Hey all, I’ve got some really old rusted track that I want to clean up. It’s pretty old and rusted, but I know it will be ok once it’s clean. What would be the best method for getting off the build up of rust? It’s pretty much covered in rust, but I scratched a bit off and underneath it’s fine. My dad was saying I should just use steal wool, but I think I read some where that it’s not a very good method.
Anyone have any good suggestions?
Thanks ~
What gauge track are you talking about? I don’t recall any smaller gauge track being made of steel that could rust like that.
Atlas made steel rail HO flex track (code 100) when they couldn’t get brass or nickel silver during the Korean War. It was stapled (every other tie) to fiber tie strip. In the presence of moisture it WOULD rust. Their brass flex from the same era used the same steel staples, and was subject to galvanic corrosion. The ‘spikes’ ended up looking like battery terminals…
Check the local big box home center for rust removers. CAUTION - They tend to be nasty stuff to use. Ventilation, heavy rubber gloves and eye protection are a must. Also, if there are any fiber or otherwise nonmetallic parts, they may react badly to the chemicals in the cleaner.
OTOH, only the parts that make electrical contact need to be squeaky clean. If the railhead top and inside are bright and wiring connections are made to clean metal, the rest of the rust is simply a good case of pre-weathering. (Look closely at some prototype track to get an idea of what I mean.)
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
It’s really old HO (OO) Hornby track from Austria (Not AustraLia - no L[:P]) I have no idea where I got it from, I’ve had it ever since I can remember, and I’d say it’s much older than I am. It actually looks nicely weathered, I was thinking that I’d probably not have to do much weathering myself since nature already has taken care of it for me… haha… but I do want to get the top clean for electrical contact… I’m thinking about rubbing it down with some steel wool… as I’m a little worried about chemical corroding the plastic sleepers, but maybe if I’m careful and use a cotton swap that could do the trick?
Have you tried a Bright Boy? This is a rubbery, mildly-abrasive thing made for cleaning track. It’s intended for routine track cleaning, but it won’t be as abrasive as steel wool would be. It’s an LHS thing.
If it really comes down to needing a stronger abrasive, try Emery paper. That’s like sandpaper, only it’s very fine-grained and tough enough to deal with metallic surfaces. Hardware stores should carry it.
I was thinking along similar lines, although I reckon Milkman might have difficulty finding a Bright Boy in his LHS in Tasmania. A Peco track rubber is much the same thing, and should be easy to get there.
Milkman, you could also try wet&dry carbide paper. Start out with something around 600 grade, and then use successively finer grades to polish out any scratches. I’ve made up sanding/polishing tools by gluing various grades of wet&dry to the flat sides of dismantled wooden clothes pegs.
But having said that, I would reconsider using steel track, since the stuff will only start rusting again as soon as it’s cleaned, particularly in the sort of climate you have down there.
Hi Mr Milkman
Since it’s not Bins Rd, or Margate track, or the made in the Antipodes track( Melbourne I think is where the Aus factory was many years ago)
My prefer ed clean up method is to deposit in the nearest tip.
Under no circumstances use steel wool to clean the track the maintenance bill for your locomotives would rival that of the NSWGR.
Use meths and a nylon kitchen scouring pad one of those green scotchbrite pads is ideal make sure it DOES NOT have soap in it.
But if you don’t need the steel for magna traction loco’s use it for scenery and get Peco nickel silver track.
regards John
A little bit before my time.[:D]
I would not use steel wool either. You could get tiny pieces of the wool into places unknown that hide and wait to get caught up in your engine. Someone above mentioned emery paper. That would work nice, but as someone else said the rust will come back. I had an O Scale layout a few years ago that did that same thing. It kept rusting on me.
-Ken