While researching "traction tires" mentioned in the topic "Tool for loading cars on track", I also checked my lokies to see if they had traction tires, and I saw some wear.  Is this typical, or am I just a "lucky" newbie?  I am wondering if this would be caused during any derailments.

You can right click on the image and "copy image location", paste into a browser to get greater detail, 1600 x 1200.

When I unpacked my HO trains I realized that I had forgotten about a plastic tool to load cars onto the track.  Really handy, but it doesn't work with locos.  Has anyone seen this for N scale?

A number of years ago I purchased a couple of train sets, non-DCC.  I used trestles to create two ovals running around my coffee table.

I found that I had to wipe down the tracks on a regular basis to keep the trains from stalling.  Actually, it became annoyingly too often.

Is this typical?  Is there a way to delay the cleaning?

The guys at the shop (now out of business) were not helpful at all.

Tia.

I recently purchased an N scale set with 24 inch circle.  It currently fits on the 24"x48" table next to my computer desk.

I would like to create a figure 8 using a 90 degree cross-over.

Just "eyeballing" the circle it looks like I can remove 3 of the 11 pieces of 11.25" curved track and put in some straight track and the cross-over.  Then create another 8 piece circle and straight track to finish the figure 8.

I don't know how to calculate the straight track, but have considered buying 5" straight track and various sizes of straight track.

1) Does this seem reasonable?
2) Would the overall "length" (outside track) exceed 48 inches?

(Instead of the cross-over, I have seen 16-piece graduated trestles on different sites, but Bachmann doesn't seem to have it on their site.  Questions #1 and #2 apply to this scenario, as well.)

TIA.