Hi Aflyer,
A soak in diluted dishwashing detergent followed by a brushing is exactly what I did.
We are on the same wavelength in another area too - I've been giving more thought to putting down the track and just the other day decided on using dabs of Alex DAP - I always have some on hand. I figured that hotglue would dry too fast for track positioning, double sided tape would hinder slight adjustments too. Staples would be hard to use in some areas of my project.
I should be up to track laying in around a week, a lot of base prep work was needed after removing the old Lionel tracks. I think that tonight I'll work on making the two tunnel portals that I'll need. They will need to be in place before I position track.
Thanks for sharing the layout pics!