Hello all.  So my father in law gave me a few O gauge sets the other day to put under our tree.  I have to admit, I've never had a model train before but I have to say that I think I may be really getting into this.  I am however having one issue.  I set the layout in an oval shape.  I hooked the power connection to one end of the oval.  Just a little background this set was purchased approx. 18 years ago and its the Union Pacific O27 set.  Ok so I set all of the cars onto the tracks and it works, kind of.  When the locomotive reaches the right side of the oval it slows down, almost coming to a stop.  It then picks up a little speed after the first turn but when it makes the next turn to come around the front stretch it again slows down almost to a stop.  It runs perfectly fine around the left side of the oval.  Now the damndest thing is that eventually, without me touching the controller, it will eventually pick up speed on its own.  Literally on its own.   I went into a local hobby shop and was told to clean the tracks as this was the most likely solution to my problems.  So I purchased a lionel cleaning set and scrubbed the track with the eraser and a very fine scotchbrite pad.  The tracks almost look new now.  However the issue is still happening.  I tried to hook up the controller to the other side of the track thinking that it was the fact that it was connected there but even with it on the left side it still has the issues around the right side.  I inspected the connections betweent the track sections and everything is tight.  I don't really know much about this so that brings me here.  I even tried installing other pieces of track in that area but I am still having the problems there.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.