I just reread an article from an August NMRA. In the article there is a discussion about using these products for cleaning track. One thing they do not metion is how it is applied. Has anyone had expierence with using these products for cleaning the track ? How is it applied ? Does it really keep the track clean for a long period.
Thanks
YGW
I use the CRC 2-26 myself with excellent results.
http://crcindustries.com/auto/?s=02004
The main thing is to use them very sparingly, as a little goes a long way and too much gets messy.
First, clean your track before applying. If it’s not clean, applying the 2-26 will put all the gunk on it in suspension, where it gets onto your wheels much more easily. I like to use 91% isopropyl alcohol as a final wipe-down to get all the oils off.
Get a small, shallow jar or can. A chopped garlic jar or a tuna can work well. I prefer the jar, as there’s no risk of sparks setting it down around the layout. Decant/spray the 2-26 into the jar until you get a small amount of liquid, enough to get the bottom of your container wet. Take a wine cork, real cork not the plastic ones, and wet it’s bottom in the 2-26. Wipe you rails with the end of the wetted cork. You want to dampen them, but not leave an obvious wet trail or you’ve got way too much in the bottom of the container.
Let the rails sit over night.
Run trains.
The effects are longlasting, six months to a year or more. The rails also come out NOT shiny but more of a matte steely-looking finish on nickle silver rail which many prefer as looking more realistic than if you were polishing your silver or something.
I’m with Mike on the CRC 2-26. I found a supplier that sold it in pint spray bottles, not the aerosol, it was either Grainger or MCS Tools?
http://www.amazon.com/CRC-02007-Lubricant-Corrosion-Inhibitor/dp/B0013J1WHC
(The above link is just for example, maybe NOT the best deal!)
I also use the 2-26 on motor bearings and the Walthers passenger car needlepoint bearings. Years ago I bought some very fine needle point 1 oz. bottles (maybe A-West?) and I keep one of these handy for lube work.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/A-West-204-Stainless-Needle-Point-Applicator-Bottl-p/awt-204.htm
I use a CMX tank car pad cleaner with 99% isopropyl for the final wipe down coupled to a Centerline drum type cleaner wrapped with Handi-Wipes for additional dirt pickup, pushed around the layout ahead of A-B-B-A F-7s
Everybody’s methods AND layout environment conditions are unique so YMMV… Ed
Thanks guys
A short follow up…
While it seemed like we were talking about something different than cleaning the track, essentially the functions of a cleaner and contact enhancer overlap here. That’s why you want clean rail before applying the 2-26, as it’s will act as a cleaner if it has gunk to attack. It’ll sop up the goo and then it’ll be goo that will pick up easily and then you’ll have a fine mess.
But I should’ve said more about how I clean. Like Ed’s comments, I like to use Centerline roller cleaners. I generally use Aero-Locomotive Works ACT-6006 Track Cleaner on the roller wipes, sometimes the 91% alcohol for a tough problem. But I actually do this less than I apply the 2-26. Probably should use it more often, given the long stretches of hidden track on the lower level standard gauge dogbone, but things run fine.
I don’t have a CMX, but have heard pretty much all good about them. I guess I don’t have one because I don’t need one. I have a pair of Centerlines – in both gauges. I belive I’ve heard of someone adapting a CMX, maybe N scale? to HOn3. My engineering and MOW crew are kinda glad there’s been no need to get one of those over the line.[*-)]
You don’t need the Aero-Loco stuff, though, alcohol works fine. Thing is it evaporates quickly (use the ordianry 70% if using on the roller, as it slows the evap) and it’s harder on your fingers (yeah, I should use gloves, but I’m lazy) when working the cleaner around the layout. That’s why I like the Aero-Loco stuff.
I’ve heard of people using stronger stuff in the CMX. So if you have an extra tough problem maybe someone else can offer advice on what’s workede there for them.
That brings up another thing about the CRC 2-26. It doesn’t need to go everywhere to be effective, even the very small amount put on with the cork. The only time I did the whole visible line was the first time. I just spot apply once in awhile when I have a contact proble
Is this stuff the same as LPS#1 Lubricantt sold by LPS Laboratories?
RicZ
Ric,
That reminds me I never did straighten that out with the OP. I think they got conflated in the title. CRC makes 2-26. LPS makes LPS1. There’s a NMRA divisional fact sheet on this here: http://www.nmra.org/sites/default/files/sr201310_clean_2.pdf
My experience is all with the CRC product. LPS1 sounds very similar, with the exception of the specific claim that an electrical field makes it conductive, something that seems very suited to model railroading. Maybe your bump will turn up someone who has experience with LPS1? Hard to imagine something much better than CRC 2-26, but there’s something new everyday.
Since the topic was brought up, I will report I recently went through my rolling stock and cleaned up the “high” wheels I described above as gathering the gunk. The only place where I got a more consistent dirty wheel effect was on my lighted passenger stock. I suspect the arcing involved helps add to it there, although they do get a lot of miles on them comapred to most freight rolling stock except cbaooses. Not really complaining, as it was a realtively easy and qucik process, here and there, with just inspecting things probably taking almost as much time as the actual cleaning it turned up that needed done.
As I do this, I also “glass” and otherwise adjust the trucks involved as the gunked wheel points out it’s needed. Over time, things should both run better and stay cleaner. This is also due to the fact that much of what I’m picking up now is probably spew from wheel blackening, which also tends to go away over time.
Does anyone know where I can get CRC 2-26 in Canada? I found one listing on Amazon that will ship to Canada but they want $35.00 for shipping. All the other Amazon suppliers will not ship across the border.
I have found a couple of Canadian automotive parts suppliers that list it but it is custom order by the case only. CRC’s Canadian web site lists lots of companies that carry their product but so far nobody seems to have CRC 2-26.
Thanks
Dave
[:-^]
Hi Dave,
I get spray cans of it from Home Depot here.
It was in the elecrical dept. the last time I purchased it.
Johnboy out…
Johnboy:
Thanks!
Hiding right under my nose as it were.[(-D]
Love Pogo - that’s my favourite quote.
Dave
The Despot is where I got mine down south here, too.
I just use a lint free rag (t-shirt), spray some CRC-226 on it and wipe the rails, repeat this until I’ve made my way around all the track. I don’t clean the track first. I don’t have to repeat this for 8months to a year. My layout is in a finished room in the basement.
Just to be clear, I don’t clean the track much anymore, either. In fact, it had been a couple of years since I had the Centerlines out, but decided since the cars had clean feet when I was inspecting and cleaning, I might as well mop the floor, so to speak.
If you were referring to my earlier reference to cleaning, that was specifically to the first time out with 2-26 if it had never been applied before. If the track was already subjected to various other treaments, dust, and maybe gotten really grungy is when folks often turn in desperation to what they hope is the magic bullet of CRC or something else to cure their problem in short order. Thing is, if 2-26 is just dumped into the mix, basically everything floats in it and that’s when people find they’ve got a real mess on their hands if they didn’t clean first before first application.
Past that, my experience is a lot like yours – a wipe here and there and you’re good with little need for much else.