"Bright Boy" track cleaners??

[Anonymous]

I have heard that these are basically the same thing as an ordinary pencil eraser. Is that true? If so, could you not just use an actual eraser instead? Thanks in advance.

[joeyegarner]

Not exacly, they look like an eraser but they are much more abrassive. They work great and last forever. My advice go out and by a couple right away, ya just can't beat em!

[trainboyH16-44]

The Peco cleaners aren't bad either, but their durability is less.
The bright boys are certainly not the same as pencil eraser. Those take off the top layer of paper and shave themselves apart. The bright boy is made of stronger stuff, and does not rub off to the same extent. It is also far more abrasive.
Matthew

[Anonymous]

I thought bright boys were more along the lines of an ink eraser, rather than a pencil eraser.

[Anonymous]

Bright Boys are like an eraser just full of the "sand" from sandpaper. They are abrasive and get dirty track clean real quick. The only problem is that they scrathc the track. The scratches collect dirt so the more you use a bright boy, the more often you will need to clean your track. I like MAAS metal polish. It doesnt scratch the track, plus it protects the metal. I cleaned the track on my layout almost a year and a half ago and havent had to clean it since. Great stuff!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JPM335

Bright Boys ----------------------------------I like MAAS metal .

I use the BB in conjunction with MAAS by wrapping a 5" X 2" piece of old 100% cotton t-shirt material
around the BB.
I then apply the MAAS along the long narrow edge of the BB and drag across the rail heads.
Fits great betweeen the forefinger/thumb and doesn't overlap and mess up your ballast/scenery.

After slightly drying, follow up with an un-treated piece of t-shirt material

[Anonymous]

i just use 1000 grit sandpaper works great

[cwclark]

that's not true about the bright boy...they don't scratch the track and that's what makes them so good...they remove only the dirt and any rail oxidation and nothing else...i've used them for years and have never seen any scratches on the rails...if they get too dirty, just scrub them with a tooth brush in warm, soapy water...chuck

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cwclark
I've used them for years and have never seen any scratches on the rails

Have you looked at the top of the rail with a 10x or better magnification? I was amazed at the amount of scratching. We discovered it was all those microscopic scratches that were collecting the dirt. After we found out about this the bright boys were immediately removed from the club tool box. Despite that people still bring them in, but anyone caught using one on the club layout is now given the most-fun job of "rail polishing" to bring the rails back up to snuff.

[bikerraypa]

just use metal polish and don't worry about it. I got the idea from Bob (cmrproducts) and tried it about six months ago. Haven't so much as wiped off my track since, and everything runs great. It works.

Ray

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cwclark

that's not true about the bright boy...they don't scratch the track and that's what makes them so good...they remove only the dirt and any rail oxidation and nothing else...i've used them for years and have never seen any scratches on the rails...if they get too dirty, just scrub them with a tooth brush in warm, soapy water...chuck

You cannot see the scratches because they are very small. You may not be able to find them, but dirt and grime can!

[waltersrails]

i use bright boy, regular easers, alchoal + cuetip all work great for me.

[TrainFreak409]

Bright Boys work quite well in my opinion. I used them all the time at the hobby shop I used to work at for about two years. Scotch-Brite works at times when stuff is real hard to get off, but you don't want to abuse the use of that.

But the best thing I have found is a TrackMan 2000. Works great, and is just coupled behind a train. Haven't tried metal polish yet.

[Anonymous]

One thing that *didn't* work: I doused the BB in Goo Gone to try and clean off the dirt that it had picked up over time. Well, the Goo Gone started breaking down the BB! So pieces started coming off as I was cleaning the track and the BB shrank real fast. The Goo Gone made track cleanup a breeze though. Just wiping off the excess goo gone with a paper towel and the tracks were spotless.

Jawbone

[Anonymous]

Goo Gone does leave a residue after you wipe it off, so if you use Goo Gone you might consider wiping everything down with alchohol afterwards.

[aartlib]

Why all the "cautions" for Maas metal polish? is it very messy or damaging to other surfaces?

[selector]

If the Bright Boy has any grit in it, I have not been able to find it. Mine is so smooth that any grit must be in the order of 0.0001", far too fine to be deleterious to the track, or effective in cleaning it!

Also, my track is quite new, and I have not cleaned it with anything yet. When I look at it with a magnifier, it is clear that the manufacturing process does a good job of rendering the rail surface grooved and ridged all by itself. So if you see them in your track surfaces, that is pretty much the way they came from the manufacturer.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by aartlib

Why all the "cautions" for Maas metal polish? is it very messy or damaging to other surfaces?

What cautions? all I have read is reccomendations. It is only messy if you use too much. A little goes a long way. And it is not damaging to track, ties, or ballast. I have never gotten MAAS on any rolling stock or scenery so I dont know what the effect would be there. But as long as you arent slopping the stuff around, it should be fine. I use pieces of cloth stapeled to 3 inch pieces of 2X4, put a little MAAS on one, wipe it over all the track a couple times, then come back with a dry one and wipe it off.

[Jetrock]

Next question--where does one get this MAAS metal polish?

[cmrproducts]

Use Mothers mag Wheel Polish, dang near the same stuff as MAAS. And you can pick up the Mothers at any Wal-Mart!

BOB H - Clarion, PA

[Soo Line fan]

Does anyone know of a source for the Roco 10002 track cleaning block? The Walthers site lists it as discontinued.

Jim

[Anonymous]

I can say that the Peco blocks are very effective and don't seem to scratch rails at all - they can also be used for polishing motor commutators and cleaning wheels (turn the loco over, run the motor with a couple of jumper cables and hold the Peco block gently against the dirty wheels - works well). I'd try to get hold of one of those if the Roco one is unavailable. From what I've heard Roco are likely to survive their financial troubles and will be back in production before long, so they should be available again soon.

[jrbernier]

I have read all of the 'expert' posts about the 'Brite Boy', but I will still use it when I get the current 'construction' complete. There is nothing that really 'scrubs' as good. Once I 'Brite Boy' the track, I vacuum the track, and them run the CMX rail cleaner with laquer thinner to really 'deep clean' the rail surface.
I took a piece of flex track that had been removed from the layout during the 're-construction' and looked at it under both my 'Optivisor' and my hobby 'magnifying lamp'.
I then 'cleaned' it with a 'Brite Boy' and looked at it again. Maybe I can see some marks(I rubbed the track with the direction of the rail). I then took a soft cloth and cleaned it with laquer thinner. A second review was similar.
For the past two years I have cleaned the entire layout in the fall with a 'Brite Boy' and then followed up with a train made up of a CMX track cleaner and a homemade Masonite track cleaning block car. The block has 'drywall sanding screen' glued to it and is very abrasive. Two P2K GP9's 'pull-push' this track cleaning train. After the big cleaning(including running all of my metal wheelsets through the dishwasher), I can run all season without any problems.
This year I have 'popped' all of the wheel sets(I only run metal wheels) and ran them through the dishwasher over a 3 night period. I expect to have the layout changes complete by the end of November and will then start cleaning the track with the above train(and the Brite Boy for a lot of the spurs).
What I will never do again is to use any track cleaning 'solutions' or Goo Gone. Goo Gone mixes with the 'crud' in the rails and the stuff gets 'tracked' all over the layout. The same of 'oil'. I suspect the Maas stuff might be in the same boat, unless you really clean it off good after the application. I like the idea of something that improves the electical conductivity, but not at the expense of moving 'crud' around the trackage.

Jim Bernier

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jetrock

Next question--where does one get this MAAS metal polish?

I get my MAAS at wal-mart in the cleaning section for $2 per tube. I bought two tubes, but havent even used 1/5 of the first one. A little goes a long way.[:D]

[cmrproducts]

Well it is coming up on the start of year 3 and I still have not had to clean my track. Having used the Metal Polish (Blue Coral – Liquid) to clean the rails and I am continuing to do scenery and add more track. So I am making dirt all the time. And NO I do not have metal wheels on all my cars (am changing them out as the cars go in for maintenance).

I also do not clean any of the car wheels and as for engine wheel cleaning it might be once a month if then.

With 2700 feet of track (1000 ft of mainline) I don’t have time to use a bright boy nor do I want to waste time running a cleaner train around my layout. If you enjoy doing this fine, but I long ago got real tired of this. Until I used metal polish I had to clean the engine wheels every time I ran the layout. The sound engines cut out continuously. I was not happy spending more time cleaning than running. Now I tried just about every type of cleaning solution and method. They all worked but all they did was clean the rails not protect the rails from the dirt.

The metal polish must act just like car wax does to auto body finish and keeps the dirt from sticking to it. I really don’t know this for sure but what ever it is doing I like it and will keep on using it (wait I haven’t had to use it for 2 years now)!

BOB H – Clarion, PA

[Jetrock]

I'll have to try this metal polish! I have a garage layout and track cleaning is a regular problem. I have only metal wheelsets on my cars and use a track-cleaning block (this white rubber thing that is smoother than a Bright Boy) but have to re-clean the track with aggravating frequency.

[fievel]

Reading all these responses has convinced me to give metal polish
a try. It sure sounds great.[:)]

[Anonymous]

I used Flitz metal polish from Micro-Mark. The trains do run better. The track was Life Like nickel silver with gray ballast base. Even track right out of the package was tarnished. The stange part is I have a loop of old (very) Atlas nickel silver and it still seems to be ok and has never been cleaned. Maybe the compsition of nickle silver has been changed over the years.

[Anonymous]

Anyone tried using a Dremel tool and felt polishing spool to apply the metal polish?

Your thoughts on that?

Brad

[Don Gibson]

Guys:

'Scratches' you need a Magnifying glass to see, polish out with metal wheels. With .070 of rail, .083, or .100 ", you'll not have to worry about rail loss.

Have you ever heard of anyone running out of rail - even with softer brass?.