How heavy is the lube on your locos? This sounds like you have oil getting onto your track. A light black-gray film on the rail is normal. Use the search function to find info on the GLEAM process and give it a try. It knocked my track cleaning down from weekly to annually.
[#welcome]
Track cleaning questions arise all the time on this forum. What are you cleaning the rails with? Is all your rolling stock equipped with plastic wheels?
Some cleaners leave a film behind that attracts dirt and dust plus it takes the oils from the plastic wheels and deposits it along the track.
Pete
This could be from several problems, including those already suggested. Wheels may have a factory finish of some kind that is slowly blackening due to current in the wheels. The rails could have contaminants on them. The engines may be bleeding oily lubes down onto the rails for some reason. Or, your home environment is polluted…doubt that is the problem, but if you have a lot of house dust, it could be the culprit.
Are your frogs insulated ones? Are you in DCC? Do you have black streaks developing near the insulated frogs? Are all tires showing blackening, or just the odd one? Is this on engines, or on engines and cars, or strictly on cars?
What are you using when you clean the tires, and is it different from how you clean the rails? What are you using to clean the rails?
-Crandell
i had that problem years ago and now i rarely need to clean track. the one point i want to stress most stongly is KEEP THE RAILS DRY !!!. many of the solvents used in cleaning track as well as excess lubricants can be the source of your problem. any solvent or oil residue on the rails will cause dirt and crud to migrate from the wheels to the top of the rails. and the more you run the trains, the more crap will keep coming off the wheels.
i don’t buy in to the hundred dollar track cleaning cars and i don’t just replace all wheels because they are not metal. occasionally i vacuum the layout and wipe the rails with a leather fingered work glove and that is all i do.
if you insist on using solvents to clean your track then only use something that will completely evaporate and do so quickly. lacquer thinner or alcohol. if you have any goo-gone, give it to your wife and don’t let it near the track.
grizlump
It sound like you’re using some kind of oily solvent – or rail zip – to clean your rails, and it’s leaving all kinds of residue behind, which is attracting crud. Depending on what solvent you’re using, it could even be dissolving the plastic wheels of your rolling stock.
I use an old t-shirt and denatured alcohol to clean track. I do get a black streak on the rag, but that’s just oxidation and not visible on the rails themselves.
This situation could be aggravated by having either a wood-burning or (worse) coal-burnng stove in the same room as the layout.
CT…You mention “rail-zip”. Is that bad stuff? I had heard it was good stuff.
What’s the take on it?
I’ve used it too. I didn’t have any problems with it, other than it staining the white ballast. If there is anything to watch out for, I’d like to find out now, before I put any on my new layout?
Have been using only denatured alcohol and an old shirt to clean rails. It is only on the rails that the problem is apparent. The power is DC and I have only run an Atlas RS-3 and one car on the tracks to test. The film starts within an hour or two of running this engine. Track is from my old layout (several years ago), but is in good condition.
Bob
Xword2005
Bob
Does the loco or car have chemically blackened wheels? I replaced a bunch of wheel sets with Kadee wheels that were blackened and the blackening came off right away and was deposited on the rails. But after running awhile it cleared up and have not had any problems since.
Pete
X-word:
I may get blasted for this comment by a couple of good friends on the Forum, but I’m just wondering: Do any of your locomotives have Traction Tires? The reason I ask, is that during my experiences with a railroad in an uninsulated garage, I have from time to time run locomotives with traction tires, and I noticed that I needed to clean the track quite a bit more frequently. I’ve stopped using locomotives with traction tires, and my track maintenance has been pretty much cut in half. There just seems to be something about traction tires on locomotives and my nickle silver rail that don’t seem to ‘get along’. Especially some of these newer steamers that have the black traction tires. Whew! [:P]
Tom [:D]
Right Tom! Traction tires, plastic wheels and dirty wheels can cause this black gunk.
One tip I learned from JFugate was a completely dry rail gets dirty faster.
Some folks use Wal Clipper oil after cleaning. I found that CRC 2-26 contact cleaner applied sparingly after cleaning the rails helps keep the black gunk from coming back.
SPARINGLY is the key word…