Model Forum / General / Railroads / May 2008

Well, if your wheels and rails are already clean, then graphite shouldn't be
able to improve an already solid contact. There *is* one teensy little
problem with the concept, however: graphite is an excellent dry lubricant.

Thus, you have probably not improved your rail-to-loco contact one whit by
rubbing graphite on the rails, but you *certainly have* cut your loco's
tractive effort by some unknown but healthy percentage.

Sounds like another of those urban model railroad legends that pop up from
time to time.

-Pete

It works very well indeed in terms of improving the electrical
contact, but at the expense of a loss of traction, so if your layout
has lots of grades or sharp curves it might be problematic. The number
of times my layout needs to have track cleaned has dropped
dramatically since I began using graphite. People who exihibit
layouts, often in dusty halls, report that a single application is
enough for a whole day, as opposed to having to go around with track
rubbers every hour or so.

A couple of advantages - the "slipperyness" of the graphite tends to
result in dust sliding off the rail, and the gray colour makes nickel-
silver rail look more like the steel of the prototype.

It's well worth a try...

John