Sorry if this has been covered before, but I cannot find a way to search the forums. I also cannot find a way to enable rich text.
Anyway, the rails on my layout get this black goo ( for the lack of a better word ) on them. You can’t see it, but if you run your finger along the rails, it comes off on your finger. It is a real pain to try to clean. I’ve tried commercial cleaners, Goo Gone, and rubbing alcohol. I even used 400 grit sandpaper.
I thought the black goo was comming from the plastic wheels on my rolling stock. So over the last few months, I replaced all the wheels with metal ones. I still get the black goo.
Any ideas on what is causing the black goo and how to clean it?
It may be caused by arcing of the locomotive pickup wheels. Despite what some of the local “know it all” types will tell you, I don’t think abrasive cleaners really hurt the track that much. Especially if you use a fine grit like emory polishing paper.
But then, what do I know. I have only been at this for 55 years.
I try to stay away from Goo-gone since it leaves a sticky film on the rails that attracts dust.
My best luck is to use a soft piece of cloth, some cheap lacquer thinner, and a bit of elbow grease.
You will get a lot of different ideas on this since different things work for different people. One indisputable fact though, if you have a clean environment for your model railroad then you will have less cleaning to do. Otherwise, you are always fighting the crud on the rails. Kind of like having a diet soda with your giant candy bar.
Do not use Oils, Sand paper or GOO GONE on the rails. Do use Isopropal Alcohol applied with a rag wrapped around your finger and don’t leave any residue behind. Make a couple of slider cars with masonite pads and run one in each train. Clean the pads with fine sandpaper. you will be surprised how much crud those pads pick up from the rails.
In really simple terms: Oxidation. It was worse on Brass track…really black, compared to NS track. All metal alloys, are affected by it. From an old amateur chemist, who actually read books in school. LOL
LION has conqured the problem with 48 wheel pick-up on his trains. Now him doesn’t even bother to wire the switches and crossings anymore. Train rolls right across them.
That’s like asking why rust does not cover the whole area. Rust is also caused by oxidation. Aluminum will also oxidize and black will come off, when rubbed with a damp cloth.
If we, on our model railroads, had the amount of weight, that is associated with 1:1 equipment running on the rails, there would be no need to clean the track, because the rails/wheels would be polished from the constant weight and friction polishing them. But let that same track sit unused for a length of time and guess what? Rust will form on the top of the rail too, not only on the sides of it.
I think that LION’s explanation makes more sense than zstripe’s, particularly because small streaks of the black gunk are built up on the rails, not just thin flat areas of black.
Maybe it’s more dirt falling from Your unfinished ceiling more so in some area’s, more than other’s…I doubt very seriously it is caused by arcing.
I’ll keep My plastic wheels and keep using My CMX cleaning car filled with lacquer thinner and push it around the tracks about every five months and forget about it.
I don’t have a build-up of black gunk or goo on my rails, but if I drag my finger along the rail top, it does pick up some blackness. However, the trains run just fine, with no stuttering or stalling. I clean track after ballasting or adding scenery near the tracks, but other than that, don’t.
I do, however, have a mostly-finished train room and keep it clean, vacuuming the bare conrete floor and, every year or two, the layout itself. It probably also helps that my layout is DC-powered, so not as finicky as a DCC one with lights and sound, where every otherwise unnoticeable interruption of power is emphasised by flickering lights or loss of sound.
I use to have the same problem with the black goo on my track, so I tryed some
Woodland Scenics Dust Monkeys guess what no more black GOO…!!.
I don’t half to clean any wheels on my cars just my locos onec in a while.
But you do half to clean the dust monkeys with some isopropy alcohol.
I remember being told years ago that the major advantage of NS over brass was that the NS oxide was conductive and the brass oxide was not. If this is true (and I don’t know because I didn’t read my chemistry books) wouldn’t that point to something other than oxide as the problem of dirty track?
Every one has their methods. In the past I have used alcohol on a rag. Alcohol has the benefit of evaporating clean off leaving nothing behind. Now I use Goo gone on a rag. My track (nickel silver) only needs cleaning once a year or so. I never noticed any residue left on the rail. Be aware, if you have crud on your rails, your wheels will pick it up. To be really effective, you want to clean the wheels on your fleet so that they won’t tranfer crud back to your freshly cleaned rail. Lots of people, going way back, have put a little oil (Wahl’s hair clipper oil, WD-40, automatic transmission fluid, and other things) on their track and swear by the results. I don’t oil my track and everything works well for me. Other’s clean with lacquer thinner. Be aware that lacquer thinner is active enough to soften plastic, so you want to avoid dousing the plastic tie strip with it lest the little plastic spikes dissolve and let the rail spring free.
And Jabear has it right, the search engine built into this website is feeble. Google gives much better results.
It was conductive on brass also…but it got to a point that there was too thick of a layer on the brass, more frequently than NS, so cleaning was a constant need. Brass is a better conductor of electric current than NS, but a softer alloy. The advertising/marketing took advantage of the fact that You have to clean brass, more often…not that’s it’s so much better. I had an all brass code100 layout for quite a few yrs. and just used a weighted masonite drag car running all the time in a homemade arrangement in a Gondola…had to clean the pad’s a lot though…but it worked.
My way works for Me…that’s all I am concerned about and I also am a DC user.
I blame it on plastic wheels. I used to have no end of black gunk on the rails and on the metal wheels of my locomotives. I converted all of my roling stock from plastic wheels to metal wheels, cleaned all of my loco wheels, and the problem essentially stopped and went away.
Thanks for all the great replies! I think I am going to try the masonite as I have a box car and gondola modified to drag a cleaning pad. I also bought some “Pacer Technology, ZAP Rail-Zip 2” This is supposed to clean the rails and leave a coating to prevent more oxide.
Cleaning the wheels on 200+ pieces of rolling stock will be a real challenge. I’ll probably start with CRC electronics cleaner.
What I remember about brass rail was the green oxide that had to be cleaned off.
Having a finished basement would be great. But I am building my layout on a budget and I’d rather spend the money on train stuff.
Actually, rust will eventually cover the whole area as long the two things that cause rust, oxygen and moisture, are present over the entire surface of the metal. That same logic should apply to model railroad rail. If oxygen and moisture (humidity) are present, then the whole stretch of rail should oxidize, not just small areas.