Monday, January 2, 2012

Update on NO-OX

The No-Name Industrial Park is back in business!  After the NO-OX distaster I spent a LOT of time cleaning track using various solvents and techniques.  I got small improvements in traction, but nowhere near what was needed.  Frustration lead to basically ignoring the layout for a few months.  And that turned out to be just what was needed!  A few days ago I decided to spend a vacation day cleaning track again to try to get the layout operational.  But first I did some test running.  It turns out that I can now shove 8 of the Atlas 60' Berwick hi-cubes around the curve and up the short grade into the Tighe track with only minimal slipping as long as I keep it moving - if I let the speed drop below a scale 4 mph (easy to check since I've speed calibrated my loco for 1 speed step per scale mph in 28 speed step mode) then slipping takes over and it gets stuck.  Apparently some of whatever was making the track slippery has either evaporated, or gotten stickier, or something.  That's good enough to resume operating the layout.  And I can hold out hope that time will continue to improve the situation.

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