My model railroading club is located in the back of a commercial wood working shop. The layout is poorly protected from the airborn dust. It is a less than ideal situation to say the least but the club is small so paying more rent for a better location isn’t feasible.
The result is that the tracks have to be cleaned every week. Bright boy style cleaners have been ruled out because they would leave a rough surface which will hold the dust even more.
We want something that will work quickly. Using the masonite pad style of track cleaning car would work but it would take several laps to get everything off the tracks. Half a dozen guys can rub the track down in a few minutes.
So, what do you suggest we use. I’m thinking of something like ink erasers but they have abrasives in them too.
FYI, we have a roller style track cleaning car which runs most of the time, and the track is all within easy reach.
If dust is the problem and all the track is easily accessible, how about a vacuum cleaner?
I use a CMX machine with lacquer thinner as the cleaning agent. But, I’ve got tunnels that are awkward to reach with anything else. The CMX works very well for me, but it does take some time to loop over every track a few times. I push it back and forth over the yard tracks manually because it’s quicker that way.
Vacuuming is certainly an option. There is a shop vac but I don’t believe the club has a small hand held vacuum which would be much more suited to the task.
When I use an eraser style track cleaner, I use a “Pink Pearl”. It’s definitely not as abrasive as a bright boy.
But, ya know, I don’t think you need ANY type of abrasive stuff.
Certainly, a vacuum is something to consider. I think Atlas, for one, made one. Or you might make your own out of some sort of battery powered keyboard vacuum.
I’ve observed there’s different kinds of track cleaning:
the rail is old nasty and oxidized–I’d try the Pink Pearl. But some sort of abrasiveness is going to be needed to clean it up.
the rail is covered with assorted gunk but is not oxidized–lately, I’ve been using coffee filters. They’re cheap. The don’t have lint (like paper towels). And they’re cheap. I use the small Chemex style, which are just folded up square paper. The paper is coarse enough to do a little scraping on the rail surface, but isn’t significantly abrasive.
I made a wood block the right size and tapered/rounded the appropriate corners. I cut the filter to the right size. I rub a bunch and marvel at the black stripes.
I suppose you could put some solvent on the paper, but I don’t see why. Do you have something that needs disolving? Or just removing.
Micro Engineering makes a good track cleaning block that won’t damage rail. Our club uses them in addition to a track cleaning train with a Masonite slider car followed by the CMX tank, and then the heavy brass roller with Handi-Wipes to clean up.
A small block of wood should do the trick. Just angle it forward and down to touch the rails, and then scrub. Be careful around gaps, guard rails, frogs, and points.
We bought this 1.5 gal Shop Vac last year for Boothbay Railway Village. It has strong suction and is light enough to carry around with one hand. Has bags for the dust Everyone likes it a lot
Got it at WalMart, Lowes and Home Depot have them as well. Cost about $35
If it’s just dust, half a dozen guys with cotton pads and alcohol should do it in a few minutes. Or maybe you could just cover the layout carefully with those thin plastic painter drop cloths from Walmart when you leave. I cover my layout with them when I go to Florida for the winter and I have a lot less dust on the layout now, when I come back.
I went to Home Depot and picked up some clear plastic tubing the same diameter to extend the Harbor Freight hose, an additional 3’ to 5’ helps a lot. The hose that came with the mini vac is a bit short, the Shop Vac hose is much harder to control than the smaller hose.
I made a belt clip to hold the larger hose where the mini hose attaches to the large hose, that frees up both hands and prevents dinging my scenery. If you need more suction put a small piece of tape over the vent holes in the adapter, it doesn’t ding the Shop Vac.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
I’m with hobo, cotton cloths with alcohol and cover the layout. the amount of dust that collects on the rails also collects on the entire layout. You are going to have a bunch of dust on the entire layout over time. bunch of guys can wipe down the track in no time. And covering the layout reduces the dust everywhere. Masonite sliders are also usefull in removing oxidation as the trains are run.
I say lose the erasers and just use the Atlas or Bachmann (whichever you prefer or have available to you) electrically conductive lubricant–it works very well as a track cleaner and does not hurt painted finishes (excess evaporates, too).
Maybe once every couple months I quickly wipe off most track with a paper towel.
I use a little ConductaLube on the track almost every time I run. It keeps loco wheels clean for good conductivity.
The only reason I can see for using an abrasive cleaner on track is if the surface is badly oxidized. And yet nickel silver’s advantage over brass is supposed to be that it never oxidizes. Therefore there is never a reason to use abrasives. Like Bright Boy.
Now, if you’ve got dust, slime, oil, grease, filth, gunge, etc., the way to get that up is with something like 91% alcohol on a pad. Shotgun, rifle, pistol, coffee filter. Whatever.
Or vacuums. They work good on LOOSE stuff. Not on slime, oil, grease, filth, gunge, etc.