wherever the trains operate.

There are no problems with adhesion, nor with abnormal dust accumulation. DCC signal strength will be maintained for several months. My friends typically apply the ATF about twice a year.

I know there are commercial products as well as a lot of "home brew/snake oil" remedies  out there. ATF works - wheels and track stay clean, current flow and signal strength is maintained.

Look at the dirt on your wheels, its black!  Do you have black dirt in your house?  NO!  That black on the wheels is from HO plastic wheels!  Most clubs have banned plastic wheels from the club layouts.  Additonaly I use Wahl oil.  One drop or two on each loop of track lasts a very long time and takes very little away as far as traction is concerned.  Just remember HO or ON3- - NO PLASTIC WHEELS!  Russ

So why do Postwar Lionel all-metal wheels build up thick layers of black gunk?

If track crud isn't wiped off routinely, those "oil treatments" on the track are just going to redistribute the crud onto your hundreds of car wheels and cause bigger problems later.

I have a small HO layout with the old Atlas brass track. Cleaning does not seem be be any worse than N or O but getting the initial installation free of derailments was.

  all IMO; Don