Right here's your answer

You came to the right place. 

EDIT:  Oops, while I was typing this Joe jumped in with the information.  Great.  I'll leave this post on here so you can read one persons experience with the procedure.

Original Post:

You came to the right place.  There's a great article in MRH magazine describing the testing on the subject that Joe, our chief cook and bottle washer did in this regard.  Probably the first meaningful test that's ever been done on the subject.

I had engines hit dead spots, passenger car lights flicker, sound drop out, you name it.   Following Joe's recommendation, I used CRC Contact Cleaner and Protectant.  I haven't had a single drop out or a single flicker of my passenger car lighting since using it.  It's like dirty rails and wheels are no issue whatsoever.  I did also use an artists graphite stick on the rails, but I'm not sure that's necessary.  I did it once and haven't used it since.

Nothing special in my procedure.  I first used an old wash cloth wetted with the CRC and wiped the rails.  I only did that once.  After that, I sprayed the rails ahead of my train, letting the wheels pick up the lube as well as spread it on the rails.  That's it.  No great effort physically.  No special cleaning of the wheels other than what they picked up from the track.

Now I simply spray a section of the rails ahead of a train once in a while just to keep things protected.  A big pain in the neck problem has gone away for me.

WOW

Thanks guys -- I'll have to dig up some of that CRC stuff -- looks like I can get it on amazon -- excellent

Thanks

Be sure you get the right

Be sure you get the right CRC.  It's the stuff in the green spray can.  It's clearly labeled Contact Cleaner and Protectant.  There are a bunch of CRC choices, and this seems to be the one that rose to the top in Joe's testing.  If my usage experience is any indicator, it indeed does belong high on the list.  I too got mine from Amazon.

I need to repeat that I also used the artists graphite stick, but only once, so I don't have a feel for what it might have added.

Another thing I did was use the CRC on the contacts under my Walther's passenger cars.  I figured those are "contacts" also, and they could be a source of loosing power.  Since I did that at the same time, I don't have a feel for whether it was part of the solution or not.

Mineral spirits...

Mineral spirits works great too. Can pick up a can at a big box store. Same procedure as above. 

Randy

CRC Contact cleaner and protectant

Here you go - link to the stuff on Amazon:

http://amzn.com/B007I9Y200?tag=mrhmag-20

CRC 2-26

We use CRC 2-26 at my club.

Because of this along with other measures we have taken has resulted in that we haven't done a complete track cleaning in a few years. Just spot cleaning where work has occurred. Other measures include eliminating plastic wheels and Kadee wheels.

The track was initially cleaned with lacquer thinner prior to using the CRC 2-26

Peter, you reminded me.  I

Peter, you reminded me.  I should have included in my posts that I don't run any plastic wheels.  I don't have any feel for how any of these products would perform with plastic wheels going through the product.

Once you start to get rid of plastic wheels, you have a tendency to never want any on your track again.  I could say the same thing for plastic couplers.

I use lacquer thinner.Just

Lacquer thinner: poor choice for cleaning electrical contacts

Lacquer thinner is a poor choice for cleaning electrical contacts because it's a polar chemical: dielectric constant of 33.6 -- you want a non-polar solvent with a dielectric constant below 3. A high dielectric constant means the solvent encourages micro-arcing on the cleaned metal surface, making the electrical contact points to get dirty again more quickly from the associated micro-arcing oxides.

For all the chemistry and science behind this, see my editorial in the May issue of MRH:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mrhpub.com/2019-05-may/online/index.html?page=9

Mineral spirits is a much better choice -- dielectric constant of 2.1 (well below 3) making it non-polar and inhibiting micro-arcing after cleaning. Electrical metal surfaces will not need cleaning nearly as often with when cleaned with mineral spirits.

Deoderized Mineral Spirits

At our club layout at the Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver, we changed to deoderized mineral spirits and got an emediate improvement. (In layout operation, not spelling) and it's *cheap*.  A quart can for $8 at home cheepo. Transfered some to a couple of glass dropper bottles. This stuff works and it's cheap. More money for DCC stuff.