Treating Fastrack with No Ox for conductivity

If you are going to treat any, then do them all.

While at it, treat the connection points too- maybe more so than the rails.

Taken from the SanChem website: (https://www.sanchem.com/electr...ntact-lubricant.html)

>> Gary is a Model Railroad Train enthusiast: "I applied the NO-OX-ID to my layout 4 years ago, and have experienced skip free running ever since. This is even after periods of no running for as long as a month. I HAVE NOT CLEANED MY TRACK IN 4 YEARS! An added bonus, is that the NO-OX-ID has changed my loco wheels into better conductors, as I have not had to clean them either." <<

>>Toxicity: All NO-OX-ID products are produced from pure virgin clean raw materials and are RoHS compliant. That is why NO-OX-ID A-Special has received health certification from the EPA under NSF-Std 61 for use in drinking water tanks and is USDA approved as an electrical contact grease and general lubricant for meat & poultry plants. <<

Impressive.

If I had any, I might be tempted to put it on the mating pins, especially the center rail pin.  However, I don't think of No-ox-id as a substitute for opening up the back and soldering the folded tabs on switches.  I had plenty of frustration with that, on a floor layout I constructed last Christmas.  Pressure contacts are a poor substitute for a good solder joint!

I would start with just the middle rail. I was on Ross track but I treated the middle rail and all of my problems went away. It's good stuff and worth the money in my experience.

Treating just the center rail will not reduce sparking and improve conduction between wheels and track on the two outsize rails and will not keep all three tracks clean.

Charlie

I treat all three rails, the wheels, the center pickup, and the track pins.
After 24 hours, I remove the grease from all three rails, the wheels, and the center pickup.
I leave the grease on the track pins.

Be very careful that no grease should ever come in contact with rubber traction tires.

I have great success over the last two years with both FasTrack and tubular track.

Thank you all for all the good information. I will get started now that I've got a better understanding of track and rolling stock maintenance.

Has anyone ever done a side by side comparison of NO-OX ID with other dielectric greases like Permatex? Just wondering since I can buy Permatex at my local Ace Hardware.

I use LGB conductive grease because I have it when I first built my garden railway. The garden railway is now dead rail but I kept the grease. It works great use it just like the No-OX

NO OX has been used on model railroad tracks as far back as at least 1965 (58 years) per the famous Linn Wescott in Model Railroading magazine.  Other gauges, mostly HO, have used it extensively since then but O gauge has been slow to catch on.

Other conductive greases probably will work also but I went with the proven one, NO OX.  It is still working and has been on my layout for 22 months, still no track cleaning.

Charlie