Cleaning Pre-war Tinplate?

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

I’d like to clean my pre-war tinplate freights (mostly 800 series, and some lithographed cars).

Some of the cars have a paper glued to the underside of the frame with lubrication instructions, and I don’t want to get this paper wet - thereby more or less ruling out dish soap and water cleaning for these cars.

  1. how do I best clean the cars with the paper?

  2. Is it a good idea to use dish soap and water on those which have no paper?

(I’ve rejected the idea of removing the bodies from the frames as I think some of the metal tabs would likely break.)

-runtime

2

I also am interested in cleaning a set of mojave 610, 612 passenger cars without destroyiong the paper on the frames. Post-war trains are a lot easier to work with but tin plate presents a whole new set of problems. I would like to replace the cello windows and rewire for the lights without too much disassembling. Once that can be done, it was suggested to spray some Pledge on a rag and apply it to the body of the cars.

I want these trains to lok desent running,not packed away to be admired. If you get any info , pass it on!!

  • medialocal
3

The paint / decoration on many Lionel prewar tinplate trains are very delicate. I’ve seen their red paint just wash away with plain water.

Louis Hertz recommended using a light oil with a clean, soft cloth to gentlly clean tinplate, Test First in a hidden area. I have had good sucess using a light oil, such as 3-in-1.

I wouldn’t expect to be able to clean an old piece to factory new. Some dirt is going to remain.
But isn’t that part of the charm? :slight_smile:

As an aside, Hetrz also recommended against polishing.

4

Thanks for the suggestions.

Anyone else have any worthwhile advice for cleaning tinplate?

Do the paper stickers really matter?

I have some cars without stickers that I was thinking of washing with liquid kitchen soap and warm water , as I do with postwar bodies (with tinplate it would be the whole car). If they turn out nice, maybe I should just forget about the stickers - the cars are nice, but not like new, so do the stickers really affect the value? 'Though they are nicely nostalgic.

just ruminating,

runtime

5

I would follow CW’s advice above. Better to be safe than sorry.

Robert

http://www.robertstrains.com/