Cleaning hidden track - and - What is this gunk, specifically?

[BRAKIE]

That gunk is a mixture of dust,human skin flakes,pet and human dandruff,electrical residue and other every day house hold gunk.

Alcohol on a clean rag will clean this gunk off -use a brite boy as needed there is no real danger of damaging your track.

[Lillen]

Once again I would like to suggest the CMX clean machine. Put whatever strong solvent you like in it and run it around. That will at least put of any major scrubbing. I use mine once every two weeks and I use it to remove "crud" after building projects when everything is very dirty. It works and it's perfect for those hard to reach places.

 

Magnus

[Tilden]

I've gleamed some track and yes it works very well but still needs to be cleaned/wiped down to maintain peak reliability.

Lately I've had very good success (and lesswork), wiping down the rails with a rag (strips cut from an old dress shirt)and soaked with 91% alcohol.  You will feel the rail get slick, I'm surprised how much black comes off appearently clean rail.  I then take a rag damp with 2-26 and wipe the rails.  This seems to work nearly as well as gleaming and is quicker.  I do not notice any loss of traction with this very light application of 2-26 and it is conductive ehich may account for the long time between cleanings.

Yes, also clean all wheels.

Enjoy????

Tilden

[Dallas Model Works]

Get used to it.

Track cleaning is one of those unfortunate neccessities that sometimes makes workin' on the railroad really feel like working on the railroad.

 It makes me crazy!

[gmcrail]

I forgot to add:  After you clean your track, clean your wheels - all of them!  Or they'll just plunk more crud down.

[lvanhen]

Hi.  I don't have definitive proof, but the crud must comprise, among other things, human skin particles, oils from our hands, bits of body hair, pet hair, aerosols in our polluted indoor environments, vapours from lubricants used on our models, volatiles from any number of sources near and on the layout (lots of paints and plastics in that ground foam!), carpet fibres and shoe dust, and about 34 other things.  I believe that our models' wheels vibrate and lift off the rails momentarily here and there, just enough to encourage arcing.  Since the arcing generates high temps for scant bits of time, it may be just enough to encourage a buildup of altered hydrocarbons. .......

Sounds like a job for the CSI lab!!

[Anonymous]

Ya hafta clean yer tracks bub. Solvent rag, dry rag and polish with a piece of cork or wood is what I do.

[gmcrail]

Plastic wheels are almost legendary for their ability to attract the "crud" on rails.  The "crud" I believe to be made up of equal parts of dust,  oil residue, brass/nickel silver particles, oxides of any of the above, etc.  Plastic wheels tend to generate static eletricity, which then attracts the particles.  I've had it build up to the point where the flange almost disappears.  Metal wheels stay grounded, and thus don't attract the crud as well.

 

The "gleam" process can reduce the crud buildup signifacantly.  However, I've just used Flitz metal polish, without the stainless steel burnishing, and it did pretty much the same thing... 

 

Good luck with your dragons...  

 

[UP2CSX]

Smoke fuid. I don't know what's in that stuff but our club had a big secton of hidden track that was really hard to clean. We tried a bunch of different ideas (although not the "gleam" thing, which was not a gleam in anyone's eye then {awful pun}) but the one that worked best was masonite pads soaked in smoke fluid that you buy to make steam engines smoke. You can get a big bottle for Walthers for something like $4. Mounted two masonite pads on springs to the bottom of a heavily weighted flat car and ran it around the trackage before an operating session. Only had to do it about once a month but it worked great.

[selector]

Hi.  I don't have definitive proof, but the crud must comprise, among other things, human skin particles, oils from our hands, bits of body hair, pet hair, aerosols in our polluted indoor environments, vapours from lubricants used on our models, volatiles from any number of sources near and on the layout (lots of paints and plastics in that ground foam!), carpet fibres and shoe dust, and about 34 other things.  I believe that our models' wheels vibrate and lift off the rails momentarily here and there, just enough to encourage arcing.  Since the arcing generates high temps for scant bits of time, it may be just enough to encourage a buildup of altered hydrocarbons.  I find, for example, that there are black streaks at some rail joins, at gaps near frogs, and so on.  They are easily removed, often with a dry paper towel, or with one that has paint thinner, Goof 0ff, Goo Gone, acetone, TSP, Sudsy Ammonia, and other aids to removal.

You may want to do a search on the "to gleam or not to gleam" thread that, like Lazarus, has an uncanny knack for showing up when you'd least expect it.   I think the ideas in that thread have merit, and any number of its backers will speak up if you invite them to do so.

Plastic wheels have a rep of attracting and hoarding the crud quite unlike the way metal ones seem to do.  Metal wheels appear to do a better job, oddly, of keeping the rails clean.  Not intuitive, I guess, since the stuff has to go someplace if it won't rest on the rails.  But, there ya go...

[secondhandmodeler]

 I don't have any answers for you. However I must say that I enjoy your writing style.  Good luck with the gunk!  Have you lubed your loco's recently?  The oils may have gotten on the track.  If you've cleaned your track with goo gone or something similar, that may be the culprit.   Any oily surface is going to attract dust.  I've also heard of traction tires leaving a mess as well.  Like I said, no answers, just questions!

[onebiglizard]

The long planned expansion of the HO St. Louis &..em...(perhaps my pike needs a name)... basement empire shall commence this winter.  Key to defeating basement clutter and establishing a new world order is a 2 level peninsular thrust up the center of the known 13'x24' railroad world, with east and west staging yards on the lower level of said peninsula.

But now I fear my plans for world domination could be thwarted by gunk on the rails, which I am experiencing in abundance on the existing portions of my nickel silver kingdom.  Carpet, drywall, suspended ceiling and basement HVAC have kept the kingdom at relative peace until late, but now the pollution barbarian is at the door (actually on the rails).    

But alas, I still do not understand mine enemy.  What is this gunk?  Is it just dust and airborne crud, or is there an oxide layer that needs be banished?    And why are plastic wheels mentioned with such distain in previous posts?  Do these wheels lay part of themselves down as gunk, or are they merely carriers of the plague? 

Knowledge of the stregths & weaknesses of mine enemy must guide the choice of the proper weapons.  I shant wield the stone of Bright Boy initially, for fear of inflicting permanent damage on the delicate nature of the kingdom.  Having studied the previously posted advice of hoary sages (contradictory though this advice may be), I have ruled that mine minions (if I can find any minions) shall attempt the rail polish (gleaning) cleaning method this weekend, although toil and drugery it will most likely be.

Despite this toil, are we doomed ultimately to repeat the historic rise and fall of great empires -  by laying much rail in hard to access staging yards?  How does one keep the nickel silver pesants in hidden staging healthy enough to prevent the spread of the dreaded rail-crud plague to the entire plywood realm?

Wisdom of sages (hoary or otherwise) is certainly in order here.  External intelligence and careful planning will hopefully prevent an historic calamity. 

Y'r Srvn't,

Sir William, Champion of Dead Mid-Western Marques