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BADGERLAND S-GAUGERS Cleaning Track

Black Gunk

Fri, 2010-09-03 17:10 — LKandO

• Track and electrical/DCC
• Trackwork

After discussing the track fouling problem with a friend, he sent me a piece of heavily used, poorly cleaned silver nickel track which I then sent to the analytical lab for an analysis of the black crud that was presumed to be from using plastic wheels. The report came back today.

Drum roll please...

It has nothing to do with plastic wheels... sort of. The black crud is near 100% pure nickel oxide. Nickel (III) oxide to be specific. Saw the spectrograph output proving it. It is the natural oxidation of the nickel in the silver nickel plating on the track. Interestingly enough, it is deposited in such a manner as to suggest it was formed during an electrical arc. When viewed under extreme magnification it looks like random dots rather than a continuous film. The metallurgist explained to me it is likely microscopic irregularities on the tread of locomotive wheels and track face and/or common dust on the track is causing momentary loss of electrical contact resulting in nanosecond duration, nanometer long electrical arcs which cause the nickel to oxidize far faster than would naturally occur. One could never see this with the naked eye they would be so small. He is only guessing based on observation of the deposits but who am I to question his analysis? The oxide is also very tightly bound to the track. This explains why a Brite Boy is effective while wet wiping is not.

When asked about plastic wheels he postulates the plastic has nothing to with it. Rather, metal wheels due to their harder surface are far more effective at wearing away the oxide. The wheels aren't responsible for the problem, they are the removers of oxide and plastic is just a very poor remover.

Bill didn't have any specific solutions to the problem but he did give us some suggestions. He believes we would have the best luck if we applied to the rails a very hard, very thin, titanium or magnesium based nickel conversion coating. Say that in English I said. A very specific type of anti-corrosive metal treatment he replied. Not exactly something you will find on the shelves of Wal-Mart. I Googled a bit and sure enough these products exist although they clearly are for industrial use only. Sorry I don't have an easy fix but at least we know exactly what the problem is and it isn't plastic wheels.

Who says lab guys are boring? We talked trains for an hour!