wahl clipper oil safe on plastic

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi Guys

After I cllean track I like to apply a thin line on the tracks of wahl clipper oil, tonight sone access got on to the plastic ties. Will they be alright? I thought I heard somehwere that wahl clipper oil is safe on plastics

Thanks fpr amy help

Jeremy

2

Yes, Wahl clipper oil is safe for plastics because a hair clipper’s case is plastic.

3

Cheers thats what I thought too, It was just a small dab on a few ties that I soaked up with a q tip. Kind of gives the loook of a oil spill now on the tracks.

Thanks again for reassuring me.

4

Yes, Wahl clipper oil is safe for plastics, but doesn’t it make every bit of gunk within 100 yards stick to your rails?

5

I thought that when I first tried it too but it works pretty good. Then again I just apply some to a q tip then apply a small amount to each rail then run a engine through it around the layout. If you can feel it then you have used too much.

6

I can’t remember what the date of the article was but in one issue of MR someone was using Automatic Transmission fluid on the track and claimed that it stayed clean longer and increased electrical conductivity. I think it was probably one of those workshop tips.

Kay.Div.

7

My local MRR Club used the Wahl Clipper oil way back in the mid '80s

Notice I said used - We found it worked great when it was time for a show!

We did not waste time cleaning the track - just put down some oil and away the trains went!

We did this for a couple of years and it ALWAYS worked!

BUT! - then we begain finding cars that would DERAIL on straight track - for what seemed no reason!

Upon checking the track - found no problems BUT!

When we began looking at the wheel sets we found that the car had NO FLANGES any more!

Reason - The oil had picked up so much DIRT and it stuck to the wheels that the gunk build up just filled up the dept of the flange and the cars just came off the tracks!

We could easly clean the gunk off the wheels with a knife but that was way too much work for the Club members!

So we voted down the use of any OIL based cleaners from that point on and have never used them to this day!

We have only used the Car Drags and then in 2003 began using Metal Polish once a year or so and have quit needing the Car Drags entirely

So much for having to clean aymore track!

BOB H - Clarion, PA