Well after cleaning out my mothers basement I came across a small HO train board my Great Grandpa made for me when I was a child. Fast forward 25 yrs, the board is in shambles, the lights are ripped out, the turn table might not even work, and I can’t even get a train to go an inch!
I can’t seem to part with this board due to the many memories I had with my papa. So I was wondering if there is any way to clean the patina of the tracks ( the track turned green ) or do I have to pull all the track and start with new track?
And a final note I finally am house hunting for my own house, and that means I finally get to start my own large scale layout! I am pretty excited for my return to MRR Thanks for looking
It sounds like you’re dealing with brass rail. It is going to require a lot of cleaning with some type of metal polish to get the patina off so locomotive wheels can make electrical contact.
If you don’t have metal polish or some type of jewelry cleaner readily available, try a very fine grit emery cloth or sandpaper, but don’t press down too hard on it or you might scratch the rail and make matters even worse.
You probably also need to get a voltmeter to check the rail and see if electricity is even reaching it. If feeder wires were not soldered to the rail, the corrosion has probably caused the track to totally lose power.
The simplist thing would probably be to start over. However, I understand memories very well, so will try and give you some hints to see if you can get the old layout going until a new home is found.
Cleaning the track: go to your LHS and get a Brite Boy or similar product. It is a track cleaning eraser. That will get the tops of your rails shined up and able to conduct electricity. You probably have brass track. It works, but the newer nickel silver seems to be much preferred, as it doesn’t require the frequent cleaning… Some folks may suggest a very fine grit sandpaper. The finer the better, certainly over 400, preferably finer than that. Abrasives scratch the surface and make places for dirt to adhere and stick. A soft cloth over the end of your finger and rubbing alchol or track cleaning solution on it, rub the surface of the track to remove any remaining residue.
For your loco: Clean the wheels, a rag as used above should do the trick. Q-tips work well also. .Check to be sure your power pack is putting out power. If so, have a cleaned section of track with the wires from your pack right to it. Hopefully it will have life. It should also be lubricated, motor and bearings. If you will post what type and make of loco it is, I’m sure someone can tell you how to take it apart and do the job. It probably isn’t worth having it professionally tuned up. Your call on that one.
If the loco works, you should be set until you are ready to do more. If not, you could get a new loco and pull your old favorite cars around with new power. You may have to convert the couplers so that they all match, but in most cases that is not too hard.
On your layout make sure you have feeder wires going to the track in several places. Many folks suggest 6’ apart or closer. Since you probably have secti
You can remove the patina, but if that were all that might be needed, you would be quite lucky. Unfortunately, even if you use a metal polish foam or liquid, and you manage to get it looking quite good after an hour or three (don’t do it all at once…just take your time), the corrosion is likely to be still be found in the joiners that link the track sections. That will be a show stopper. You won’t get any continuity down the line. So, it can be done, but you will have to separate all the individual lengths, find a way to clean out the insides of the joiners (all of them [:|]) and then get it all back together. If newer joiners will work, then use them for absolute certain. Or, discard the old ones and solder the lengths together again using short strips of 22 gauge wire as connectors.
This would be a test of the sentimental value of your treasure.