It’s a topic, perhaps eye-rolling in its frequency, that crops up nearly once a month; how do I keep my tracks from getting that grey ‘rust’ that wipes off on my cleaning cloth? How do I keep the tires on my rolling stock clean, or how do I clean them effectively if I see or suspect that they are dirty?
I have conducted one trial. It was five years ago, about a month prior to tearing down the layout on which almost all of my photos had been taken. I had nothing to lose, and had just read a thread on this topic where Gleaming and Wahl’s Clipper Oil were touted as reliable and effective methods. I had long since taken to using Dexron Mercon III auto-tranmission fluid as my exterior lube of choice on my steamers without ill effects of any kind. I figured…what the heck? So, I coated my entire main line, including its 3.6% grades, liberally with ATF. I let a BLI steamer run through it and spread it everywhere. Then I hooked up my typical trailing ‘tonnage’ and watched. It was as if I had done nothing. A couple of weeks later, there was no discernible difference in performance.
What I didn’t do was to evaluate tractive effort as our hosts routinely do when they test a new model. It should be relatively simple and quick for them to perform a series of trials with the two or three most highly acclaimed methods or materials, and to test actual tractive effort on the same stretches of rails. It’s not as if they would suffer from a lack of cred; with an introduction to their methods and then a table showing the results, I think it would be both definitive and welcome.
But, it probably wouldn’t preclude that month’s thread. [:-^]
Wouldn’t a regular feature of “Myth Busting” in Model Railroader Magazine be great? The editors could do experiments with all kinds of gimmick to see what really works.
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I would be interested in the long term effects of Automatic Transmission Fluid on railroad ties and ballast cement. I’ll bet it is not good.
Thanks for contributing, Kevin. Some/most/all modern auto transmissions have sending units encased, or comprising, plastics of some kind. The kind of ATF I use, the quoted Dexron Mercon III, is plastics AND paints-safe. As for it’s effects on ballast, I didn’t observe any running down onto the webs of my rails, and thence onto the ties and ballast, but it may have happened. I suspect it would stain the ballast, but it shouldn’t otherwise have a deleterious effect.
CMX cleaning tank car, run one hour per day at train shows seems to work pretty well for my club. For wheel cleaning I have used a #11 blade in a x-acto knife to scrape grime paint from metal wheel treads. The woodland scenics wheel cleaning gimmick thing works okay for rolling stock, not so much for locomotives.
I agree it would be very nice if a carefully designed, scientific test were conducted by MR or a contributor. But that’s a huge challenge. There are so many variables, including environment, cleaning methods themselves, approaches with a combination of cleaning methods, loco and rolling stock wheel cleaning methods, rolling stock wheel types, etc. Plus the issues of things like post cleaning lubricants, corrosion inhibitors, conductivity aids, etc.
So I suspect that any such article would be too likely easy to critique, not just because of biases (for example, polishing is the key) that we have from our own experiences, but also because of very likely many sound reasons to question the methodology.
These thoughts drove me to consider how many times this has been attempted. I googled this search, and see also for example the related MRH July 2014 article. (I hope I’m not violating a forum policy but I’m not previously familiar with MRH.) You can download the issue and read the article. I read it and have problems, basis my exerience and bias, with several points therein.
I think there are too many different situations to be considered.
First, track is available in nickel silver, brass, and steel. Do the different metals need different solutions? These are all alloys, but is the same alloy mix used by all the manufacturers for each of these? Does it matter?
Second, what are the environmental conditions. Is humidity and/or temperature controlled. If so. at what level? If not, what are the extremes? Does it matter. What about things like dust levels, smoke chemicals, air freshners, etc.
Third, does scale make a difference?
Then there is the matter of what is clean? Bare metal? Coated with conductive film? Scratches acceptable? Mirror finish desired? etc.
Finally, there are many different methods and chemicals available, can they all be identified? who is going to test them all?
The environmental variances are a big factor in why there’s no single best answer to a project like this. You’d simply find the best answer in one location, unless part of the research involved multiple locations that were fairly representative of the differing environmental circumstances.
Just my [2c], but I’ve seen enough results that you should use any oil-type compound very sparingly and keep in mind unless the track was clean to begin with such applications tend to mobilize the gunk – requiring you to clean the track anyway.
I use CRC 2-26 myself, very sparingly, and have good results here in the Midwest, albeit in a climate-controlled environment. I learned about it through a group of modelers from all over the world, who report generally good results with it. So it seems to work in a variety of environments and may be worth a try if you haven’t yet, just be sure and apply it to generally clean track.
Also, keep in mind that cleaning track and treating it to better ensure conductivity while limiting dirt build-up tend to be two separate issues, when people are often looking for a single product that does both. My experience is that using an alcohol-based cleaner works well on track. I use acetone to get built-up grunge off wheels. And I then use CRC 2-26 to treat the track and limit dirt from building up.
I have found running your trains regularly helps keep the track clean. About every 5 or 6 months I clean the track with 90% isopropyl with a soft cotton cloth is all I need.
Once I switched from brass to nickel-silver back in the 1970’s, I never used any sort of liquid track cleaner to clean track. I dry wiped it right after I laid it, then relied on a home-made Allen track cleaner reefer to keep the dust off. Trains always ran just fine. Once I start building my last layout, I’ll do the same thing again.
Track cleaning has became a unnecessary obsession.Why all the hand wringing and worries?
A simple track cleaning car like John Allen made will do the job. Have a engine or two shove the car around the layout as needed. This method worked quite well on brass track and works better on nickel silver track.
MR would do well to run a article or video on making a John Allen track cleaning car.
BTW…I haven’t clean my track since last November and I still have uninterrupted slow speed switching.
I thought we couldn’t be trusted to do such a test, because according to half of the threads you refer to, Model Railroader is in the pocket of Big Track-Cleaning Car. [%-)] Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go spend this quarter’s payoff to buy a Snickers bar.
Well, this is Model Railroadeer, and not Consumer Reports. Ask Consumer Reports to do a study on track cleaning methods.
But really, the bottom line here is a few of us should get together, set standards for the tests, run the tests with the various products that we use and the send the results to MR for publication.
It is nice to aks Steve & Co to do all the work, but they are publishers not scientists. It is our hobby, and it is our work to make things happen.
Now for those who are members of NMRA (and the LION is not–I suspect that they will allow felids to join, but not felids with no money to pay the membership) could ask about and see what the NMRA recommends, and perhaps the NMRA will sponsor such tests, although some one of us will still have to do the work.
I have the same thoughts as Larry, whats all the fuss? When I think there is a problem, I run two cars, one with alcohol, and one with a pad. A couple of times around, and it’s done. I use NS track for main and siding, and switching and industrial area is old brass, because that’s what I had when I built, and I occassionaly wipe the brass down with alcohol, as needed. No problems with slow switching.
Another point I agree on is location. Everybody has a different situation, and a different location, from spare rooms, basements, attics, garages, seperate buildings, some have a controlled climate, some don’t. I think every model railroader knows when the track needs cleaning. And with so many methods, each to his own.
My layout is in a basement area, no direct heat vents on my side, but it works. My layout also sits all summer, most of fall and spring. Winter is my operating time, and from season to season, year to year, when I go down there, turn it on, it runs just as good as it did when I left it. The first trip around cleans out the cob webs that develop in my long hidden track area, it is funny to see the front of an SD45 or a C44-9W draped in cob webs. [(-D]
Steve, If I may? A lot of this hand wringing and obsession with track cleaning has been caused by a lot of MR’s columns like “Working on the railroad” of years pass plus several articles over the years concerning keeping track clean…
I found these articles funny as all get out because even with brass track and brass wheels on locomotives nobody was overly concern about cleaning track and should we need to clean track a Walthers bright boy would work on the areas we could reach or a John Allen style track cleaning car would suffice for the areas we could not reach.
Now with Nickel Silver wheels and track theres this hand wringing and obsession with keeping track clean.
Track cleaning is one of those things that works till it dosn’t. I have a small section inside a tunnel that keeps giving me problems no mater how many times I clean it (I even built an access hole in the wall just for this reason). It should not be electrical as it works fine once cleaned. It was installed like everything else and I have bright boyed it, CMXed it, Centerlined it and John allened it but it keeps coming back.
Whatever we do, please let’s not say anything about how expensive it is to clean track or Steve will move the thread to someplace I can’t find … [}:)]
I do agree that frequent operation of a layout sure seems to help.
But in response to Brakie’s ironic point above, it is also true that we started to notice dirty track (and wheels) on a friend’s layout primarily after he got his first locomotive with sound. The sound had nothing to do with the dirt per se. Rather, we had all become almost literally unconscious of how much stalling of trains there had been and how many little shoves we were giving the equipment until he got that sound equipped engine. The sudden cessation of sound made every head in the room turn towards the “offending” locomotive. (Similarly the layout owner had become too casual about some of his wiring and track laying issues until he got that locomotive.)
I would also say that these days we are trying to operate our trains, and in particular yard switchers, far slower than we used back in the day of brass rail and open frame motors. Sound and DCC CVs play a role in these slower speeds, and some layout owners who are really into prototype operating get testy if they don’t see scale speeds being used. And slow speeds show dirty track way more quickly.
Or, stated another way, it was very rare for an Athearn Hustler to get stalled by dirty track because it was rare for them to run at less than 140 scale mph.
And it might even be that our smaller size rail is playing a role - maybe the larger surface area and greater electrical contact of Code 100 combined with wider wheel treads made it seem like dirty track was less of an issue back then. But frankly, there were plenty of articles on dirty track and wheels back in the 1950s and 60s too.