Thanks for ideas and help! I will definitely pick something up while I am out shopping tonight. Hopefully by tomorrow my track will be clean again and it will stay that way for a while.
When I get the setup finished, or at least on its way to looking like something more than track on plywood, I will post pictures for everyone to see. I have a steam engine and am making a train that will pass through a town, through tunnels, and over a river. It branches off using switch rails and I am really excited to finish. The Lionel train set has been in the family almost as long as I have (1980) and this is thte first time that a setup has been built for it. When I was little, it was set up in my room or around the Christmas tree...but always by itself on the floor. Anyway~
Thanks again for the help!
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Go to Wal-mart or any automotive supply store and purchase some mag wheel cleaner or similar metal polish.
The best I have found is Nevr-Dull Magic Wadding Polish, which is cotton saturated with some type of metal cleaner/polish. You rub the rail with it and throw away the cotton when it becomes black. There's no need to go back and wipe off a film like you have to do with other polishes.
We used to clean track on our HO scale club layout weekly until we discovered Nevr-Dull. Now we clean only every 6 months or so.
I am trying to build my O27 layout which is all planned out and ready to go on the table that I have recently built for it. However, I have the track laid out on the table where I will have it once the terrain is put in, and I am finding myself having to clean the track every single day so the train will run smoothly. The track gets rusty and dirty, and I scrape off the mess all the time with something that I bought from The Little Choo Choo Shop in Spencer, NC that looks like a pencil eraser. After that, I get the debris off the metal by wiping it with a clean cloth and denaturned alcohol. If I do not clean the track like such everyday, then the train will not run as quickly as it could, and sometimes doesn't run at all. When the track is cleaned, it runs like it is brand new.
OK, so on with the question...is there something that I can use that will keep the track cleaner than just 1-2 days? When the setup is complete, it will have a couple of long tunnels and a covered bridge that I don't want to take down everyday to clean the track! I saw something on the internet called MAAS which is supposed to clean and polish metal and keep them from getting crappy looking again...would that be OK to use on the track or render it useless as an electric conductor?
Please help because I don't want to have to just end up taking it down after I already spent so long planning it and buying things for it. Thanks~