Track Crackling??

I can't hear a thing on that video.

Wow that's crazy, sounds like someone's frying bacon.

Could it be a conductivity issue with the blackened center rail?

I thought I recall posts in the past where folks recommended removing the blackening from the top of the center rail?

Thanks Rick, It’s funny cause I did the same setup just with Fastrack and had no issues. I do see most will connect the wires directly to the center and outside rail on Atlas track but figured if they are selling a terminal section that should work too.

Since this appears to be fresh new atlas track, you definitely need to clean it. We just installed over 250 feet of atlas and used scotch brite to clean to polish the top of the rail surface. Yes, we polished the black rail, but also all rails may have slight coating from manufacturing and shipping.

You already said you saw spokes from certain rollers- that is clearly a sign.

Note, even if you polish the center rail to the point it initially removes the black oxide coating, give it a month, it darkens back over time.

a) new railsound 6.0 with the engineer warming his lunch in the microwave!

b) am I hearing relay chatter?

c) micro-arcing at wheels/center pick-up?

I don’t know what your table top is, but I can see the track is sitting right on top of it,….so any sounds are going to be amplified …….sounds like it’s simply the environment, and not anything drastic,……you can clean the track till your blue in the face, but small particles still stuck to all the wheels on the engines & cars still get deposited on the rails, and then you get that kind of sound…..it happens on my sound deadened layout after a track repair, or similar, and debris are on the rails,…..go down to a dusty rail yard, those cars and engines sound like they’re rolling over shards of broken glass,…..I’d say clean it as best you can & soldier on….😉

Pat