How to Clean Model Railroad Track The Easy Way
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- čas přidán 6. 02. 2019
- MODEL TRAINS MADE SIMPLE
Episode 1
We’ve all fought to keep our track clean of dirt and debris. But after lots of elbow grease and tedious scrubbing, there must be an easier way. THERE IS!!
I’ve tried just about everything on the market from cleaning cars, abrasive pads, alcohol, solvents and even graphite sticks. Over the years I worked out the following steps to first get your rails smooth so they don’t encourage dirt to stick around, and then keep them clean easily by just running one car around every few months or less if you don’t operate all the time like my friends and I do. Hope you enjoy and get some new ideas from my experiences!
/ easterncaliforniarailroad
model-railroad-hobbyist.com/bl...
Simple track cleaning and it works!!!
I have been running my trains for 6 years and has never cleaned my tracks.
My story : After laying track I clean once with a track cleaning pad, only once. Thereafter I use ATF Automatic transmission fluid (The red one) as follows. Using ear bud dipped in ATF I apply about 300mm to each track at the highest point on my layout. My circles are 114m long, so apply less for smaller layouts. Only at one point, don’t overdue it.
The loco and wagon wheels will spread the ATF onto all the tracks over a period of time. You will have no mug built-up on wheels at all. There might be a little bit of loco slippage for a short while after applying ATF but it disappears quickly. Do not wipe any oily substance off the tracks at all. I reapply the moment any loco misses a beat anywhere on the layout, usually once every 2 to 3 months. Small bonus, after 6 years my track already looks a little weathered. Train friends, I was very sceptical about this method but believe me IT WORKS.
I used the MIDAS ATF Automatic transmission fluid (The red fluid one)
Watch my layout in progress on You Tube
czcams.com/video/7B_GW2gJ0L0/video.html
I have found that pure Mineral oil is the best cleaner for track. Not Mineral Spirits. Just wet an old white sock and that's it. Keeps rust off those black metal ties too. No smell at all. No chemical smells or headaches caused by acetone and all that other stuff. No mess or stained surfaces at all.
This is a very well done and informative video thank you!
Very helpful. I am thinking of making a track cleaning wagon / car. I currently use something the wife gets to refill squirty bottles for cleaning kitchen surfaces, it's organic and dissolves oil and fat better than acetone and does not attack plastic? IPA isn't really the stuff to clean off oil, it's quite a gentle solvent. I don't want to sound critical but a number of videos recommend acetone? Just inches away from your old loco you would use to do this with it's arcing 3 pole brushes or some DCC loco with 16V at an amp? All very capable of igniting the vapour, which burns colourless and will flood you layout. Acetone vapour is often used to soften plastics all the way up to ABS. A 2.5% vapour can be ignited by static discharge. It's not poisonous. You can add water as it's miscible, to dilute it a bit. But acetone and sparks do not mix and is over harsh.
Thanks for an interesting and informative article. I've visited the CRC website and downloaded the safe sheets for 2-26 and, having read the blurb, this looks like a very useful product.
Stay safe.
Ian
Thanks for the update for track cleaning , I just ordered crc-226 😎👍
Thanks for the HO train tracks cleaning tips. Greetings from Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 bendiciones.
put a bit of transmission fluid on a Q tip and on each rail spread it about an inch do that in about 6 spots throughout the layout run the train around the track as you normally would ..clean track no work zero cost !!!
Black stuff is not dirt but micro arcing residue. Vacuum, clean track... But then add no ox I'd special in a micro layer. Then go years without needing to clean track again. I'm a recent convert so not a reliable source as it has only been a short time doing wonders. Check out Ron's trains and things for the heavy research and others who swear by it. Painless :)
This makes the most sense. Any anti ox, conductive product should assure great electrical contact! Scratches fill in, no real need to do anything else!
Great video! I just have one comment, the accusation that plastic wheels is a source of black gunk on tracks. This has been a commonly accepted fact in model trains for decades and so many people swear by it, but a while ago I was reading a big post by someone who did experiments with it and actually worked in a lab and was able to get a sample of this classic black gunk to get it analyzed. He had always believed plastic wheels were the source, because after switching to all metal wheels the amount of black gunk on his layout decreased so that seemed like solid evidence. But when he checked the gunk out at the lab he found something else. I don't remember the specifics, but the gunk turned out to be a substance only produced from electric arcs, not any sort of plastic residue. It turned out its our locomotives arcing over bits of dust and dirt and fusing it into the black gunk. So why does switching to metal wheels reduce it? The metal wheels are heavier and grind the gunk away over time. They help get rid of the gunk, but aren't actually the often assumed source of it.
At his club layout he then did another experiment since lots of plastic wheels ran on it and they had gunk problems. They cleaned track the old fashioned way, with ISO and and bright boys. He got them to switch to using mineral solvents and a conductive lube similar to your method. Even with their plastic wheels, the black gunk problem almost vanished.
So, the TL:DR of all this is that plastic wheels aren't actually bad so long as you properly clean your track and black gunk is actually some sort of carbon compound left from electrical arcs created by loco's or lighting equipped cars.
Thank you for that. Have heard the same re plastic wheels, so good to know they're not completely guilty!
Someone else did a test with them and the issue is, that the plastic wheels actually build static electricity, And attracts dust and dirt to the wheels and gets left along the rails, and the locomotive smashes it and arcs across the rails. The metal wheels don’t build static and pull dirt towards the rail anymore, so just dust that floats around and gets smashed in usually on the first run especially if your layout sits for a while.
Look up “Ho plastic wheels static” on Google and follow the NMRA link to a write up of tests that were conducted
What an amazing coincidence that you read a big post by someone who did experiments in a lab, AND Marklin has this CZcams video that says the same exact thing! Wow! czcams.com/video/0olM5Zq1zlY/video.html
Thanks for this, will give the acetone + crc226 combination a go at my local club.
This may be a dumb question, but is this process the same for N-scale?
Thank you for sharing...I'll try it....
Excellent video, thank you. Must say that Jbutt made some very good comments and I totally agree with him. Cheers to Jbutt
Very interesting!! Thank you!
AWESOME NICE VIDEO VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE THANK YOU FOR YOUR VIDEO AND YOUR TIME AND YOUR HELP.I APPRECIATE YOU AND YOUR TIME AND YOUR INFORMATION. JIM KAMMERER OF PHILADELPHIA PA THANK YOU AGAIN. 😁👍
Neat stuff, and interesting
Found 2-26 at Home Depot and on Amazon. 2-26 works better than anything else I've tried, even tho I did not follow all your steps.
I wanted to test 2-26's conductive properties so I cleaned my rails with alcohol instead of the more effective acetone that you recommended. Also, I only gave the tracks a once-over, not a thorough cleaning. And no gleaming, either. After wiping down my track with alcohol, I applied a coat of 2-26 and let it dry. The resulting improved running is superior over all other methods I've tried. The next time that treat the rails, I will clean them thoroughly with acetone, do some gleaming and then apply 2-26. However, with just a light cleaning and an application of 2-26, the locos are running far better than ever.
Thank you!
Thank you for the vieo. Any reason you run the CMX backwards?
Great how to video thanks for sharing
5:56 My heart just about stopped!!
There is a wrong way... SANDPAPER!!!
That happened to me once.
I went to a local hardware store and asked the guy where the nails are?
He asked me how many I needed?
I asked what's the smallest box or number I could buy?
Again, he asked me how many I needed.
I said "one."
He gave me a nail and showed me the door...
It all depends where your layout is. My layout only needs cleaning like 3 times a year it stays pretty clean but my friends layout he has in his basement gets dirty all the time
Hi, would you recommend that method also when using traction tires ?
thanks, Guenter
I don't generally recommend traction tires, but if you have no choice, I would just make sure you let all the liquid evaporate over a few days before you run the traction tires. Otherwise it'll just smear whatever is on the traction tire around the layout. Clean your traction tires when you clean your track also.
yes, I have no choice. All my machines have traction tires (usual in Europe ) and and there are over a hundred.....
Hi. Where did you purchase the engine with the LED LIGHTS?
Terribly sorry, can you be more specific? Not sure which loco you mean?
I use peco track cleaner but it’s not rough it polished my track
I've used a Peco cleaner for years with no problems and I'm keen on slow running.
Also, rubbing alcohol is hi in water content
Does the CRC 2-26 have any damaging effect on Traction Tyres Cheers Greg from Australia
Hi and no it won’t eat the traction tires. But it will spread any dirt from those tires around so be sure to keen them clean too.
@@areakt Thanks.
Acetone is great, UNLESS you are in the basement around pilot lights like the water heater and furnace. BE CAREFUL!
Anyone try CLR for cleaning HO brass train track
Very cool. But acetone scares me..
All you need is a little pure no odor mineral oil and that is it. Shines metal and plastic too. Not greasy either. Use just a little.
The only thing I see wrong is where you put the IPA in the shot glass and said we can drink alcohol. You should add a disclaimer that you can’t drink IPA!
How do I use acetone without that cleAner
Mr clean scrubbing pads will work well for any track solvent.
how about narrow gauge track?
You can change the trucks to HON3 for the cmx though it may have clearance issues. Also an N scale cmx car with HOn3 trucks should work. But just using a tidy track with pads might be a good way to do HOn3
@@areakt What's a Tidy Track?
@@PeterNGloor It is a woodland scenics product good for tight spaces. It comes with various pads, at least a couple of them you could soak with crc or even acetone.
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This is the easy way? I'd hate to see the had way.
I've used a Peco track rubber for decades and never had a problem. I model in 009 so slow running is important. My locos crawl so you have to look to see if the wheels are turning.
Alcohol is good for drinking? Not isopropyl it isn't. Toss your bright boy, use sandpaper instead!. Acetone won't be coming within feet of my plastic sleepered track.