...Made possible by a metal polish known as Nevr-Dull. It's labor-intensive to be sure, but the results can be startling.
First example is a pair of MPC auto carriers with the hollow metal wheelsets MPC used on some cars before settling on sintered iron. I don't know if these wheels were originally cast or machined, but this polish sure makes them look machined (click both pics for 1000-pixel version):
The difference is even more startilng with these postwar Lionel wheelsets that I found installed on a pair of Kusan flatcars I got at York. At least I think these are Lionel wheelsets. While not all of the ones I experimented on came out this well (these were all estate-sale cars that had not been well cared-for or stored well), quite a few did. In all cases, they looked like the "before" version before I worked on them. No abrasives were used either before or after polishing.
Whether this treatment improves contact I cannot say. It certainly didn't impair it on the ancient F3's I tried it on. When I get my test track operational again, I'll be putting some mileage on the cars I used this treatment on to see if they stay clean (although some aluminum shower-door framing I tested this on still looks almost mirror-smooth compared to the untreated area more than 9 years later).
Similarly, I haven't tried it on track yet. Even if it did work well, you'd go through a lot of this stuff for even a modest-size layout (not to mention the elbow grease expended)
---PCJ
