Although this topic has come up in various threads on track cleaning and maintenance. When doing a search, just now, I could not find where this specific topic was a thread. Not saying it hasn’t been, just saying I could not locate one.
I’ve seen little tidbits on Gleaming track; but would like to know more. Like many folks I’ve used Bright Boys to polish my rail heads and promote good electrical continuity. I also have 5 track cleaning cars made in the same way that John Allen made his, with nails as guides and Masonite pads. I have some “Flitz” polish but have been leery of putting a coating of something on the rail heads, thinking it to be counter productive to electrical contact.
If you have links to discussions on the topic, I am interested.
So, I’d like to hear your “track gleaming” ideas and strategies, thanking you in advance!
I used Metal Polish (Mothers Mag Wheel Polish and Blue Magic Polish) on my rails back in 2003.
I have NOT had to clean my track since and I have over 3600 ft or track down so far in a 2500 sq ft space!
I threw away my cleaning cars and drags as I never used them ever!
I have never seen any loss of traction because of the wax/polish.
The KEY is to apply it very thin (I use a piece of HO Cork - as I am in HO) and a thin coating of the polish on the cork and just rub the rail heads for 8 to 10 feet.
I then use a clean piece of cork and buff the rails and I am done!
While the Gleaming Process will do everything they say it does - I have had NO problems with dirty track and stalling engines so I never felt the need to GLEAM my rails!
As another poster suggested last week: Google “model railroader gleaming” and you get more pertinent results than using the forum’s search function. Gleaming works great. I still use my track cleaning car if I haven’t run trains for a few days but I don’t know if that is necessary or not.
Fortunately I copied this to my forum long ago for just such eventualities.
When it comes to having clean track that stays clean, you might want to try this. It was posted by one of the members of the Model Railroader forum. It worked for me. It’s called ‘GLEAM’.
QUOTE: (Originally posted by Semafore)
I’m talking GLEAM!: ULTRA_SHINY and Smooth rails can now be had with my ‘WHAT box?" approach to this conductivity problem. An HO modeller since 1970, I know the problem WELL!
THIS IS A ONE-TIME PROCESS. DO ALL TRACK!!
1] On an appropiate-sized block, use 400 wet/dry paper to remove the extrusion milling left on the railheads. The block must span both rails.
2] Now use 600 or finer, repeat process.
3] Using an appropiate-sized STAINLESS-STEEL piece, apply moderate pressure and BURNISH the rails! The more you slide back and forth, the smoother and shinier the rails become! [ the GLEAM part ]. This is because you have removed the ridges, bumps, and pits. Burnishing helps seal pores with metal, eliminating traps for dirt and tarnish; almost like a MIRROR!
4] [For Bob H.] Use BLUE MAGIC or equivalent metal polish to deep-clean the remaining contaminates.
5] Last, buff the rails to your eye’s content!
The shine is 5x more lusterous than just polish alone. The wax left behind is minimal, is not insulating, and virtually eliminates rail cleaning.
This is a process HOT OFF THE PRESSES! [Of my brain] I’ve only been at it 6 weeks with amazing results! {I just added the wax step today.} prior to that, though, the NS HO rails I’m guinea-pigging (300’) sans wax STILL gleams today, with slight tarnishing, so I’m gonna wax 'em next!
I will also try some classic brass rail to see how that stands up.
AND REMEMBER; NO MORE ABRASIVES…EVER!!!
Or you’ll just ruin your mirror finish, and will have to gleam and wax AGAIN!
Dry-wipe with paper towel
I use the GLEEM process described in Jeffery’s post, with Mother’s Mag Wheel Polish. I have lifted and re-laid flex track without re-Gleeming - and have had zero problems as a result. The most I have had to do is wipe dust off the railheads - frequently with my fingertips, sometimes with a soft cloth. If my railroad inhabited a NASA clean room I wouldn’t even have to do that.
If this process is such a good idea, I wonder why so little is said about it? Upon getting into the hobby, it doesn’t take long for a model railroader to understand the necessity for cleaning track. If they start looking for commercial items for dealing with dirty track, they will quickly find the Bright Boy, then the $25.00-$50.00 track cleaning cars with an abrasive pad, then finally the $100.00 plus track cleaning cars with motors for polishing the rail head; or, a reservoir tank for dripping Goo Gone onto a track cleaning pad. For that matter, why isn’t pre-gleamed track available? Wouldn’t it be another method of increasing profit for the manufacturers and would certainly be the easiest time to do the process?
I have also heard stories about putting Wahl Hair Clipper Oil on the rail heads helps will help with continuity (electrical pick-up). I have not tried t this method, as I can’t get by the fact that leaving oil on things always seems to attract dirt.
I have no problem thinking gleaming my track will work. I’m just wondering why so little is said about it?
#1. Some don’t believe it works. They’ve never tried it but they still don’t believe it. Must be the thought of polish insulating the rails or something.
#2. There’s a fair amount of work involved. If for some reason it doesn’t work that’s all that time wasted. Why take the chance.
#3. If it’s so great why isn’t it listed as one of the top three things to do?
All three sound like good reasons but at the end of the day they all add up to the same thing. An excuse not to do it. Nearly everybody I know of that’s done it properly raves about how good it works. But that’s the thing, you have to do it properly. Get in a hurry and you’ll make a mess of it.
From a scale stand point, gleamed rail heads would be right on, on the mainline, where the rail heads are polished to a high luster from use. With all the emphasis on scale fidelity today, this alone should be enough to make the scale folks get on with it.
However, it sounds like for the average layout, the process will take 15 to 25 hours to complete. This alone is probably the answer, as today people lack interest in using elbow grease!
That’s just fuel for another excuse not to do it. My layout works out to 8x10 approximately and it only took me about an hour and I was taking my time. I applied the polish to all of the track then let it dry. All I had to do afterward was buff it off and vacuum up the dust. It was really quite simple. Just have everything you need right there and ready so you don’t have to waste time going to get it.
Another reason not to gleam, or not to use a track cleaning car, is that there may be no need to clean track. Except for those instances in which I have done track work modifications and needed to clean up the rails as a result, I just simply don’t need to clean track on a regular basis. I have had my layout in place since 2005, and most areas of my layout have not required a track cleaning since the initial installation of the track.
Where do some of you guys have your layout? In a swamp? A dust bowl?
If gleaming were the end all answer, we would all have done it years ago.
Obviously YOU don’t read the forums much - as just about every week someone on this forum (as well as the many other forums I am on) asks about TRACK CLEANING!
And what is the FIRST thing the responders say to do to the OP?
Purchase a track cleaning car and use it !
WHY - no mention about Metal Polish or the GLEEM Process.
Because THEY don’t believe in the methods as THEY have been told so many times that a CLEANING CAR is the answer.
And the METAL POLISH method WAS PUBLISHED in MODEL RAILROADER back in 2003 or so as THAT is WHEN read about it and tried it!
And as a NOTE - I was building my layout at the time so there was MORE dust than normal in my layout room.
so I had to clean the tracks before every OPs Session as I held them even though the layout was NOT done.
Once I Polished the track - I did not have to clean it every 2 weeks when my OPs Session came up. And I am STILL building my layout! When one has over 2500 sq ft of layout to build by himself - it takes a while.
Yet other layouts in the area were still having to run their $100.00 Tony Trains cleaning car or the Centerline car that states they do such a good job of cleaning their track
YET - they had to keep cleaning the track before each OPs Session. The layout is in a climate controlled room and yet the cleaning continues.
Others are not so lucky and their basements are high humidity and somewhat dusty and the cleaning cars needed to be run.
BUT when they saw that I no longer had to clean my layout after the Polish - they tried it and NOW they NO LONGER have to clean the track on a monthly basis !
I agree. It is not your fault, but the thread has taken on a certain undertone that the track cleaning car is somewhat of a fraud and that advertisers are trying to withhold valuable information about the gleaming process.
First of all, in my experience, track cleaning is not a daily process, or at least shouldn’t be, in order to keep a model railroad in good operating condition. Where the required track cleaning process is common, there is an underlying enviromental issue that needs to be addressed.
Second of all, why condemn the track cleaning car? Many forum members swear by it.
Third of all, there are many effective track cleaning methods when track cleaning needs to be done, ranging from the Bright Boy, to various forms of alcohol, and many other equally effective methods. Apparently, gleaming is one of them.
I use Mothers Mag Wheel Polish on my Weld Drag Lites on my Trans Am and the mags on my truck. Guess what, I have to polish the wheels a couple times a year because they get dirty. I’ve probably used mag wheel polish more then anyone on this forum and I can say as a fact that it does a great job of protecting mag wheels. Still it doesn’t protect them from getting dirty. Dirt is a fact of life. Gleam all you want to, its still not going to stop the dirt and dust from settling on your track no matter how clean your train room is. I clean my track usually twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall using a CMX Clean Machine filled with alcohol. This is the best track cleaning car you can buy, period. Don’t waste your money on the Atlas car, it truly is garbage. I clean my track as preventative maintenance, I don’t have any issues with dirty track but cleaning the track does stop my locomotives and rolling stock from getting dirt build up on the wheels. Like I said, Gleam all you want to, its not going to stop your track from getting dirt and dust on it.
What you say is true but how do you get by with cleaning dust only twice per year? An awful lot of dust builds up in that amount of time.
I have a homemade cleaning car with the masonite pad that floats along the track. I run that in front of a locomotive every few days if I have not run trains. I also have rigged it to carry a cloth pad soaked in alcohol to get any dust particles that are left. Call it junk, but it seems to work as well as anything to keep the track squeaky clean.
Unless your layout is in a clean room, it will still collect dust and other stuff. Use of an ionizing air cleaner can help, along with more familiar ways to limit dust. I can’t see how “gleaming” will prevent the need for all cleaning, just make it less frequent.
One thing that turns me off to the idea is that it does leave the rail head completely shiny. If you look at real rail, it’s not, just the inside of the rail head. I use CRC 2-26, in part because it does NOT leave the rail shiny. Instead, CRC 2-26 leaves a dull metallic look that better resembles prototype rail. Application is simpler, just wet the cork with it and rub it on the rails, but there’s no need to polish. Your track should be clean first and you’ll usually need to wait overnight for it fully dry for best performance.
It is kind of hard to search these posts but there has been detailed information here somewhere. I didn’t comment so I can’t find the link. Sorry. I haven’t tried it yet but I believe the basic theory is that the top of the rail is so finely sanded that there are no nooks and crannies for dirt to get a hold in so the track stays cleaner.
