G'Day,
I have received five new ON30 locos in the mail over the past month.
One was a 2-8-0 from a rival company & the others, all Bachmann, a 4-4-0, two 4-6-0's & a 2-6-6-2.
I am very happy with their running & detail , but have noticed that each time one arrives my track requires a complete clean, suffering from a good dose of OIL!
Sadly 'once bitten, twice shy', turned into 'fool me once, shame on you; fool me three or more times, shame on me'.
Just today my HO 'SY' arrived, but this time I cleaned the wheels first, & yes they were oily. I would guess they have some new, & rather generous staff at the factory.
You may have had this problem before, but I thought I'd bring it up, just in case.
'Cause who likes cleaning oily track.....
I wonder if they oil the wheels on purpose. Oil can keep the wheel treads bright and shiny even during shipping and storage in a bad atmosphere. Oil will also help clean the customer's tracks which avoids him thinking that he has a poor runner when it is only track dirt. I don't mean to imply that your tracks were dirty but the oil did get you clean them at least four times. ;D
At least they don't arrive encased in Cosmoline.
Jim