Track cleaning

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

What is the best & easiest way to keep track clean

2

A “Bright Boy” style track eraser is one popular way. There are also track cleaning cars and locomotives which have a abrasive pad under the body of the car or loco. Use a very fine eraser to minimize scratching of the rail. If you got the current issue of MR, there is a great article about keeping track and rolling stock clean.

3

The way I keep my track clean is I polish it. That’s right, I polish it. Last June I applied a thin layer of Blue Magic metal polish to the railheads and waited for it to dry. Then I buffed the polish off with a piece of cork. All I have to do to keep the track clean now is just give it quick wipe with a dry cloth to take the dust off and the trains are up and running in seconds.

4

Do the search on this forum and you will find some recent threads on this subject which give in great detail excellent ways to keep track clean and minimize the number of times it has to be done. Jeffrey’s method really works, and I believe it is called the gleam way of doing it which many have used. I don’t know who first did it. Involves an eraser, then fine sanding, then burnishing with a washer, and finally brands of polish which don’t hurt electrical flow, often applied with cork. There are other ways people have found as satisfactory solutions too.

Hal

5

I use a CMX Clean Machine on my layout. It works very well and its a lot easier then polishing your track.

6

There are a number of methods, each has its advantages and disadvantages. The Bright Boy eraser is probably the best way to remove caked on crud for track that hasn’t been used in a while. It is also the neatest method for cleaning track. The disadvantage is that the abrasives in the eraser will scratch the rail heads and some believe this will make the rails more prone to collecting dirt and grime. There are a number of solvents that will clean the tops of the rails. I like using Rail Zip because a little goes a long way. You can apply a few drops every few feet and you can run a loco over the track to spread the solvent. It is also a good product for cleaning the wheels of your locos. The best long term solution is a metal polish. There are a number of popular brands. The drawback with these is they can be messy. If you are not careful, it is easy to get it on the ties and insides of the rails where it is difficult to clean off and very unsightly if allowed to dry. You want to apply these polishes sparingly to just the tops of the rails. A small piece of cork or foam roadbed glued to a small block of wood makes a handy applicator for these polishes. Proponents of metal polishes say that it will keep track clean for years. I’ll have to take their word for that because I have only recently used them on a large scale. So far, it has seemed to keep the railheads clean and conducting the electricity.

7

If you’re using brass track, the easiest way to keep it clean is to replace it with nickel-silver track, which shouldn’t require cleaning unless the environment in your layout room is particularily hostile.

Wayne

8

[#ditto]

9

Page 42 of May 2007 issue of MR.

I actually tried the way mentioned in the article & WOW, it works.

I cleaned a section of track as described & the train sped up through this area & slowed down at the spot where I had stopped.

I had never thought about using wood to clean metal! Go figure!

Gordon

10

A couple of other considerations:

First, clean all your track at once (or at least before running any trains). Otherwise you’ll drag the gunk from the dirty part to the clean part.

Second, for the same reason, clean all your metal wheels at the same time as the track, and replace any plastic ones with metal.

oops, that got away from me. Meant to add this:

All the previous conversation has been about how to get your track clean.

To keep your track clean, by far the best way is to run trains! It’s true.

11

JE:

I’ve been hearing about polishes for the past couple of years, and I’m really curious. I have a garage railroad (the garage is only half insulated), and though I run my trains frequently, I find that I have to clean my track fairly often. I can’t really use solvents because of the dust situation in the garage, so I generally use a VERY mild abrasive cleaner and a vacuum.

Now, my question. Though polishing the rails is obviously going to improve conductivity, does it have any effect on the pulling power of my loco

12

The traction of my locos actually increased after the track was polished. Come and grab hold of one of my E units as it comes around. It’ll try to drag you around the layout!

13

Jeff–

THANKS! I’m going to look into it. I know that Micromark has a polish that’s supposed to be really quite good. Now, one question–and I hope I don’t sound terribly stupid about this, but do you clean the rails BEFORE applying the polish, or just apply it directly and let it do its thing?

Tom

14

You’ll probably find as many variations on track cleaning as there are model railroaders!

Personally I use three methods:

  1. Polish - after a long period of disuse I polish the rails with Brasso (I don’t know if that’s available in the US / Canada) but its a standard household metal polish. The polish is applied to the dirty rails with a soft cloth, left for about 30 seconds and then wiped off before it sets rock hard. As you wipe it off it takes the dirt and oxidation with it. It makes a BIG difference to performance.
  2. The bits of the layout I can’t reach to do this are done with an Peco abrasive track eraser (similar to a Bright Boy) glued on the end of a stick. Micro Mark also do a ready made product like this.
  3. During operating seasons I don’t clean the track much manually but I use a polishing car, switched into a through freight, which rubs a weighted piece of hardboard (Masonite) against the track. Have a look at Paul Dolkos’ column on p44 of the latest MR.
15

Yes read that article, lots of useful information. Mike

16

Wood eh??? Well now that the Leafs and the Petes are out of the playoff hunt I’ll have a lot of EXTRA time on my hands. I’ll have to give it a try.

17

I have used a piece of 1/2" square homasote. It cleans the rail and is not abrasive.

Steve B.

18

Hi,

I think It’s a never ending work.

I have good result with a bright boy cleaning, followed by polishing the track with a polish creem for metal.

I use the old “John Allen” method with severals car equiped with a masonite pad ( a half one tickness because I model in N scale) which are included in train to polish every time the track.

I also have included in my time table, every one hour scale, a railcar which is a peddler but in fact the railcar is a polisher with a pad so I am sure the main like is cleaned.

Best of all is running our train as often as possible in every scale feet of track.

Marc/Belgium

19

I have been using the “John Allen” method for years, I have at least one car on each train with a pad. If I havent ran for a while I send out a string of them on the first train with one ahead of the power to knock off the big stuff with about eight behind, twice around does the job, it sure beats “polishing.”