I was thinking of using a small black board eraser with a cloth wrapped around it as a track cleaner.
Can anyone think of a problem using the eraser? I believe they are made of felt.
The only harm would be lint from the cloth. I used a piece rough masonite glue to a small block, or a yellow Lifelike eraser.
Nothing adbrasive.
Dave
I prefer using 91% alcohol on a 3" square shotgun cleaning patch with a plastic lid from a pill bottle. I use a Walthers bright boy as needed.
A bag of a thousand patches can be had for around $10-12.00. A bag lasts me several years since I clean track as needed.
I’ve been using CRC 2-26 with good results. I have a small block of wood with cork glued to it. I spray the CRC on the cork and lightly scrub the track with it and wipe it clean with a rag. I then go over it once more with the CRC, but leave a thin film of the CRC on the track. it supposedly helps with electrical pick up.
I am kind of with Brakie on this one, except, I cut up old clothing and rags and I use lacquer thinner instead of alcohol. I only need to do it about once a year, if that often.
Another thought, I leave a few cars on the layout with plastic wheels. They seem to pick up a lot of crud from the track.
Charlie
I have a track cleaning car that uses corderoy strips that clip to the pad that rides the rails. It would be nice if you had a way to clip a corderoy piece to a block of wood (e.g., two clipboard clips), add a solvent (most recommend laquer thinner, though I use denatured alcohol). The pads can be washed out and re-used.
P.S. - using a John Allen masonite track cleaning car (an inexpensive project, check on YouTube) routinely would reduce the needed frequency of the manual cleaning.
Gleamed my track in '06, run a masonite pad on almost every train, File the black crud off the pads every now and then. Seems to work for me.
You can now buy just the corderoy pad holder.
LION:
Cotton Golves… Solvent of Choice…
14 Miles of track.
ROAR