I finally splurged a few years ago and purchased a CSX cleaning car.
I want to call out I'm a seasonal operator. I have a layout under our Christmas tree, under the sofa, around the end table and back. I think bc it's on the floor/carpet the rails pick up alot of dirt. The only method that's worked for me is getting down on my hands and knees, all around, with a cloth dabbed in rubbing alcohol. PIA with the tree and sofa :-) alot builds up every few days.
Anyway I follow the directions. Use the ACT fluid that came with it as directed. Tracks get wet but after 30 or so loops I run a clean towel over the rails and still pick up dirt a line of black gunk. I'll post a picture. Maybe I need to run it longer??
Maybe you need to check your wheels on the rolling stock and locos, too.
You can literally get stuck in an endless LOOP when dirty wheels re-deposit gunk when the cleaning fluid loosens up the wheel tread gunk.
Get a surplus length of track and cover it with a folded paper towl. Lightly soak it in your fluid and run your cars over it several times.
Good Luck, Ed
This is what the cleaning pad looks like after 30 or so runs around the loop.
https://imgur.com/a/jNcvomR
Hi Ed I actually just did that with my entire fleet. Engines and rolling stock. Trying to post pics. It's been awhile so have to remember
Your picture isn't visible at all on Firefox, there is a broken picture link on chrome and yet if i click on the broken link, it is there.
Right click on your picture on Imgur and select copy picture link, and then use the the picture link A picture link needs to end in jpg, jpeg, bmp and one or two other extensions. It cannot end in a number
T
That doesn't look terrible to me. When you clean track and keep rubbing it, you keep getting some black stuff off of it. It almost never stops.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Henry thanks for the feedback. Really? Well if I still have to go around and manually run a cloth over the rails I might as well just do that to begin with right?? I tried one of those roller ball cars and same thing. I guess for what this csx car costs I expected better. They say to do a white glove test after it runs. I don't have a white glove but if I did I expect it to be dirty like the paper Towel. Hmmm
I push my CMX with a heavy weight E7 with a clean up caboose behind the locomotive, I'm using ACT-6006 cleaning fluid. The clean up caboose has a dry pad to wipe the rails. It takes a a lot of power to go up my 3½% grades but two passes works very well even after not using my layout for a month or more and my layout is in our garage, not the cleanest area either.Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California Turned 84 in July, aging is definitely not for wimps.
Thanks Mel. Maybe I'll put the roller pad car behind it.
Here's what the pad looks like after 30 or so runs around. Note the thick black lines. I swear only a few days ago I cleaned the rails by hand with alcohol until they were clean.
And here's the white towel after the csx is done. Not a good white glove result. Maybe this is normal or maybe I just have super dirty tracks (BTW purchased new Atlass 100 tracks maybe 3 years ago)
For the oxides, the grey stuff, those dry/wet pads do an small o okay job of getting stuff off the rails. You really do have to abrade off the oxides, and that requires elblow grease, and probably a steel washer about 1.5" in diameter. Or very fine grit paper like 600 or higher, emery cloth....that sort of thing. And you'll only be able to do one foot at a time before you scream.
The best thing is to get rid of any accumulations of dust, and that's where the pusher cars do quite well...really well...Big O. But, after that important first crack at cleaning rails that haven't had anything run on them in quite a few weeks, you're still rubbing off oxides, which the pads can only get with many passes.
If it helps, I just cleaned my rails because I hadn't run anything since early June. They were dismayingly dusty. I just used alcohol because that often works for a first lick at the rails. It worked this time. Prior to that last run, I had used my CMX for the first time ever, plus a pusher scrub pad car in front of the same engine, my PCM Y6b.
The oxides of nickel silver are 'semi-conducting', so they should manage to get your better engines across them, plus a string of cars with metal tires. That will help a lot as well.
I use Peco code 83 track on my model railway.
I use an abrasive pad to clean the track. Even without running trains, I can come back two or three days later and the track top surface will have tarnished and will not be as bright. This has no effect on the performance of the trains
This is the natural oxidisation of the rail.
The electrical connection between loco pickup wheel and rail will also cause deposits on the rail head, the black stuff you see on the cloth.
Dirty track is a fact of modelling life!
Trevor
I use lacquer thinner in my CMX machine. It works very well. I only need to clean my track every 4 months or so. My house was clean and the layout room was upstairs, climate controlled and dry. No one in the house smoked, and there were no animals. I tried to keep greasy cooking either covered or outside on the grill. Eventually I had replaced all my plastic wheelsets with metal. I have no smoke units in my locomotives.
I did what I could to keep track from getting dirty in the first place. I don't spray glue for scenery and any spraying I do for structures or rolling stock is also usually done outside. The train room was a clean room.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Thanks everyone. I don't mind it too much just hoping to get a better result after spending so much $$$ on a product so many people say works. Maybe I'll try the manufacturer.
In my experiance you will always get some black gunk, after all you are adding some everytime you run an engine.
Penn Central Thanks everyone. I don't mind it too much just hoping to get a better result after spending so much $$$ on a product so many people say works. Maybe I'll try the manufacturer.
Simon
Incase you haven’t visited the Aero Car Hobby Lubricants site:“Cleans your track and lays down a non-slippery conductive film that will improve current flow. Will enhance the operation of DCC and Sound Systems. May be used with most track cleaning cars.”I’ve been using ACT-6006 track cleaner in my CMX for many years and the gunk you are removing after running your CMX with ACT-6006 actually helps track conduction.I’ve never had any problems with dirty track since I went with ACT-6006. Two passes with the CMX pushed by a locomotive towing a Mel made clean up car (caboose) with a weighted dry pad works great even in my dusty garage. I rarely run it more than once a month.I do run metal wheels on all my rolling stock and if I put the caboose behind several cars it cleans their wheels too.I don’t have any connection with Aero Car Hobby Lubricants or CMX I’m just posting this to help those with track cleaning problems. This method has worked very good for many years for me. I used it before going with DCC (2005) and I’ve never had a problem with wheel to rail conduction.I might add that I haven’t had any problems with wheel slippage on my 3½% grades either.Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California Turned 84 in July, aging is definitely not for wimps.
I know some modellers use a "wet-dry" method where they have a "wet" cleaning car running in front and a "dry" pad cleaner car behind it. The thought is that the wet cleaner loosens up the dirt on the track well, but doesn't always do a good job of removing it. The pad of the dry car behind the engine picks up the dirt loosened up by the wet car.
BTW the OP didn't (I think?) say what kind of track they were using? Nickel silver rail is going to be less of a problem than brass, especially if it's only being used once a year. Since they're running the train on the floor, using "click track" from Bachmann, Kato or Atlas would be a better choice than regular sectional track.