Reply to "What is the best cleaner for old tubular Lionel track"

I may get a lot of heat for this answer...i have tried Goo-Gone several times..i can't find any good use for it at all..infact i think its a big joke..on the back of the bottle it states what it's suppose to clean...didn't clean a thing it was suppose to do...Lionel track cleaner is a joke too...Life Like works the best for me plus that hard eraser that comes with the Lionel pack. which brings me to this point..how much oil does Lionel have to give you with that pack its sells??? How about more grease instead Lionel?????? I have three tubes of oil with maybe a inch out of the first one i bought...DOES LIONEL THINK I AM GOING TO LIVE TO BE 200 YEARS OLD TO USE THREE TUBES OF OIL????? AS I HAVE BOUGHT THREE OF THEM PACKS OVER THE YEARS...THAT IS JUST ONE OF MY PET PEEVE'S ABOUT LIONEL'S LUBRICATION/MAINTENCANCE SET...IT SHOULD BE PRICE AROUND $10.00 not what it's going for nowdays...
RN...and don't worry group...i have thick skin..i can keep up with the best..

quote:

Originally posted by walt rapp:
As mentioned, everyone has their personal favorite. Me, I use Goo-Gone first followed with an denatured rubdown to remove the crap that the Goo-Gone loosens up.

I've tried other things but keep coming back to Goo-Gone. No matter what I used, if I would follow up with a Goo-Gone "test" I would get more dirt coming up. So now I start with it but like to remove it from the rails, thus the denatured follow up.

I use a pipe cleaner for inside but with the modern tubular, it's impractical to do both ends, given that they newer track has its pins crimped in place. I started doing this one year after seeing black gunk on the pins where ever there was any type of gap between 2 pieces of track, which is almost unpreventable. I was amazed at how much gunk seemed to force it's way inside the rail. Not far in, but definitely there.

- walt