Cleaning track

[mlehman]

Never used Rail Zip, but I doubt it is 2-26, which is a CRC proprietary product.

That said, sounds like the same thing happens with RZ as it does with 2-26, but only if you don't clean the track first. Probably anything that is an effective solvent may exhibit the same problem of dissolving and mobilizing gunk on the rails if you don't clean first.

I'm not 100% metal wheels yet, but am 99% there in narrowgauge (mostly because I have a few that need plastic wheels for insulation because of design/clearance issues. Standard gauge is ~95% metal, hindered only by my budget constraints . They do help a lot. But often the blackening that's applied wears off and contributes to the gunk until they're polished nicely.

[BRAKIE]

mlehman

I'm not 100% metal wheels yet, but am 99% there in narrowgauge (mostly because I have a few that need plastic wheels for insulation because of design/clearance issues.

Mike,To be brutally honest I think there's way to much hand wringing over keeping track clean and plastic wheels.

I didn't fully convert to metal wheels until about three years ago and I still don't see much difference since I clean my track as needed with 91% alcohol and a bright boy as needed. At slow DC or DCC speed switching I have no issues. Even my sound equipped locomotives seldom stalls.

 

[BigDaddy]

sfcouple

In addition, Lacquer Thinner is very volatile and doesn't stay around long in the liquid form. 

Personally, I see that as a big problem using it indoors.

[hon30critter]

Henry:

Remember that you are not using gallons of the stuff (lacquer thinner), so the actual amount that will eventually get into the air isn't that great. If you are in an enclosed space that is not easily ventilated, and you are sensitive to it then perhaps you shouldn't use it. However, I wouldn't describe it as a 'big problem' under normal circumstances. Its not like you are doing this all day every day, and you aren't likely to blow the house off the foundation

I can't bring myself to spend the money on the CMX or Centreline track cleaners. What I have is two old Ribbonrail track cleaning cars. One has a tank for whatever fluid you plan on using, and the other has three felt pads that will mop up the excess. The car with the three pads originally came with rather aggressive looking stone grinding pads which I replaced with 1/4" felt. Since I don't have a layout I haven't been able to test them, but just running the three pad car up and down my test track by hand a couple of times produced some noticable black marks on the pads.

Here is the car with the abrasive pads replaced with felt:

 Here is the car with the fluid dispenser:

I hope they will work as intended. They certainly didn't cost anywhere near what the other track cleaning cars would have.

Dave

[mlehman]

BRAKIE

 

 

mlehman

I'm not 100% metal wheels yet, but am 99% there in narrowgauge (mostly because I have a few that need plastic wheels for insulation because of design/clearance issues.

 

 

Mike,To be brutally honest I think there's way to much hand wringing over keeping track clean and plastic wheels.

I didn't fully convert to metal wheels until about three years ago and I still don't see much difference since I clean my track as needed with 91% alcohol and a bright boy as needed. At slow DC or DCC speed switching I have no issues. Even my sound equipped locomotives seldom stalls.

 

 

Larry,

It's not something I obsess over, but metal wheels do make a difference. Plastic is not nearly so inert as is often believed. It sheds and deteriorates, contributing to gunk formation.

I'm not surprised that you see little difference in switching to metal wheels, though. A layout that is regularly manually cleaned in its entirety is going to avoid the problems that plastic wheels contribute to, as well as those from any blackening wearing off of metal wheels.

In my case, I don't regularly clean track layout-wide. In large part, that's because I do have extensive hidden track, so I do what I can to limit it getting dirty; I can reach it all, but it's just easier to do what I can to minimize gunk build-up. I clean sections of it when there's a need to, so taking steps to minimize gunk formation tends to limit the need for cleaning. The trains run fine, until they don't, then the track gets cleaned if there is reason to believe it's a track issue and not some thing else. In other words, I try to limit the effort needed for preventative maintenance to what's needed to give reliable operation.

There's also another aspect of metal wheels peculiar to narrowgauge that's unrelated to keeping track clean. NG rolling stock tends to be on the light side, so the easiest, best way to get some weight aboard and down low where it does the most good is to run metal wheels. Even if they had no effect on track conditions, I'd still be running as many metal weels as possible for that reason alone.

That said, I've also bought plenty of Blackstone RTR rolling stock. It all comes with blackened metal wheels. When I can find it available, I buy the weathered versions, which have some additional overspray in some case on the treads.It's been a few years, but over a ~5 year period the bulk of those releases were acquired and placed in service. Wearing the treads shiny did contribute to noticeably more gunk on the track, but it also subsided once that was accomplished. On recent acquisitions, I've taken to cleaning the wheel treads as part of the inservice inspection, but the numbers are so small I can't tell whether it's made a lot of difference now that the fleet as a whole has been broken in and is not longer shedding gunky stuff in large quantities. But the stuff has to go somewhere is you don't take if off first.

There is one final aspect to metal wheels that is helpful in keeping things clean. You can easily tell when a metal wheel tread is clean, because it's generally some version of shiny. A plastic wheel may be clean, but it's much more difficult to easily verify that it is than a shiny metal tread generally is.

[sfcouple]

BigDaddy

 

 

sfcouple

In addition, Lacquer Thinner is very volatile and doesn't stay around long in the liquid form. 

 

 

Personally, I see that as a big problem using it indoors.

 

[quote user="BigDaddy"]

 That is an excellent point.

The only time the odor is noticeable is when the CMX car is being filled with lacquer thinner using the supplied tubing and syringe. And even then the exposure is minimal and only for about one minute. However, in all liklihood, if the air in the layout room was examined and tested some organic solvents would be momentarily detected in the low parts-per-million (ppm) or parts-per-trillion (ppt) level even though the odor is not noticeable by me. 

My layout room has adequae ventilation and since the track cleaning car is infrequently used I'm willing to accept a very low 'time weighted average' of my exposure to what is probably a very low concentration of possible organic molecules. 

However, I do take precautions, based upon my lifelong career as a chemist, whenever potentially harmful chemicals are used...as we all should. It is felt that driving on a congested 'freeway' is far more harmful to my overall health than a momentary use of lacquer thinner once every 3-4 months---hence I moved to a sparcly populated place in Montana where clean air is the norm. 

Wayne

[BRAKIE]

mlehman

A layout that is regularly manually cleaned in its entirety is going to avoid the problems that plastic wheels contribute to, as well as those from any blackening wearing off of metal wheels.

Mike,I only clean track as needed and it may be days or weeks between cleaning but,I switch cars every day for 2-3 hours.

As far as plastic wheels. The first cars that was changed over to metal wheels was the cars I  use at  the club and around the 40th or so car I found a set of  Athearn plastic wheels that had completely cracked and a tiny chunk of the flange was missing...I have no idea how this car manage to stay on the rails during the three day tractor show open house.

I will agree the shiny wheel thread and the smooth rollability bets plastic wheels  any day.

[mlehman]

BRAKIE

Mike,I only clean track as needed and it may be days or weeks between cleaning but,I switch cars every day for 2-3 hours.

Ah, that may be it. There's always a daily deposit of dust unless you live in a clean room. If you operate over track that frequently, whatever is picked up by the wheels is going to be less on average per trip than a branch that's operated say, maybe once a week or less.

[gunkhead]

mlehman

But often the blackening that's applied wears off and contributes to the gunk until they're polished nicely.

 

Ugh, blackened wheels. Best to polish the treads clean of the blackening ASAP, especially if they're pickup wheels on a loco. My Bachmann F9 spent some time running poorly until I figured out that the blackening on the wheel treads had degraded. Polished it away and BOOM - suddenly the loco was actually traveling down the track without having to be prodded.

[mlehman]

gunkhead

Ugh, blackened wheels.

Not too big a deal for me. I actually prefer the consistency of blackening all the wheels. It's not too much of a chore to go through new acquisitions with a touch of acetone and clean them up later .