[$Bill]

During practice one lane of my Microscalextic track was shredding braids, mangling pick up shoes and springs, pole vaulting cars and removed a guide pin.  This was happening on the lane with the conductor joints open toward the cars.  In the past my practice was was done strictly in the other lane but was trying run cars down both lanes yesterday. Problem was in the old section of the track, not the recently added shut-down area.  It was surprising how bad it was. It even shredded some of the MS car’s braids.  Most of the trouble was in the outer rail.

The problem is most likely that people bent the tops of the openings up when taking the sections apart.  I filed the edges an pushed on them with a small flat screwdriver, to try to fix the problem.

The long term fix may involve a major repaving job.  Thinking about pulling up all of the rails from that lane, turn them around and reinstall.

I have to commend Andy for maintaining such a smooth track.  There have been very few problems over numerous events on his track.  The cars that did have issues had flat braids that caught an edge.