Once I did the burnishing, I didn't even have to do that much. Unless I painted some track and needed to clean the paint off the tops of the rails.
I've had a couple of piece of flex track (Peco this time) set up on my workbench, with a Peco #6 electrofrog, and DCC clip leaded to the free end of flex that connects to the point side of the turnout (can't feed an Electrofrog from the frog side) and the other day I fired it up for the first time in a long time. There was a little bit of stuttering and flickering of headlights, but after I ran a loco back and forth on both routes, it cleaned right up. This is just sitting there on my workbench which is in my office room, for whatever reason things tend to gather dust quickly in my house, even though there are no carpets. Probably pet dander, and definitely get plenty of hair, 2 Pugs release a lot of magic Pug glitter. But if that's the extend of "cleaning" I have to do up here - just run a train back and forth a few times - then I expect no issues in the basement. Floor is sealed down there, walls are all drywall and painted, drop ceiling is installed, and even where it had to be left open for pipes and the furnace and water heater exhausts, the opening intot he drop ceiling area was closed up. The dogs don't go down there, so if anything it's probably less dusty in the basement. Only dust down there is the sawdust I am making while building benchwork.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
richhotrain rrinker The whole gleaming thing seems like too much work. It sure does. I just clean off black gunk when it appears with a Bright Boy. That's about the full extent of my track cleaning.
rrinker The whole gleaming thing seems like too much work.
The whole gleaming thing seems like too much work.
It sure does. I just clean off black gunk when it appears with a Bright Boy. That's about the full extent of my track cleaning.
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrainSpeaking of Bright Boy, I couldn't find my today, so I grabbed a piece of cork sheet and, voila, the black gunk disappeared like magic.
AKA the lesson taught by John Allen's back-side-of-the-masonite weighted pads.
Gleaming only 'readies' the track to produce less black stuff. And it does that, I think, quite well. But the black oxide from microarcing should just wipe off nickel silver; only the micro-pits remain to hold whatever 'wicks' or gets rolled into them, and then pose little dielectric interruptions for more micro-arcing on powered wheels, and a source of transfer-printable gunk for all wheels.
Did you look closely at the rail after the black disappeared like magic, to see if ALL of it did? It would be the itty-bitty black points that would be the problem...
Overmod richhotrain Speaking of Bright Boy, I couldn't find my today, so I grabbed a piece of cork sheet and, voila, the black gunk disappeared like magic. Which, hint, hint, hint, shows that abrasive that cuts micro-ruts in the railhead isn't necessary to get it clean.
richhotrain Speaking of Bright Boy, I couldn't find my today, so I grabbed a piece of cork sheet and, voila, the black gunk disappeared like magic.
Which, hint, hint, hint, shows that abrasive that cuts micro-ruts in the railhead isn't necessary to get it clean.
Overmod Did you look closely at the rail after the black disappeared like magic, to see if ALL of it did? It would be the itty-bitty black points that would be the problem...
Did I look closely at the rail after rubbing the cork sheet scrap over the rail? Yep, I put on the Optivisor and the rubbed area looked super clean and the performance of locos going over that area at slow speeds was much improved. That was good enough for me.
Which also proposes an alternative to the masonite car, since the stuff you get these days doesn't seem to be at all like the actual Masonite produced material of 40-50 years ago. A flat piece of just about anything, with a piece of cork stuck on the bottom (not with a permanent adhesive, so you can peel off the worn piece of cork and swap in another). Som medium thick styrene, or even a square of modern hardboard, with the extra step of adding the replaceable cork pad. A few such cars and a decent operating scheme will mean pretty much the entire layout will get run over at least once in an operating session by one of the cork cars. Never clean track by hand again.
In the construction business, we use these heavy duty, nearly lint free paper towels that are known by names like "rags in a box". People ask us why we buy them rather than use actual scrap cloth rags, or much cheaper bargain paper towels.
Why? Because they work better and save time, and give superior results.
We use them for everything one might need a rag for in construction, gluing PVC pipe, paint work, job cleanup issues (with Windex), wiping flux off copper pipe solder joints, working with caulk (or adhesive caulk like I put down track with), and much more.
I found they work really good for simply wiping off track on those rare occasions when it is necessary. Either dry, or with just the smallest application of "Goo Gone", the black stuff is all gone.
A little Goo Gone on one of these paper towels, layed over the track, and a loco held in place to spin its wheels - presto! Clean wheels that seem to then stay clean for a long time.
And these small amounts of Goo Gone have never seemed to cause any loss of traction. Of course a dry "rag in the box" seems to easily remove the small amount of Goo Gone to an indectable level.
Warning, do not try this with an "ordinary" paper towel, you will end up with shredded paper towel in your loco and all over the place......
Sheldon
With all this track gleam. I have a couple of Masonite box cars I bought from eBay
You'ld love the Railroad across the Wisconsin border from Minnesota that made the Burlington Northern Green Machine gleam
The Osceola Railroad which is a very small railroad
Now back to our regularly scheduled program here
TF
Randy, I trust you are aware that cork with the right prep is nearly the gold standard for both glass polishing and getting a mirror finish in knifemaking. I am beginning to think that a modified well, well, well-broken-in cork belt charged with green compound might be a secret weapon in gleaming --