I have a centerline, a CMX, and a bright boy. I have used all of them at one time or another. The hardest to use is the centerline. Although it does a good job of cleaning slightly dirty track, it does not back up well. The CMX is good for average to heavy dirt but takes a powerfull loco to pull it around. It works equally well forwards or in reverse. Both of the above need solvents and a little preparation time. The brite boy is an abrasive cleaner that cuts through anything, even soldering flux. Its biggest limitation is that you have to be within arms reach to use it. So, I use the brite boy first to the limits of m reach, then the CMX with alcohol. The Centerline is reserved for continuous, roundy round, tracks.
I bought into the “gleam” method, including the last step of polishing. Because of that smoothing/polishing idea, I don’t use the somewhat abrasive brightboy.
I don’t have ideal results (never having to do anything). So I run a masonite pad car on my freight train and when the DCC sound hiccups a bit (every 2-3 months) I run a CMX car, using denatured alcohol (I believe most recommended is lacquer thinner). The CMX does need a couple average locos or one real strong one. I also have mostly metal wheelsets, which makes sense to me as directionally helpful to keeping track and wheels from building up crud.
I use Googone on a rag.
In My opinion…You should take the bright boy and throw it away…all You are doing is creating more scratches for the dirt and grime to cling to. Not that noticeable to the naked eye, but get a Jewler’s loupe and You will see all the scratches, that the abrasive bright boy leaves. I just use a CMX with lacquer thinner and forget about it. You can also use Denatured alcohol, if You find the lacquer thinner offensive, but if the drip rate is set properly, You don’t even smell it. Goo Gone, leaves a sticky film on the track, also collects more dirt…just smells nice. [swg]
To each, their own, for the thousandth time, probably more.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
I wrap a piece of cotton t shirt around a small wood block, pour a little rubbing alcohol on it. Never had any problems getting the track clean with it. Very simple and also effective. Also, no abrasion which can create small cavities for dust to settle into.
I haven’t had to clean my track in over 10 years–I use Wahl clipper oil. Read about my experience on my blog: http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.ca/2009/09/to-oil-or-not-oil-tracksthat-is.html
John Longhurst (also in Winnipeg)
I only use masonite slider cars (one in each train) running on my layout. Sometimes I just run a pair of locos with two slider cars. The cost of the cars is $0. I have a slider car running on a small museum layout that I haven’t cleaned the track on in two years. I also take my slider cars to the club every couple of weeks and do the same thing there. The only thing I use to wipe down the track is Isopropal Alcohol with a rag wrapped around my finger.
In the fall, after the layout has sat idle for 5-6 months over the summer, I make a quick swipe around the layout with a bright boy, then run slider cars over the layout for a while. If my loco gets garp on the wheels, I clean them with GooGone. At some point over the winter I may run maintenance slider trains over the system just for Preventive Maintenance.
This system has worked for me for 27 years. A Bright Boy leave scratches similar to 4-600 grit sand paper and I don’t have a problem with that. If I’m doing it all wrong, per what others feel is right, it’s not the first time I’ve found wrong works for me!
I wonder how true, or how false, that conclusion is about the Bright Boy, not because Frank says it, but because others say it as well.
How smooth is rail “out of the box” and how much damage, if any, does a Bright Boy do? I use a Bright Boy from time to time, and I don’t notice any adverse effect or excessive dirt build up.
I think that this is a myth.
Rich
I think as long as the bright boy is the pliable soft type there will not be any scratches on the rails. I used a bright boy to clean commutators of switch motors a couple of times a year when I was working. There were no scratches created.
I have two “Bright Boys” but will the real Bright Boy please stand up? One I’ve had for a long time and it’s pretty hard and quite abrasive, the other is fairly soft and only mildly abrasive. I used the softone for routine track cleaning and I don’t see any visible scratches - it cleans the dirty rails well and leaves a shiny smooth finish. The harder one is a lot more abrassive but I only use it for limited purposes.
I needed something good to clean track I’ve had stored in long boxes for 15+ years - it was fairly dirty. The soft bright boy I bought last year seems to work great for cleaning that dirty track stored, shines it up nice but doesn’t appear to leave any visible scratches. Using rags with 90% alcohol didn’t work at all so I knew I’d need something a better.
With a lot of subway tunnels and some surface tracks that are hard to get at, the CMX with lacquer thinner is my cleaner of choice. Last time out, I did the yards and sidings, too. Where I could, I uncoupled the car from the engines and used the 0-5-0 to do the sidings. It works just as well and is a lot faster.
I still need two engines to pull the CMX, but I’ve found that there is less friction with lacquer thinner than with alcohol.
Taking nothing away from the variety of successful methods described already, in the electronics industry (at least the pro audio portion in which I work) we use a product called DeOxit by Caig Labs. It is a contact cleaner and deoxidizer. A little goes a long way. We use it on connector surfaces, as well as in rotary controls (potentiometers) and similar. Noisy old controls usually clean up like new, and the Deoxit leaves a protective film so it keeps working. it isn’t sticky for dirt and dust.
I wonder if anyone has tried it in this industry?
I have used Deoxit for years on electronic stuff as well but it is too expensive to use on a layout rail system. I believe a similar, but not a expensive, product is called rail zip. Used VERY sparingly it is supposed to keep rails electrically clean.