Cleaning Track

[Mark R.]

I can just hear all the old hats now .... "not another danged track cleaning thread !!!" 

No, I'm not looking for accolades about the best methods for cleaning track, but rather a curiosity .... after painting your track, are you cleaning the inside edge of your rail as well ???

After painting all my track work, I went over everything cleaning it all up nice and shiney (not saying how ) but the performance wasn't 100%. That's when I discovered the inside edge of the rail-head still had paint on it ! After going back over the entire railroad cleaning the inside of both rails, I noticed a big improvement.

You gotta figure the flanges are picking up current along the inside edge as well as that micro-scopic patch on the top ! So don't forget the insides next time you're cleaning your track.

 

Mark. 

[wjstix]

I've heard people say that they found, like you did, that they need to clean the top and the insides of the rails after painting them.

I clean the tops, and both the inside and outside of just the very top of the rail. I use a product called "Neo-Lube" to 'paint' the rail a dark gray, but unlike paint, Neo-Lube conducts electricity, so it maybe isn't as important to get it off the insides of the rails as it is with paint.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

As a general rule I wipe down the top and inside top edge of the rails.

[Johnnny_reb]

I can just hear all the old hats now .... "not another effin track cleaning thread !!!" 

No, I'm not looking for accolades about the best methods for cleaning track, but rather a curiosity .... after painting your track, are you cleaning the inside edge of your rail as well ???

After painting all my track work, I went over everything cleaning it all up nice and shiney (not saying how ) but the performance wasn't 100%. That's when I discovered the inside edge of the rail-head still had paint on it ! After going back over the entire railroad cleaning the inside of both rails, I noticed a big improvement.

You gotta figure the flanges are picking up current along the inside edge as well as that micro-scopic patch on the top ! So don't forget the insides next time you're cleaning your track.

 

Mark. 

I find this very good advice and a great point to anyone new to track weathering as I have not weathered any of my rails yet. (still in the track laying stages) 

And 

I've heard people say that they found, like you did, that they need to clean the top and the insides of the rails after painting them.

I clean the tops, and both the inside and outside of just the very top of the rail. I use a product called "Neo-Lube" to 'paint' the rail a dark gray, but unlike paint, Neo-Lube conducts electricity, so it maybe isn't as important to get it off the insides of the rails as it is with paint.

Thanks for adding your point about using "Neo-Lube" to weather the rails.

I find that if I read most posts and put everything in a pot, stir it up, something will float to the top. Some little tidbit of information that is handy to know will float up and I can grab it.

As for the "old hats" you were all new to this once. I will say that the old hats are the best people to talk with when you want to know something but sometimes a newbie does come up with a easier way to do something. 

So in short listen to everyone, talk to everyone, then put it all in a pot, stir it up and see what raises to the top of the pot. You never know what you will learn or who will teach it to you.

[selector]

Early in my comparatively short tenure on this forum, someone posted an image of the profile of your typical railroad wheel and how it sits on the rails.  The rail head is slightly crowned and the tire of the wheel is tapered slightly so that where the wheel meets the rail there is a force desiring to centre the axle between the rails.  Apparently it is also true of most models wheels and somewhat true for the rails.  In the same thread it was mentioned that for our models the most important surface to be cleaned of any contaminants is the inside top corner of the rail heads.  The tire and flange interface curve spends a lot of time in that area.  So, when weathering with paints, that must be cleaned thoroughly.  I have since found out that the person(s) suggesting this was/were quite right.

[sfcouple]

I've never used Neolube, but if anyone is interested it is available at Micromark: cost about $13 for 2 fl. oz.

Wayne 

[doctorwayne]

I painted my rails with PollyScale paint, using a brush.  After every 10' or 12', I used a dry cloth, stretched over my fingertips, to wipe the dry, but not yet hardened, paint from the tops of the rails.  I've experienced no problems with electrical contact.  After ballasting the track, I used a very mildly abrasive block (used for cleaning electrical contacts) to clean the rail tops - the block spans both rails, so only the tops were cleaned.  Again, absolutely no electrical problems.  That was several years ago, and was the last time that I cleaned track.  I run DC, with no bus wire, and all track is soldered together at the rail joiners, with gaps cut, where needed, for electrical control. 

With the more-or-less flat rail tops, and the profile of the wheels keeping them generally centred on the track, with the flanges touching neither rail, at least on straight track, I don't think that the inside of the rail comes into play.  On curves, the flanges of the wheels on the outside rails will move towards the outside rail, but the fillet between the tread and the flange will still keep the wheel more-or-less centred.  That said, if cleaning the area on the top inside of the rails has worked for you, perhaps it will help others, too.

Wayne 

[faraway]

I use a strip of wood (about the size of a ballpen) to clean a track after painting. It is soft and will also clean the top of the inner flanges.

It is tough enough to remove the paint but it will let the polished surface of the track untouched.

[cwclark]

I've tried just about every method known to the modeling world from wiping oil on the rails before painting them to various solvents found on the market including some basement home remedies for cleaning rails and have found that a plain old Walther's "bright boy" track cleaner works the fastest and the best.....chuck

[selector]

And for all that, I will consistently resort to 600 grit sandpaper to lightly wipe the rails if they look dirty...which they hardly ever seem to do on my layout.  I just don't seem to have to clean my track except after I have worked on it to repair something or just to replace it for some reason.  Otherwise, I just run my trains.  I do wipe the rail top with a cloth as soon as I apply the Poly Scale Railroad Tie Brown for weathering, but that is it for months.

[Anonymous]

And I thought it was a lot of work to clean JUST THE TOPS! I've been busy cleaning excess solder and other by-products of soldering the joiners off my rails... I still need to clean the staging yard and some spur, and now it looks like I should do the sides of the rails too.... Back to the basement for me! (After my fingers recover fromworking on it earlier...)

[tomikawaTT]

If in doubt, look at the prototype...

While it is true that the design of the wheel-rail interface is supposed to keep the flanges from contacting the inside surface of the rail on any but the sharpest (prototpe) curves, one look at some worn rail, either in place or pulled and re-used, will prove that there is LOTS of contact, even on tangent track.  The rail takes on the complementary contour of the wheel, large radius and all.

This being the case, I can't understand what's so difficult to grasp about the idea that the top AND INSIDE of the railhead have to be free of paint and other contaminants.  Those are the exact parts of prototype rail that get all shiny from use while the rest takes on the color of corrosion products.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[Mark R.]

Exactly Chuck ....

If our model locomotives weighed about 30 pounds and the wheels and rail had the EXACT profile of the real thing, I "might" buy into the concept there is minimal flange contact on tangent track.

The reality is the fact none of those factors are true. For the most part, the top of the railhead of our track is nearly flat (more-so if you flat clean it with a sanding block or Brite-Boy). This and the fact our engines are very light - relatively speaking - those trucks are going to be continually hunting as they roll down the rail with the flanges almost continually in contact with the inside of the rail on one side or the other.

 

Mark.

[doctorwayne]

- those trucks are going to be continually hunting as they roll down the rail with the flanges almost continually in contact with the inside of the rail on one side or the other.

You may be right:  if so, the flanges should do the cleaning for you.

I just took a look at my track, both tangent and curved, and the paint is right up to the tops on both sides of the rail - none apparently worn off.  I run heavier than normal locos and rolling stock, and ensure that the wheels are in-gauge, although most running is at under 30 smph.  I agree that the trucks will hunt as they roll, but it would appear, at least for me, that the wheel fillet keeps the flange away from the inside face of the rail head.

Wayne