Sunday, July 10, 2011

A note about NO-OX

A number of people have reported good success using NO-OX to treat track.  If you search for NO-OX track you'll find a number of references.  Sanchem is the supplier, and they even have some instructions on their web site: http://www.sanchem.com/aSpecialE.html.  Since I have had occasional dirty track troubles I decided to give it a try on my O scale layout.

Worst mistake ever.

I will freely admit that I succumbed to my ever present tendency to over do things, and used more than I should have.  But I still didn't use very much.  The problem is loss of traction.  My MP-15, which should be able to move at least 12 of the Atlas 60' Berwick hi-cubes easily now struggles to move 4, and 8 is out of the question.  I've cleaned the track dozens of times since the NO-OX application, with alcohol, goo-gone, and several other things.  I've scrubbed the top and both sides of all rails with a toothbrush and alcohol, cleaned out the flangeways with Q tips and wipes, cleaned every single wheel on the layout one at a time with a goo gone soaked Q tip, and repeated the process.  So far I haven't materially improved the situation.  Nothing feels greasy, but it evidently is just a bit slippery.  I do have hope that with more cleaning and more time I will eventually get rid of the residual greasy NO-OX carrier.  But by then I will have done more track cleaning than I otherwise would have for the entire life of the layout, so it hardly seems worthwhile.

In the meantime I can't operate the layout as designed, since my loco is unable to move the requisite cars.  Fortunately the layout has a reasonable amount of operating interest even without the Tighe warehouse where the 60' hi-cubes go.  And the rest of the industries take cars that are lighter and/or roll better, so I think I'll be able to claim the warehouse has closed and operate the rest pretty much as planned.

I won't go so far as to say you shouldn't use NO-OX, since some people seem to be very happy with it.  I will say that you should be EXTREMELY careful about using too much.  And you might want to consider alternatives.

2 comments:

Greg Amer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Greg Amer said...

Thanks for the info. It's one of those products that look tempting to try, but I'm always a little leary when people start declaring they've found the cure-all for anything.

Greg Amer