Cleaning Dirt Build-Up on Wheels and Track Light oil spray is an excellent solvent for the dirt that builds up on car and engine wheels and track rails. I use Q tips saturated with light oil spray to remove the build up on wheels and a cloth saturated with light oil spray on the rails. If the build up is severe, I first use a utility knife to scrape off the sediment, then finish with light oil spray.
W. J. Zide Lincroft, N.J.
I would be very hesitent to put oil on my track or wheels. I use GOO GONE on the track and I have used alcohol in the past, but never oil. Has anyone used oil as described in the tip above?
BTW, I use a rotary 3M Scotch Guard in my Dremmel to clean off wheel sediment. Usually my wheels are not that dirty, since I don’t use OIL on the TRACK.[:O]
While you are oiling your track be sure and oil the thumb wheel on the DCS remote, it will improve the speed control dramatically [tup]
Sorry, that was a flashback … UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVER OIL THE THUMB WHEEL ON THE DCS REMOTE UNLESS YOU LIVE IN ROSEYVILLE [:o)] AND THAT SHOULD BE DONE ASAP AFTER DRINKING THE GALLON OF DENATURED ALCOHOL (moonshine).
I also use denatured alcohol or plain old rubbing alcohol on my track cleaning car but I don’t pull it with a engine that has rubber traction tires cause it might damage the tires.
I think this stuff has 10% methanol in it. I’d handle it carefully and make sure its only used in a well ventilated area and avoid skin contact. I use Isopropyl alcohol for track cleaning. You can get Ethyl based rubbing alcohols which uses a small amount of acetone or Isopryl alcohol as a denaturing element. Read the safety sheet on any product you use. There have been a number of posts/articles over the yeas of the use of Whal clipper oil as a track cleaner/oxidation reducer. The stuff is extremely light weight but it’s still oil. Any oxidation reduction has to be balanced against its attraction of dust and the slippage of wheels.
Yes, A couple of years ago I saw a ad in a catalog about using clipper oil.I gave it a try and the trains seemed to run better. I use rubbing alcohol for cleaning the track. It does sound crazy to put oil on the track though.
Yes, it does sound crazy, but there are oils and then there are oils. One certainly doesn’t want to leave a coat of lubricating oil standing on the track or the drive wheels but what about LGB Smoke Fluid and Track Cleaner, or Rail-Zip, when used as directed, for example? Are they technically oils?
There may well be some cautions involving wheels that have rubber traction-tires and those that do not, and alcohol is generally not good for rubber tires either. Fifty years ago In the typewriter repair business we used a product called “Fedron” to clean and rejuvinate rubber parts such as platens and rollers. It cleaned ink and oil off. You can find a product under the same name on Google, but I don’t know whether it is the same product.
By your reply, you didn’t say that you used the oil to clean the crud off of the wheels and flanges as suggested in the tip at the top of the post, but may have used the oil on moving parts such as gears and bearings which makes sense.
I use LGB Smoke Fluid and it is more of an alcohol than an oil. (It smells funny, too.) In fact, when you clean the track with the smoke fluid it evaporates and does not leave a residue, but for outside Goo Gone and a Scotch Brite (like you buy to clean a barbaque grill) work the best to remove dirt and bird poop from the track. Rabbits also can do a great job soiling the track, but their aim, thankfully is usually off.
I want to know if somebody uses a product labeled “OIL” to clean their track and wheels of dirt and crud as described in the hint taken from Lionel’s website.
I put a drop of Labelle oil on the rails of a Flyer loop one time, and it transferred all of the dirt that was caked on the wheels to the track. If I would have used something like 3 in 1, I would have had much bigger problems…
I believe that the LGB smoke fluid is based on propylene glycol. This is different from the mineral oil based smoke fluids most of us use. These don’t evaporate as easily and do leave greasy residue. I’ve used WD-40 to clean really dirty, rusty track. The light weight petroleum distillates in do act as a rust inhibitor/water/moisture displacer. I did wipe down any track that had been sprayed and allowed it to “dry”. I don’t make it a habit to spray down track with it, one time cleaning only.
I use denatured alcohol on a rag to clean my Realtrax. I’ve tried track cleaning cars and their solutions and it is not as good as alcohol on a rag. Now Realtrax is nickle silver and does not seem to “dirty” as bad as tublar. On my old layout which was in a basement, if trains were not run for some time and the temp was left down [like being gone on vacation in the winter], my tublar track would rust. Then I used scotch brite and WD40. WD40 seemed to work great and kept the rust down.
I have been using oil on my tracks since the early 1960’s. I first used 3 in 1 but switched to Wahl Hair Clipper Oil in the 1980’s. It is the only thing that allows my Z gauge train to run the loop and that takes several attempts after the trains have been sitting for a period of time. It does cut down on the wheels sparking on dirty spots on the track. I haven’t checked to see if there is an adverse affect on the traction tires.
The dielectric effect of the oil would cut down on arcing and if the oil is light enough the weight of the loco would squeeze it out of the way and allow conduction at the point needed. The stuff should also slow down oxidation. Still not sure about slippage and possible long term effects on traction tires.
Interesting. I thought any sort of lubricant was a big no-no. I just run a scotch-brite pad fixed below a flat car I add to to the back of a train. All I really want to do is take dust off the top of the rail. As an aside, I’ve successfully used real rusted rails after running a dremel across the top… looks neat on a lesser-used siding though Sir Topham Hatt doesn’t approve.
Here I go being the Devil’s advocate. What about oiling you track for storage? It seems like a good idea so rust does not build up. I’m not saying batter them like catfish but just like a rag say sprayed with WD-40 or a silicone type spray?
Don’t rely on WD-40 to prevent rust. It will not. Learned that the hard way almost 30 years ago storing some guns. If you read the label it will lubricate and remove rust. It will not prevent it.