Dirty track is my number one operating problem. I was using a Centerline roller and Goo Gone on the roller pad followed with one of those Walthers box cars with the pad on the bottom. I currently have a Miniatronics electronic cleaner wired in between my DCC control station and the track. I've noticed longer running times between cleanings since the installation but I still have to run my centerline roller (with or without solvent) around now and then (about once a week depending on run times) What are the different methods to clean track? Any suggestions or is this as good as it gets?
Re: Track Cleaning?? If you have not gotten rid of the Goo Gone, I would highly suggest that you do. Are all of your frieght cars equipped with metal wheelsets? If not this is another suggestion that I would recommend you do. Get rid of all plastic wheels. I clean my track with a very fine sanding bar that is used for smoothing out sheetrock. I do not have to use it very often at all. I also use Formula 409 sprayed onto a paper towel to clean the wheels on my locomotives. I do that about once a year or so. Bob Wintle MMR
Re: Track Cleaning?? Here is one of the most heard answers: rubbing alcohol. Just get a few paper towels and pore a little on one then start scrubbing. Also if your like me and started into the hobby with steel track and haven't replaced it, get some anti rust spray. I use some stuff called fluid film. I got it at a local hardware store.
Re: Track Cleaning?? I have tried a lot of things over the years (translated: I am an old guy) and this works the best for me: LaBelle 101 Light Lubricating Oil - It slows down oxidation and seems to have some conductive qualities as well. I rarely clean track or have any hesitation from my locomotives. I have never used Goo Gone because of the experience of some of my fellow KC operators. It appears that Goo Gone works great initially but creates a build up on the railhead that eventually becomes an insulator. Hope this helps. Rick
Re: Track Cleaning?? Thanks for the tip. We use Goo gOne at the cluband I carried the practice home. Will stop that. All of my cars have metal wheels and the room is somewhat climate controlled. My opinion is still out on the Minia tronics set uup .I haven't been using it long enough. I will try the oil. Does it effect traction?
Re: Track Cleaning?? The oil that Rick uses is not the same as what I have used in the past. I used Wahl hair clipper ol that I bought at my local barbershop. It did not effect traction but I used it sparingly. Our local club used Goo Gone many years ago. It worked great at first. But then it started to corrode the turnouts. The corrosion also made its way down into the track feeder wires at the solder joints. We ended up having to replace the feeders. Through all of this we became a test bed for the Aztek brand of car cleaners. We purchased a Centerline car but after some testing for Aztek we prefered it. Bob Wintle MMR Parsons, Ks.
Re: Track Cleaning?? I've used Wahl oil for years with great results. The only real problem I have discovered, is that gunk tends to accumulate on plastic wheelsets. I have noticed, that Wahl oil seems to have fallen out of favor in the last several years. Anybody out there know a particular reason why?
Re: Track Cleaning?? I would like to try both suggestions. I'm guessing the Whals oil would be purchased at a beauty supply house and where would the LaBelle's be found? I've never heard of it.
Re: Track Cleaning?? Labelle can be found at most any good model railroad hobby shop. This part of the post is to John: the gunk or dirt that you are experiencing is mostly due to the plastic wheelsets themselves. If you change those over to metal wheelsets that problem will solve itself. Bob Wintle
Re: Track Cleaning?? I went back into the archives and found this thread and have an update to add to it. With the advent of sound locomotives, having clean track has been pushed to a higher level of importance. Non-sound locomotives, especially those with flywheels were more forgiving and having dirty track sometimes wasn't a big deal. With a sound decoder equipped locomotives, if track isn't clean the locomotive will "reset" for lack of a better term, the horn will sound, and the sound will recycle all over again driving the layout owner nuts and operators nuts. Manufacturer's have included a capacitor called "stay-alive" with the decoders to try and compensate for this. Some installers have taken the added step of increasing the capacitance of the supplied capacitor. This is something that most of us would choose to leave to those more electronically inclined. Having said that I have been experiencing these issues on my railroad and chose to go to several Yahoo forums for help and the answers were all over the place. I had found that a white eraser stick seemed to work but only did one rail at a time and wore down quickly. One forum member said he had great luck with an old typerwriter eraser (the kind with a brush on on end) but in the computer age had become obsolete and next to impossible to find. My wife was heading to Office Depot to get some supplies so I asked her to look in the eraser section and she came home with two choices for me. One I knew right up front would be too soft and gummy but the other was a product called the Sanford Magic Rub and it says 1954 on it. I have used this in my graphic design days and it has been around for years. They had a 3 pack that made them about $1.00 each. I took it down to the train room and started rubbing and it picked up a considerable amount of black crud without leaving hardly any residue and wearing down. Below is a picture of the eraser after some considereable use. I mentioned this to a good friend whose layout runs flawlessly and has been using another technique that he had devised and has been very successful in not experiencing the above mentioned restarts. He went out and bought one and called me back saying he also picked up black crud and that I may have stumbled across a real winner. That prompted me to share it with the group.
Re: Track Cleaning?? Once you've used something abrasive, the rail head is ruined. Replace the rail. Wahl only.
Re: Track Cleaning?? "Once you've used something abrasive, the rail head is ruined. Replace the rail. Wahl only". That's a bit over the top. Lightly using a fine abrasive Bright Boy and going parallel with the rail has been done for decades and it works. If you use them crossways, it could give junk a place to hide, or if you bear down too hard. Once it's done correctly, then the Centerline or whatever works fine, but won't take light oxidation off.
Re: Track Cleaning?? The Magic Rub eraser that Bob used is a non-abrasive, polymer-based eraser. It does not abrade the rail tops.
Re: Track Cleaning?? The May 2011 MR, p58 & p59, has article about the Puget Sound Model Railroad Club, which conducted tests with Automatic Transmission Fluid on its automated display railroad. They seemed to have achieved favorable results. It's worth a read.
Re: Track Cleaning?? re the Sanford Magic Rub - I have not tried it on the rails (I still have mostly brass - yeek!), but I will. I have used the Magic Rub successfully to remove lettering from pre-painted locomotives and cars. Works fine as long as you are patient and gentle. As Bob correctly noted, you get three of them in a pack for about three bucks at Office Depot. Ken
Re: Track Cleaning?? Doug makes a great point about using abrasive cleaners. Depending upon what you choose to use, I'm not sure that I would go as far as saying that the track is completely ruined unless it puts deep scratches in it which would cause it to collect dust and dirt quicker among other things. As far as using liquid alternatives such as Wahl Oil and others, many people, like Doug, swear by them. Others are quick to point out that they tend to leave a film that also tends to attract dust and other airborne particles. This topic has been debated at length on various other forums and it always seems to come down to two distinct sides, liquid and solid. As Keith noted, the Magic Rub is non-abrasive, but it does leave small amounts of residue that should be cleaned up before running locomotives over it to avoid them getting into the gear drive. On that subject, I found a nifty attachment set for my Shop Vac at Lowe's that is mini or micro brushes. It is a godsend. I will try and post some pictures.
I've been wondering if anyone has tried the new Atlas motorized track cleaner. I have some hard to reach places on my layout, mainly tunnels, but so far I haven't had any problems in them. However, it's just a matter of time, I know, and I need something that can get into those spots. I'd like to know if anyone has tried one of these and if it's worth the 100 bucks or so that it sells for. Thanks, Pat Moreland, Union Mo.
I ended up with one of these Atlas track cleaners, have only used it a few times. The vacuum option picks up more than you would think, only problem is there is no effective way to keep the really fine stuff in the collection chamber of the thing, there is fine metal type screening. Maybe if I tried lining the screen with a paper towel or coffee filter or the like, maybe that part would do much better than it does. Another option is to use a felt type disk on the bottom rotor and that actually so far was the most successful for me. You can also use the fine sand paper option but I would prefer not to use sand paper on the rail, for the same reasons mention in other posts. It has some pretty strange trucks under it too and transfers the current in a quite puzzling manner too, all looks very European to me. All in all its OK but I cannot honestly say it was worth 100 bucks. But that is the case with so much stuff. Walthers came out with a track cleaning car sometime back, it has a couple motors that rotate changeable pads on either end. Its kinda noisy but that does not bother me as long as the tracks are getting cleaned. Typically have a loco, a centerline cleaner with that walthers rail cleaner with the Atlas cleaner behind that followed up by a cab with those pads sliding under it. Kinda looks and sounds like a rail grinder going around the outfit. Just put it on the main find a happy speed and let it go for a while does the job real good for me. typically only do this 3-4 times a year, the mains do very well its the sidings and yard tracks that can give a person heartburn. Switches and yard track get the eraser treatment, I like the "micro-mark bright bar" it will not harm the track is big enough to hang onto and just does a great job only trouble I have with it is people think they need to bear down on it to make it work faster but all that does is cut grooves in the bar. I try to clean the mains before people show up, and hand them a bright bar on their way in, to help clean the yards and switches, its just part of running trains. I agree about getting rid of all plastic wheels they will make your MRR experience miserable in the long run. After all the cleaning takes place we will place just a trace of "Rail Zip" on the mains and let the trains spread the stuff all over. Regards, Tom Holley
Thanks for the information about the Atlas track cleaner, Tom. After reading your post, I will probably go with something else. There are some great suggestions on this thread. I agree with everyone else about having cars with metal wheels. At the present time, probably a little over half of my rolling stock have metal wheels. I still have a few older Model Power and Bachmann cars that have plastic pizza cutters on them, as well as some old Athearn BB kits with plastic wheels. I converted the Model Power and Bachmann cars to knuckle couplers and they perform well, so I hate to part with them, even as I collect more RTR cars with metal wheels. Don't know if there are any after-market wheel sets that will fit these and if they're even worth the money and trouble. Same goes with my small fleet of Con Cor and IHC passenger cars. Pat Moreland, Union Mo.
