Center Rail Blackening

    The center rails of our RealTrax and ScaleTrax products are not painted. Rather, a
chemical process known as blackening is used to darken the center rails. With repeated
use and cleaning, this coloration will eventually wear off the surface of the rail. You can
restore the blackened appearance of the center rail by using a chemical blackening
agent available at many full-service hobby shops. One such brand is "Blacken-it," made
by A-West, and another is "Rail Weathering Solution," made by Micro Engineering. Be
sure to follow the directions carefully for best results.

    For cleaning our track products, we recommend the use of "Denatured Alcohol,"
available at many pharmacies, applied with a clean rag. We have found that this product
does an excellent job of removing grease and dirt, with minimal effect to the coloration
of the rails


                                    Pick-Up Roller Sparking

    MTH Electric Trains has revolutionized the O Gauge market with the introduction of our
RealTrax system.This three rail track, featuring a phantom center rail, molded road bed
and easy assembly, is featured in all of the RailKing Ready-to-Run sets and is available
separately for the more advanced layout builder. W ewould like to pass along a few
tips to help improve the performance of your engines on this new track system.

    When adding new sections of RealTrax to the layout, you may find that the pick-up
rollers on your locomotives spark more than usual. This normal occurrence is due to
the coating used on the center rail during manufacturer. To reduce this sparking, you
can either run your engine on the new track for 5 to 10 minutes or lightly sand the center
rail to remove the coating. After using both of these methods, make sure to clean the
track with a rag moistened with denatured alcohol and allow time to dry before running
yourengine again.

    For operators who have an existing layout built with traditional tubular track, you can
expand the layout with RealTrax without ripping up the old track. The RealTrax Adapter
Track Section (40-1011), available from most MTH dealers, allows an operator to
connect RealTrax sections to an existing run of tubular track.From there, RealTrax
switches, curves, uncoupling sections or crossovers can be added, and a whole new
world opened for your railroad empire!