If I want to polish the rails to remove paint (from weathering) or other substances, what does everyone recommend. Can you use a high grit sand paper, maybe 1000 grit or something? I know there are rail cleaners for oxidation and such? Please recommend courses of action and/or products for both circumstances? Thanks!!!
For those interested, we have the Florida Railroad Museum near my house. Great place to ride/see trains. This month is the month of steam and they have a little 0-4-0 coal engine running. I rode up front with the engineer and fireman this past weekend, what a blast! Here are two links to pictures I have taken along with some short video on Picasa. Enjoy and thanks for the help and suggestions!
http://picasaweb.google.com/swhite10539/CabRideOnFlaggEngine75?authkey=Gv1sRgCJaZ1OuwlvOYjQE#
http://picasaweb.google.com/swhite10539/FloridaRailroadMuseumFeb2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCN_3p7GHvqScLg#
All I've ever used was a brite boy to clean paint off of the rails. I would recomend you do it fairly soon after painting don't let it set up and cure for a month it more then likely will be harder to get off the longer you leave it on.
I've had good luck just dragging a razor blade down the rail heads at about a 45 degree angle. Takes most of the paint off. I go over the tough spots with some 600-800 grit sand paper. Many people use metal polish such as Gleem to polish the rail heads too. (not a fan of that myself)
Thanks, I wiped the paint off while it was still wet, so I got most of it off the rails, but I just want to make sure no residue is left. Thanks for the suggestions.
ScotchBrite no scratch scouring pads work well for me.
grizlump
I use the brite boy as well for small sections of the layout. For the main line or heavy used parts of the line I use Maas cleaner. I uselly don't have to clean the track after a couple of months of using it. You can buy it at walmart for about 5bucks.