Hi all! I suspect that their is NO easy answer to this question! I just bought a large lot of Lionel trains. Of course it came with one of those boxes full of lets say…on the scale of 1-to-10, a 5, of Lionel three rail track. I have maybe 300 pieces of track. A little rusty, dirty etc. My question is…is thier an EASY way to clean masses amounts of Lionel track? I have dreams of filling a tub with warm water…and “X” and “Y” to it…wait 24 hours then…instant cleaned track! FAT CHANCE!!! Any ideas??? HELP Ted
Since most folks on this forum are in N and HO, go to the Classic Toy Trains forums, I’m sure you can get some better advice for Lionel things. I will be interested in the answers, as my original trains were Lionel and they endured a house fire, the track suffering from being wet, some locos and rolling stock survived, some had a full melt-down.
I’ll check to see what you get for answers.
Good luck,
Steel wire wheel. It’s how I cleaned my old American Flyer track. Of course, the tin plating had all disappeared off my old track, which is probably why I could use the wire wheel without damaging the track.
One of those green scouring pads used in the kitchen with a slight amount of light machine oil on it. Automatic Transmission Fluid is a good, cheap cleaner and lubricant all in one.
There is a product/(material) known as “Naval Jelly” that removes rust extremely easily. Just wipe it on and let it sit a bit and wipe off. Works amazingly well to effortlessly remove rust. You can probably still find it in hardware stores. Not sure how much oily residue it’ll leave after wiping off but I’d think that dish detergent would remove most of it. Very definitely worth a try if the other forum members don’t have other/better suggestions. Good luck.