Clean ballast off Lionel tubular track?

I have used warm water successfully to remove glue mix ballast from Gargraves flex track and Ross and Curtis turnouts without having rust develop. 

denatured alcohol works like a jack hammer. soak it and in minutes it will all fall off. you don't want water inside the rails where the pins go, will cause connection headaches later on.

Boy, I tried denatured alcohol today and does it smell bad!   I can't use it.  It didn't seem to work that good either.

With water, drying wet track as fast as possible works well enough for me. I would think mineral content of your local water supply would be a factor on rusting too. Denatured alcohol is stinky and should always be used in a well ventilated area with gloves on. Im surprised a soaking isn't working. Maybe a stronger adhesive than normal was used?  

Nothing will clean old track like a pass with a pressure washer. Picked up a huge box of old track at a show for a couple of bucks--it had glued ballast and decades of grime and rust.  Laid it out on the driveway, blew all that garbage off in about 5 minutes, then let it sit for a few hours in the Florida sun.

I'm sure some will shake their heads disapprovingly over this approach, but it took minutes, involved no chemicals, and yielded like-new results. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!