best-way ever to clean track??

[Power Stroke]

This is what I use to maintain my track. I have 2 boxcars, and 2 caboose of different livery so they are running pretty much all of the time. Track stays clean, no issues with the track, traction is good except on my completely rediculous inclines with more than 6 cars, nature of the beast, and all that. Anyways, works well, and about once a week, I give the pads a quick scrub with a small brass sctrach brush.

[Cajonpassfan]

I've tried it all, and settled on occasional use of alcohol, both in hand and on track
Inbetween ocassional major cleanings, I have a number of very simple "sleds" built from old deep-sill AHM gondolas. I lower them to just clear the rails, remove the center part of the plastic  underframe to accept a simple Masonite rectangle weighed with 1/2 oz. steel weights. The sills hide the pad very effectively; I've yet to have a visitor notice...
Otto K.
K. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[John]

don't the pads cause derailments like that?

[VonRyan]

I just use 91% alcohol on either corduroy or a piece of one of those microfiber cloth things they hand out at auto shows. Between the alcohol and the fibers it sucks up the dirt quite well.
1000+ grit sandpaper is good for trouble spots, but it doesn't really get a lot of the dirt.

[Santa Fe Guy]

Hi Otto.
In the past I made several track cleaning cars using box cars on our Thompson River Canyon display layout just like your gons. We ran them in almost every train during train shows and they worked very well. Just need to remember to make the Tortoise motor turnout throw wire short enough so it does not snag the Masonite (ask me how I know).
Rod.

[Cajonpassfan]

Hi Otto.
In the past I made several track cleaning cars using box cars on our Thompson River Canyon display layout just like your gons. We ran them in almost every train during train shows and they worked very well. Just need to remember to make the Tortoise motor turnout throw wire short enough so it does not snag the Masonite (ask me how I know).
Rod.

Hi Rod, long time... good to hear from you! Yeah, we all learn the hard way...
I tend to put my throw wires off to the side, and wires shouldn't stick above the track level anyway, that can be painful...ask me how I know...lol
John, in answer to your question, no they don't derail, these 50' cars are weighted to 1oz. and the 1/2 oz. sled is guided by the cavity under the gon. But the sled also floats up and down, its top (weights) doesn't touch the bottom of the car. It does create a drag, but not enough to interfere with my operations.
Otto K.

[Rapidobill]

One word for me on transmission oil:  NO.
It just makes oily, smelly residue and attracts more dirt.  No oil. 

I have tried it, and that NO-OX-ID stuff, and probably a dozen other snake oil type products that
promise me they will clean my track and keep it cleaner.

Not one has ever made any difference.  If I leave the layout sit for a few weeks, nothing
runs unless I hand-clean the rails with paper towels and a little alcohol or mineral spirits.

The only thing that helps is regularly running it.

For more than 20 years on three different layouts (including my most recent (http://home.comcast.net/~oandw/) I used RailZip. I rarely had to clean track between sessions (which were about every two weeks) and swore by it. After the MR article came out about using ATF I had an "Oh, Duh!" moment. My other (expensive) hobby is a 1973 Mustang Convertible, and as soon as I read the article I did a quick mental fact check.. 1) Red... check. 2) slippery... check. 3) Sweet-smelling , check. 4) Ford ATF on the label...no, wait a minute, RailZip...

Now I'm not saying that they're the same, but..... 

As to the comments about it collecting dirt and being slippery, my normal method of application when I did the clean the track (which I did if the layout sat idle for more than a month) was to apply a drop on each rail about every ten feet and run a train. It had no effect on the trains going up my 22" radius, very steep, helix (I know, you can't do that... I hadn't read the book yet). I did use metal wheels on everything, which made a much bigger difference on track cleanliness than anything else....

Bill Schneider

[JoeW]

 Thanks for pitching in, sharing my frustration and contributing to my post.  I so dislike track cleaning that I keep hoping someone is going to find an easy way to solve the problem of dirty track.  BTW I checked out the old Atlas Post that Peteski referred to.  It had a lot of well thought out consideration on the subject and I know I will revisit it again.  I am going build one of Otto's track cleaners to add in the roster of track cleaning cars. 

[paultccrn]

On my GRN&LSR set in the 1890's the engines are all small and very light (Atlas 4-4-0 and 2-6-0 and Randgust Climaxes) so even a dust mote will stop them dead in their tracks. 

I read all 5 of the original track cleaning posts and ended up with this technique (YMMV): clean everything with what ever method you want. Go over every inch of track with 1500 grit sand paper. Then clean everything with alcohol swabs. Run trains and mark anywhere there is a hesitation and repeat on that piece of track.

This allows me to run trains rather than constantly clean track.

Paul

[peteski]

Surprisingly, nobody has brought up the "gleem" method yet.  It was discussed on the A-board. Basically it consisted of burnishing the rail top with a large stainless steel washer dragged across the rails.

[TVRR]

I must be missing something, sounds like a sure fire short.

[peteski]

I must be missing something, sounds like a sure fire short.

No, no, no!    You drag the washer along the track with the power off. 

I found it: http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=66203 . Look for dgwinup's posts.

[Ron McF]

I so dislike track cleaning that I keep hoping someone is going to find an easy way to solve the problem of dirty track.  BTW I checked out the old Atlas Post that Peteski referred to.

Hi Joe.

As Rod mentioned, in our group we tend to use a small block of wood with cloth wrapped around it, and small squirt of lighter-fluid.  It's cheap and very effective, but can take time if you have a lot of track.  You need to be careful that the cloth doesn't snag point rails, throw rods, etc.

I also keep an old tooth-brush handy for brushing between the points and stock rails on my Peco C55 points, as I've found that even small bits of dust can cause continuity problems.

My main 'every day' weapons though are Huey, Dewey and Louie - three 'sliders' that I drag around the layout behind a pair of locos.  For some reason, the wheels on the locos pulling these cars seem to collect an unusually large amount of dirt.  So I clean the loco wheels every few laps, until they stop collecting dirt.

Regards,
Ron