Track cleaning...

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jecorbett

Flix does a great job of cleaning the top of the rails but it is very difficult to apply neatly to the tops without getting it on the ties and the side of the rail. If not cleaned completely off, it creates an unrealistic green tarnish on the sides of the rail.

The success is in the application whether you use Flitz, MAAS or Mothers Mag Wheel cleaner.

As I have said many times over & over again take a piece of 100% cotton t-shirt material and cut it
into 5" or 6" strips, 2 " wide and wrap it around a retired brite boy.

Apply the cleaner to the longest edge and drag across the rail heads. This way the BB fits between the forefinger & thumb( a good fit) and doesn't mess up your ballast & scenery.

Let slighty dry and then with an un-treated piece of t-shirt material, again wrapped around the BB,
wipe off.. Its simple.

I also use MAAS to clean my loco pick-up wheels, steam & diesel but a different application process.

THANKS MR JAN. 2003

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MisterBeasley

but I did just buy a big bag-o-wheelsets and I'm in the process of converting my rolling stock now.

When comparing track cleaning success, it would help if we know whether or not you've got a lot of plastic wheels.

Metal wheels promote greater free rolling ability & longer trains BUT be painfully aware that all
metal axle wheels sets are NOT created equal, they vary in axle length. One brand doesn't fit all.

[trainfreek92]

My LHS reccomended smoke fluid so that is what i use it is made by crest[^]

[msprater]

I routinely run 2 units MUed on my N-scale layout. Speed-matched as closely as possible, there is still some difference, so the faster loco tends to slip and my mainline rails get continuously burnished by wheel slippage. I taped a short length of cork roadbed to a paint stir-stick, slimmed down to a little wider than track width and cut to a convenient length. If an engine balks on a seldom-used siding, a quick rub along the rails with the stick-mounted cork cleans without leaving a residue or abrading the railheads. When dirty, I just discard the roadbed cork and tape on another scrap piece. Cheap and effective. Erasers, I've found, leave a rubber residue. Abrasive blocks score the railheads, leaving microscopic grooves which catch and hold dirt and tarnish, aggravating the problem. Solvents can attact plastic ties and wheels. Track cleaning cars are a pain in the butt, except for hidden or inaccessible track. Just as important is routinely cleaning the loco pickup wheels. I frequentyly use a bronze brush wheel cleaner powered by sitting on the rails. Steam loco tender pick-up wheels are worst because they have to be cleaned individually and manually rotated, but need help. For those, I use the thin, wooden, pointed oriental skewers found in packages in supermarkets. The medium size works best (about 1/8" diameter and 9-3/4" long). They also have a myriad of modeling, glueing, and soldering uses, work as uncoupling tools, too -- and are cheap!

[Anonymous]

I'm at the point where I need to seriously clean my track. Up to this point, all I have been doing is simply running a vacuum hose with a brush attachment over my rails. (I placed a piece of nylon stocking over the vacuum hose so that any loose parts are captured for repatriation.) I vacuumed the track at least once a week, which quite frankly, is a pain when cleaning my yards, considering that I have to move ALL of the rolling stock around just to get to the tracks. And when you do that, those cars pick up that dirt/dust that fell in between the cars. And the thought of picking up every single car up off of the track just to clean under it isn't very appealing, either.

A track cleaning car would be very beneficial in cleaning those hard-to-reach places like far-away curves or tunnels or helixes. One of my friends here in Omaha got ahold of one of those brass CMX cleaning cars. They look just like a normal tank car with a cleaning pad down under, but they cost around $100 and are no longer available from Walthers. He uses Goo-Gone liquid (that you can get from any retail department store) in that car and I have to admit that the cleaning results are astounding.

I once asked Stephen Priest from Kansas City what he used to clean his layout with. He informed me that he uses Wahl Clipper Oil. Someone else, above, mentioned using a light oil, as well. It would seem to me that if you are going to run short trains (which Stephen does), then an oil application would be ok. But if you are pulling mile-long trains as I am, I would think that that would be like committing traction-suicide.

I like the idea of the Mag Wheel Cleaner and I think I will give that a try.

Regarding plastic wheels, I have noticed on my 700+ rolling stock that the plastic wheels do seem to attract the dirt more severly than metal wheels do. Also, metal wheel sets seem to run so much more smoother and efficiently than the plastic ones do. The trains seem to pull so much more easier than those same cars did with plastic. So much so that I have decided to bite the big bullet and convert over to metal as I am able to.

Well, that's my thoughts on the subject. What do you think?

[Anonymous]

One thing I forgot to mention----

For cleaning wheels, whether on locomotives or cars, I found a really slick trick that is working far better than enything else. I just use a wire-wheel brush attachment on my Dremel Moto-Tool (set to the slower speed, if you have speed control) and apply it LIGHTLY to the wheel surface. It takes all that black crud off in seconds and does not harm the wheel surface in any way.

For powered locomotives, I just apply electricity to the motor via alligator clips and apply the moto-tool, as above.

I can completely and effortlessly clean a car or locomotive in less than a minute's time. It should be noted that I do not apply any type of cleaning solution whatsoever in this process. It's not needed.

[Anonymous]

I use a brite boy which I velcro to the bottom of a box car and run it around the layout. works for me.

[Train Boy aka Luke P.]

well all i do is pour some goo gone onto a paper towel and wipe the rail heads with it. it seems to work fine because being beside my dad's wood shop, i have to clean it alot!

[Anonymous]

OK>>
This is a Great Recipe for your layout. I've used this method on a Custom-Store 55' Oval-Layout I built for them and here we go...
*#1> Get a Snow-Plow Cleaning Car for approx. $25 or thereabouts from 'Vinson's Custom Electronics.'
The pad on the bottom is 'Sprung-loaded' so it 'Menuvers' on crossovers of all types, curves & straights.
He has replacement pads for very inexpensive cost.
#2>>Clean the track with Peco Track Eraser...Softer than Bright-Boy and Does' the Job.~!!
#3>>>At the very least, vacume-up the eraser-pieces from Crossovers, turnouts.
#4>>>>NOW, with the Snow-Plow Cleaning Car, which is very-nice.
He placed a BRIGHT-Blue-White L.E.D. on the top of the Plow to See the area Much Better.
Put a 50% -to-50% Ratio Mix of Alcohol & WD40 on the two-areas the pads ride the rails.
#5>>>>>Ok, use a Heavy Loco <such as 4-8-2 or better if using Steam> ~or~ <Using Diesel, which I
HIGHLY-RECOMMEND...such as F-3 or F-7, SD40 or better, Proto Erie-built.
The BEST LOCO HERE IS ONE THAT IS USED 'P-R-I-M-A-R-I-L-L-Y Cleaning-Engine-ONLY!
#6>>>>>>Run that across 2-3 times on your 'Main/Passing-tracks' & a couple of times on yards/industrial tracks.
*****************************************************************************************************************
This will seam Wierd at first and when this Modeler told me this, I thought he was crazy.
Guess what?? It REALLY WORKS~!!
WD40 , after the Alcohol cleans-up any other impurities on the track left from erasing & the WD40 will
semi-dry-up with a 'RESIDUE' .
After a few passes of 'Just-Cleaned-Locomotive(s) Wheels', the track & wheels will get DIRTY.
And, I-MEAN-DIRTY.
DON'T WORRY.
Here's the Miracle.
The Train keeps going & going & going & going & going & ...you get the idea.
The Chemical-Compound in WD 40 is of an Electrical-Principle & I've gone 3 months without cleaning the track then, I finally did clean - up the track beginning w/a Clean Rag doused in Alcohol,
swiping the track 'SHINY-CLEAN' of Dirt & Rust-Free.
Then, I begin the Process Above Steps #1-6.
*****Yes, you will have to clean-up all the wheels of your Rolling-Stock & Loco's.******
What I did, I have a '3-foot Test-Track' I use for Programming my Engines & also use it for Cleaning
the Rolling-Stock & Locomotives by Placing an 'INDUSTRIAL-Strength-Towel' I purchased from Home-
Depot, Dousing-it w/Alcohol across a couple of feet.
The towel will get Very-Dirty & after several-Cleanings, Change the towel.
Toward the last 1-foot of the Test-Track, have a 'Clean-Dry-Industrial-Towel' for Drying the Wheels & Any
Excess dirty left.
*****************************************************************************************************************
I strickly use Peco track but used it on Atlas and Walthers S. track too, all Codes' rail sizes.
Happy~Cleaning~!

[Woody Down Under]

Relentless and others - if the track looks clean but your metal polish keeps removing black stuff - the black is probably track metal being removed by the polish. I have had the same result with "Brasso" metal polish. I don't know how much metal is removed each time - it can't be much, but too many repeat cleanings mightn't be a good idea!

[cmrproducts]

What I did not like about the Brasso is it leaves an oily film on the tracks and this attracts more dirt. This also goes for the WD-40, 3 in 1 oil, sewing machine oil, LPS and Hair Clipper oil.

I have used every about every liquid I could think of to clean the rails! (I may have to post the list sometime) and everyone of them did the job.

They CLEANED the rails! That is what they were supposed to do, Right?

But then I had to do it again and again and again. Does anyone see a pattern here?

This again and again thing!

Now cleaning track, for me anyway, is about as much fun as watching paint dry!

Since I used the metal polish I HAVE NOT HAVE TO CLEAN MY TRACK! I am going into my third year now and have not cleaned any of my 2700 feet of track.


Yes I can hear it now, Yah this guy is full of it, We know better! Well believe what you want and keep on using what ever you want but when you get tired of cleaning give the metal polish some thought and try it. I thought so in the beginning but now all my cleaning cars are in the dumpster! And I just about everyone of them!

BOB H - Clarion, PA

[Anonymous]

TO: Bob H.

Bob, can I have one of your cleaning cars, please!??! LOL Just kidding. (Unless you have a CMX brass car, which I still badly want! lol)

Actually, I would like to know which of the metal polishes you have tried and would recommend. I realize that you probably mentioned this in an earlier post, but this thread is getting too long to go back read everything all over again. Also, how do you effectively apply the metal polish without a cleaning car?

I like what you said about the various oils attracting more dust and dirt. I meant to mention that in my earlier postings as another down-side of oils in addition to the reduction of locomotive traction. Oils of any kind are dirt magnets, period!! If you don't believe me, just go take a look at you car's motor. lol

Val N -- Omaha, Nebraska

[cnw4001]

Every time ths topic resurfaces I wi***here was a magic solution to cleaning the tracks.

When you're about to operate on the club layout and there are not a bunch of folks on hand to clean doing over 1200' of track can sort of take a lot of the fun out of that session.

[cmrproducts]

Super-Chief-Val

Our Club (Clarion Model Railroad Club Inc.) has used the Blue Magic (liquid) (Wal-Mart) and Mothers Mag Wheel Polish (paste) (Wal-Mart – Auto Parts Stores).

I was at an auto parts store the other day looking over the various metal polishes and found the Blue Magic now in a paste form.

It really does not matter what brand of metal polish you use. We (many of our club members) are trying out several other brands. So far we have good luck with all of them.

The main thing to remember is that they need to leave the rail heads dry (no oil film). Now the black film that is on the rails, do not worry about this, as I have had it on my rails going on 3 years and it is not causing any problems at all.

With the size of my home layout (25 x 75 ft room and 2700 feet of track) I would think that it would be the size of most Model Railroad Clubs. I would think I would have run into just about any problem that a club could have run into.

I also have been a member of a club for 20 plus years and we have survived 2 moves and a fire in which we lost over $50,000 of equipment. So I am speaking from some sort of experience here. If the Club members say it works then it does. We don’t just jump into something new just because it is the latest thing and find out there problems with it later.

Every time the Model Magazines came out with an article (back in the 80’s and 90’s everyone was ready to jump onto the new idea. We did but then found that there was a problem that showed up (Wal Hair Clipper Oil – crudded up the car wheels real bad). In a club atmosphere some one will always try these new ideas and find then find a new problem.

So this was why I was a little leery about the metal polish at first BUT I was getting real tired of running the cleaning cars more than I was operating trains. Out of desperation I tried the metal polish and WOW it really worked! Now 3 years later it is still going strong and have found no problems yet. So now you know why I am so adamant everyone using it on their own layouts. It just stops having to clean the rails (at least for over 2 years at a time)!

BOB H – Clarion, PA

[cmrproducts]

cnw4001

You said: I wi***here was a magic solution to cleaning the tracks.

There is – Metal Polish!

Try it and see if you don’t notice a difference!

On my home layout I have 1000 ft of mainline (15 scale miles) and the total track equals 2700 feet of track that is over 40 scale miles of track!

So I would think that qualifies as a Club layout in size. The metal polish STOPPED track cleaning PERIOD!

I really can’t think of a much more vocal way of trying to tell everyone that this is the Magic Solution everyone has been looking for.

But there are so many on these forums that just don’t or won’t believe it.

They have been lead down the wrong path for so long they just don’t want to believe that there just might be a better way.

We (the members of the club that I belong to) are always trying out new ways of doing things. But we have finally begun to use procedures to prove out these ideas. If the ideas don’t work on all of the member’s home layouts then it is just a fluke idea and it will not be good for all model railroad layouts.

This is the same way it is with buying a model and finding that it does not work properly. We don’t take it back and get another. We find the manufacturing problem and then correct it!

We have machined new frames for the Athearn CF7 because they are warped over .010”. And this was not just one as we have 10 of them and they all were the same way. It is no wonder they would not run right. So we fixed the problem by machining a new frame out of Billet Aluminum.

So this is not just someone talking out of his hat, we really do know what works. At our club, when we have shows, the trains run for 12 hours straight. So we find the problems real fast.

Just some of my experiences over the years.

BOB H – Clarion, PA

[cmrproducts]

Super-Chief-Val

I forgot to mention the way I put the polish on the rails.

I initially used a cotton rag and just dipped it into the liquid Blue Magic polish.

This worked OK! But it did get some down on the sides of the rail heads.

So I had some old HO cork (left over from my old layout). It was really old as I had it since 1979 and it was quite hard but was not crumbling yet.

I tried this out by just putting the liquid polish in a shallow dish and then just touching the surface of the polish with the cork. I then took another piece of cork and rubbed the 2 together so that it spread the liquid very thin and evenly over the cork surface.

I would then just rub this cork on the rail heads for about 6 to 8 feet. I would use a back and forth movement of about 2 feet (similar to waxing a car finish). Then I would just keep pushing the cork onto the new section of track.

Now as the polish is used up the cork gets dry (and begins to push much harder) I just use the other piece of cork I had to transfer some more of the poli***o the first cork piece and continue on.

As the first piece of cork is used it will collect the tarnish onto the surface as black lines. Eventually this just builds up too much and I just throw the first cork piece away and begin using the second cork piece and get out a third piece of cork roadbed and use it to transfer the polish onto cork #2.

I then would take a dry piece of cork roadbed and buff the rail heads. That was it. I could do 100 feet in about 10 minutes or less.

I just keep on doing this until all of the layout is done. I do all of the passing sidings and industry spurs, yard tracks, staging tracks everything.

Yes it is a lot of work but not having to do this again for over 2 years now has been great.

I am also doing scenery and adding additional track in places. When I finish up and area I just use a dry piece of cork and rub the rails real quick to get the dust off the rail heads. No special cleaning or anything!

The cork pieces are only about 1 1/2" long.

Hope this helps!

BOB H – Clarion, PA

[cnw4001]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cmrproducts

cnw4001

You said: I wi***here was a magic solution to cleaning the tracks.

There is – Metal Polish!

Try it and see if you don’t notice a difference!
So I would think that qualifies as a Club layout in size. The metal polish STOPPED track cleaning PERIOD!

So this is not just someone talking out of his hat, we really do know what works. At our club, when we have shows, the trains run for 12 hours straight. So we find the problems real fast.

I also have been a member of a club for 20 plus years and we have survived 2 moves and a fire in which we lost over $50,000 of equipment. So I am speaking from some sort of experience here. If the Club members say it works then it does. We don’t just jump into something new just because it is the latest thing and find out there problems with it later.


I have been to your club during an open house and ours is in a similar situation, in terms of potential dust and dirt from the building. Does the metal polish have any adverse impact on plastic wheels? There are lots of cars with them and changing them out to metal is not a real option.

[cmrproducts]

cnw4001

On my home layout (as well as the clubs layout) most of the 800 plus cars still have the plastic wheels.

Now as I run them through MOW I will change them over to metal wheels but I think that probably 3/4’s of them are still plastic.

What I have been finding is that the new plastic wheels are not picking up the dirt as much as the really old (‘60s, ‘70s & ‘80s) wheels do.

Did the Mfg make changes to the plastic wheels? Don’t know, but they seem to stay cleaner!

It also could be that the wax/polish (the track is really waxed as that is what the metal polish really is) is transferring to the surface of the plastic wheels. This might be keeping the cleaner as the dirt is not sticking to them just as the dirt is not sticking to the rail heads!

Now the reason I am saying this is that the Walthers Trainline engines with the old copper wheels would always pick up dirt quicker that the old Athearn powered metal wheels would. Now that we have applied the metal poli***o the rails the Walthers copper wheeled engines are not needing wheel cleanings (maybe once every 2 months or so) any more. I really have lost track of how often anyone cleans the engine wheels as we just don’t have to do it much anymore. Before we were using the metal polish we were cleaning the engine wheels 3 times a night. Yes, my layout area was that dusty. Now with the old track cleaning cars, we did not run them into every siding and industry spur. So the engines really were just picking up the dirt from those areas and transferring it to the mainlines.

But once we used the polish I don’t clean nothing!


BOB H – Clarion, PA

[Anonymous]

I just replace all the track every 5 to 6 months works great.

[cnw4001]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cmrproducts

cnw4001

On my home layout (as well as the clubs layout) most of the 800 plus cars still have the plastic wheels.

Now as I run them through MOW I will change them over to metal wheels but I think that probably 3/4’s of them are still plastic.


What I have been finding is that the new plastic wheels are not picking up the dirt as much as the really old (‘60s, ‘70s & ‘80s) wheels do.



It also could be that the wax/polish (the track is really waxed as that is what the metal polish really is) is transferring to the surface of the plastic wheels. This might be keeping the cleaner as the dirt is not sticking to them just as the dirt is not sticking to the rail heads!

Now the reason I am saying this is that the Walthers Trainline engines with the old copper wheels would always pick up dirt quicker that the old Athearn powered metal wheels would. Now that we have applied the metal poli***o the rails the Walthers copper wheeled engines are not needing wheel cleanings (maybe once every 2 months or so) any more. I really have lost track of how often anyone cleans the engine wheels as we just don’t have to do it much anymore. Before we were using the metal polish we were cleaning the engine wheels 3 times a night. Yes, my layout area was that dusty. Now with the old track cleaning cars, we did not run them into every siding and industry spur. So the engines really were just picking up the dirt from those areas and transferring it to the mainlines.

But once we used the polish I don’t clean nothing!


BOB H – Clarion, PA

Bob,

Thanks for the information. I'll take it to our club and hopefully there will be enough open minded folks to try it out. Sounds like you and your group have a viable solution.

Do the guys do this on all the layouts at the club?

[cmrproducts]

cnw4001

Yes wr have used the poliah on the HO mostly and the N scale (but it is a roundy-round and once we get it running so far we don't do any switching yet)

The S gauge uses it as does the G scale.

We have tried it on the Lionel but really have seen no difference due to the steel track. And besides the 3 rail is just different enought to go against any rule!

BOB H - Clarion, PA

[Anonymous]

Bob:

Thanks much for the information and for sharing your experiences. Nothing beats an education degree from the School of Hard Knox. lol I'm going to try to gets some Blue Magic the next time I'm at Wally World.

Back in the 70's, Amway (choke-choke) came out with some kind of a metal polish in paste form. I tried using it on my brass track (I didn't use nickel-silver back then). It did clean the rails, but was impossible to keep off of the ties and rail plates/spikes, etc. The result was track that looked like snow was drifting down it. Over time, the white turned a greenish color. I couldn't get it off except by running hot water over it with lots of scrubbing. So I will personally never use a paste product again on my track unless it will completely evaporate, leaving no remaining residue.

BTW, if anyone would like some nice, clean, brass snap-track, please contact me.

Thanks again!
Val

[Anonymous]

Just a little hint to all those out there with Forced Air heating &/or Air Conditioning.

Even if you keep your furnace/air conditioner filter clean, you will still get a lot of dust flying around. To control this dust, try removing the air grill where the air comes out, ( it may be held in place with a couple of screws, or not, ) Lightly spray a layer or two of Cheesecloth with a touch of Spray 3 in 1 oil and place it inside the grill and replace it in the opening. Do this to all the grills in the area of your layout.

The Cheesecloth will slightly difuse the air flow so it does not blow as much of the dust around that is already in the room, and the light film of oil on it will catch nearly all of the dust that is coming from the ductwork.

Check the Cheesecloth on a monthly??? basis to see how often you will have to replace it. If you have a great deal of dust or dirt flying around, like if you have a few kids running around, it may have to be changed more often. If it's just you and the wife, it may be every 4 to 6 months. Anyway, it is a reasonable cost in time (5 minutes per grill ) and money.

If you find that you still get a great deal of dirt building up, you might consider having a Duct Cleaning Company come in to vacuum your complete duct system. Depending on how many duct openings you have, it could cost between $100 & $200 for an average home.

Those of you with Hydronic Heating systems, ( hot water boilers and radiators ) You will not get the air movement to disturb the dust unless you have a split system. That is, air flowing over a radiator inside your ductwork. In that case the above hints would apply to you also.

These little hints comes from one who spent 40+ years in the heating/cooling industry as a serviceman.

Good luck in keeping your Train Rooms a little more dust free.

Al.

[;)]

[waltersrails]

a little 75% ac and a rag work good or wet paper towel or my favorite track easer.

[Anonymous]

Hi,Folks i need too ask if anyone has any information on Miniatronics ELECTRAK CLEAN rail cleaner!