Don't waste your time scrubbing old track with abrasives. Look for a product called Evapo-rust. It can be purchased around here from Tractor Supply and Harbor Freight. You can also purchase it on-line.
Purchase a gallon of it (around $30.00), pour it into a dishpan or other similar container, throw the track in it, making sure it's completely submerged. Go ahead and chuck anything else around the house that's rusty, mainly garden tools that you left outside (ya, I'm talking to you), eat supper, put on your jamies, get a good night sleep, eat a nice breakfast, remove your track from the dishpan, rinse with water, dry, and start playing with your trains.
Seriously, it'll get inside the rails, won't remove any plating or bluing, won't hurt the fiber insulators, it's safe to dispose of down the drain, and doesn't smell all that bad, but it does smell. It can be re-used, but it starts to lose it's effectiveness after awhile.
You'll retain your outfit's original made in USA track as well, which is worth a little something, IMO. Good to see folks working on their old trains. Christmas and toy trains go hand-in-hand.
I did the exact same thing 20 years ago when my kids were little. The engines & locomotives went to a reputable service technician and I spent hours cleaning the rust and gunk off the old track, refurbishing the switches, etc. Everything worked great but then I went into expansion mode and started to mix in new Gargraves track and Ross switches and it became apparent that the equipment worked better on the newer track and the layout looked better too. Today, all of the old track and switches are gone. For that matter, so are the kids...they've grown up, but now they have kids. And there is nothing better then showing off your layout in front of your grandchildren.
So my advise is, if it's rusty, don't bother. If it's dirty you can clean it with alcohol and a Bright-boy or similar abrasive pad. If you just want to show the kids or grandchildren how to have fun without computers and maintain a simple layout, have a blast from the past with the old stuff. However if you have it in the back of your mind that you want a larger layout then go for the new.
I split my time between working on my own layout and a large postwar layout at the local mall.
The mall layout is not for profit and we receive donations old trains. There has been a lot of track donated, and a lot of that has been very tarnished and really really rusty. We also get some rusty broken down and incomplete switches that include various 027 1122s e.g.,, O22s, O72 switches of all types O42 manuals, USC/RCS, ect. Wires are often crystalized. We've had locomotives donated as well, GPs, turbines, several 2026s, switchers, operating accessories, a transfer table, and so on. These are often not running.
We get good track at times and we initially installed some of that on the layout, re-wired switches and accessories, rewired short circuited ZWs, KW,s, RW,s, and about half a dozen 1033s.
Now, before we did all this we were talking about just going to our local train shops and buying new track, locomotives, bridges and structures and transformers. But even collectively none of us had. $25,000 dollars or so that our wives would permit us to spend..
Then the donations started flowing in, and, we got hundreds of pieces of track.
I began restoring the track to a "barely used" condition. I do this by disassembling the sections completely, wire wheel the rails and the ties, paint the ties with Krylon Dual satin, and sand the rails with a range of 100, 600, 1500, 4000 and 8000 abrasives. I've done this to over 100 straight sections and there's about 100 more. We have an equal number of curved sections which will be done after that's finished.
The tops of the rails look like mirrors and even though no real track looks like this, it does bring the track back to near new condition, and trains run on it very nicely,. The monetary cost is extremely low, and some of the group talk about how much time and effort it involves. But for me its a better use of time resurrecting the track along with switches and locomotives as opposed to sitting in front of a television watching cable news or a re-run of a 1996 Lakers game on ESPN.
When I finish we have something real useable and nobody talks about throwing the old track or switches away, writing off the locomotives as junk or parts, and buying new.
You can buy small wire brushes from McMaster Carr. These do a good job of cleaning out the ends of the rails.
Does anyone have a good method for cleaning the interior of the track?
I haven't tried this on track, but often I will clean out a hole using a drill bit that just fit.
Usually I hold the drill in my hand or a pin vise.
To clean a large amount of track, I'd probably try a low speed cordless drill.
Harbor freight carries some tiny brushed that would probably fit into the track's center, but I think they are fiber, and wouldn't do much. Maybe they have them in metal tool.
The exterior of the track is relatively easy to clean, but I have never seen any recommendations on how to clean the inside of the track where the pin makes electrical contact. I have sprayed contact cleaner in the holes, but nothing more. Does anyone have a good method for cleaning the interior of the track?
Earl
You can pick up decent used track for a decent price normally but being this time of a year you might see some competition if you go the ebay way if you see local trains shows try them also flea markets as a lot of times they will have them at a decent price and not in to bad of shape but be sure what your looking for as I teed off a not so honest seller the other day when a guy needed a straight section and he was trying to sell him O gauge and it turned out he needed O-27 the lower profile track. if your going to go this way and not sure of the difference, take a piece so you can see it matches.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Lionel O-22/513x switches absolutely curb stomp the modern versions for reliability and performance. I know this because I got a dozen of 'em off thebay and they work great! Save those if you got 'em. I think "servo guy" has a fabulous restoration guide for those switches somewhere on this forum. The dried out wiring is easily replaced.
As to the track, I bought a box of "no hope" O-31 track to use for layout experiments from under a table at a train show. I mean it was really crappy looking. Never expected to run trains on it, but when I Scotchbrited the rail tops and used Caig's DeoxIT D5 on the rail ends and track pins ... Bingo! Useable track.
Pete
"You can’t study the darkness by flooding it with light." - Edward Abbey -
I agree with the others. I was in the same boat exactly about 4 years ago. I cleaned over 200' of track using just about every trick there was. The track very from overly oxidized to extremely rusty and this is what I found out. It was not worth my time and effort as new track was not too costly over the last four years. I love having the new track and the trains run great. I still use tubular track which I got new very cheap locally. Save yourself from a headache and replace it you won't regret it.
Can't stop working on the railroad!
Do not use sandpaper either. Use ScotchBrite pads or a wire wheel. Or run the trains and have some fun.
IMHO, it all comes down to money. If you can afford to replace the track, then replace it.
If the trains were mine, I would clean up the switch tracks, and perhaps the uncoupling tracks, and replace everything else.
Should you decide to clean the track, DO NOT USE STEEL WOOL. Your locomotive probably has magnetraction,, and bits of the steel wool will get caught up in the mechanism.
Depending where you want to lay the track after you attempt to clean it might be your first question to ask your self. If you want to set it up on your carpet, you may want new track as to not stain the carpeting. On the really rusty track, you could run into issues with the ends the pins go into causing high resistance. If the switches look fine but the wiring, the wiring is replacable.
I have box full of Marx track that is rusty. I told myself I could clean it up. It's still sitting in the box waiting.
Here is the easy way to clean track. Put it together and run the train. Set the E unit to forward only until the rails are clean enough that the E unit doesn't trip from the dirty track. I have done this with the last batch of used track I bought and it is much more enjoyable than clean track.
To make tight connections between track sections, you must do something so the pins in one section make a tight connection with the next section. Forget Lionel's recommended method of pinching the open ends of the rails to make a tight connection. There are many reasons why this doesn't work well. Do the following:
Hold a section of track with the pins pointing away from you. Grab the left rail with a pair of pliers where the pin is installed and bend the rail slightly to the left so that the end of the pin is displaced about a pin diameter. Then do the same thing with the center rail except bend it to the right. Now when the track sections are connected, there will be constant pressure on the end of the pin inside the rail of the adjoining section. Even if the pins are dirty or corroded, if you connect two sections together and then disconnect them, careful inspection will show a very shiny spot on the end of the pins. Rust is a mild abrasive and so it actually helps to polish the ends of the pins. If there is rust on the track that the loco doesn't polish off, you may have to scrape it with something. For O-31 track, I use the end of one of the ties as a scraper. And I only do it where absolutely necessary, not over the entire layout.
I do things this way for two reasons: 1. It works well and takes very little effort, and 2. It maximizes the play time. I am not trying to make the track look new.
Speaking from the zero-option point of view, as in I have zero dollars so I have little choice, I've found Lionel track to be completely reliable as long as it's not rusted through. I scotchbrite the rails as most of the time that's all it takes. If the rust is tougher I use a carbon steel brush in a dremel tool at a low rpm to polish it smooth. I also use the dremel and a scotchbrite to spin polish the track pins. Ties can be cleaned with just about anything but the harder you scrub the more bluing you remove.
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
I'd say toss the old stuff and go new, especially if you can afford to do so. There can be nasty surprises with old Lionel track, especially if the insulating papers have deteriorated. Why take chances?
You could clean the track and rail openings plus the top rail. Me I'd toss it and buy new. Wire is available to redo the switch controllers.
S.J.
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
I always thought that the tarnish/rust on the sides of the track made it look more realistic since I have never seen any shiny track sides on a real RR. I have used scotch brite pads with good results on any track that has sat for awhile. You only have to clean the top of the track and leave the sides alone. The contact pins must be nice and clean all around however.
If you're going to operate them, you'll save yourself a LOT of frustration and time by obtaining new track and switches if the budget permits. Use the old track for scrap loads or industrial scenes.
Sometimes though, cleaning and restoring and re-wiring old track and switches can be a rewarding task. Read about doing it correctly though; the CTT forum is a great resource.
I recently pulled my Lionel O guage set out of storage, the set I received from my parents for my first Christmas 50 years ago this year. It ran a little rough as you'd expect so I brought the engine, tender and transfomer to a reputable train shop for a complete tune up. All set there. However while some of the track is dirty and easily cleanable, much of it is pretty rusty from decades in various attics. Is there a way to clean the rusty track or should I just scrap it? I also have several switches that look fine except the exterior wiring is completely dried out. Again, worth refurbishing or just replacing? I am trying to assess where cost outweighs collectibility. Thanks!
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