EVAPO-RUST

Was the Track rusted? Try putting the track together and see if the pins conduct current.

cjack,

The track was not rusted but there was a dirty tint on the track that alcohol (91 & 99%) and Acetone did not clear.  The dirty tint is now GONE !!!

Yep, learned the hard way about Acetone-use carefully (wipe on and quickly wipe off)  DO NOT SOAK!!!!! Will put the track back on the layout tomorrow, hopefully the pins will conduct electricity.

Brent

@BReece posted:

After soaking several pieces Fastrack in EVAPO-RUST, I noticed some of the connecting pins had turned "BLACK"  , Anyone else experience this and are the pins ruined? Tried to wipe  the pins and this helped very little.

Yes the EVAPO-RUST worked on the track very well.

Comments appreciated.

Brent

I have repaired and restored a lot of a switches, many badly rusted, and use my Dremel with a wire  brush to clean up the pins.  It works beautifully.   Many of them have been horribly rusted. 

Evapo Rust is used by railroad lantern collectors to restore lanterns.. I used to be a member of Key Lock  Lantern, and they swear by the stuff. 

For "dirt"  on fastrack that isnt easily removed with liquid cleaners .

I've found a mildly abrasive track cleaning block like the one in Lionels track maintenance kit does the trick.

Scrub the bad areas. Then wipe down with 91% isopropyl on a paper towel to avoid lint and the track is like new.

To each their own,but there's really no need to experiment with new fangled mystery cleaners that claim to do miracles.

Ask Lee Willis about simple green and his fastrack.

Actually, EvapoRust is based on a proven chemical technique, it's not a mystery cleaner.  It does remove some plating, apparently the Fastrack pins are plated with something other than tin.  And, it really does remove the rust!

So, if I have some plated screws that have no rust, but I'd like to blacken them, will a dip in EvapoRust work?

Thanks,

 Tom 

I use gun blue or black to do stuff like that, quick and easy.

I've used it on old track, works great. Just be aware it will remove what ever Lionel used to blacken the base plates of uncouple/unload sections down to bare metal.

I use Evapo-Rust for bringing back old hand tools. It’s very effective but there are some possible perils with plated items. I’ve used it with objects in an ultrasonic cleaner, sealed Tupperware, a five gallon bucket and in one case a homemade pvc pipe enclosure for a long hand plane. I’ve left things soaking for a couple of days to some disasters that I let sit for the better part of a year.

i almost always follow up a soak with wire wheel or a blasting cabinet. If possible I always try to test a metal or finish I’ve not worked with before.

Hi there, I was wondering if any of you can give me tips on how to use Evapo-rust to remove rust on Lionel Fastrack step by step.

Rust first appeared on my Fastrack pieces last Christmas while after Dad sprayed fire retardant onto the snow blanket. Earlier this year I tried using Bar Keeper's Friend to remove the rust, but somehow more rust reappeared weeks after that.

@onetrackmind posted:

Hi there, I was wondering if any of you can give me tips on how to use Evapo-rust to remove rust on Lionel Fastrack step by step.

Rust first appeared on my Fastrack pieces last Christmas while after Dad sprayed fire retardant onto the snow blanket. Earlier this year I tried using Bar Keeper's Friend to remove the rust, but somehow more rust reappeared weeks after that.

Bar Keeper’s Friend is an abrasive.  While you removed the rust, you also removed the plating.  Your track will continue to rust.   Hopefully the rust makes it look realistic, if so you can polish the tops of the rails and inside edge of the outer rails.  Apply a little No-Ox ID to the rail tops using your fingers to thin it out.  With some luck you will still have good, conductive track.

In general, it is a bad idea to use abrasives of any kind on a plated surface.  I would guess that the plating on 3 rail track is 1-3 microns, that is 0.0001 and 0.0003 mm.

That would be .001 to .003 mm...still tiny though!

It was early, Chuck.  Too many zeros.

@Danr posted:

Bar Keeper’s Friend is an abrasive.  While you removed the rust, you also removed the plating.  Your track will continue to rust.   Hopefully the rust makes it look realistic, if so you can polish the tops of the rails and inside edge of the outer rails.  Apply a little No-Ox ID to the rail tops using your fingers to thin it out.  With some luck you will still have good, conductive track.

In general, it is a bad idea to use abrasives of any kind on a plated surface.  I would guess that the plating on 3 rail track is 1-3 microns, that is 0.0001 and 0.0003 mm.

Thanks for the tip. Is Evaporust still an option to remove the rust from Fastrack? I was also thinking of touching up the ties with a paint pen.

Evapo-Rust will remove it, but note that  it may remove the fake painted on ties, it does affect some paints.  Also, if the plating is gone, the rust will come back real soon.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Evapo-Rust will remove it, but note that  it may remove the fake painted on ties, it does affect some paints.  Also, if the plating is gone, the rust will come back real soon.

That's a shame. So does this mean I have to buy new pieces to replace them?

Even without the plating, they normally don't rust that fast unless you're in a pretty humid environment.

Should I start panic-buying the pieces of track I need to replace? Are there any other ways to prevent any more rust from reappearing?

I'm not sure it's a panic situation, only you can determine that .

I used the Bar Keeper's Friend on the 8 pieces of 30-inch straight tracks as well as the O36 curved tracks and the two O31 curved track pieces. The other tracks that I didn't use Bar Keeper's Friend are terminal tracks, grade crossing tracks, accessory activated track, as well as some other different pieces of tracks.

Not saying this would work to fix the missing zinc plating, but maybe?  I don't have any experience with this, but found it while looking for a possible solution.

841AR-P - Nickel Conductive Pen

There are other less expensive similar options also available on Amazon, but this one has low VOC.

Any thoughts?

I'd be more inclined to do a real plating operation, but it's tedious and you'd have to disassemble the track.  Truthfully, if the rust is really a problem, just bite the bullet and buy new pieces of track.

Yes it probably would be easier to replace the track, no question there.  For the sake of options, could this circuit trace pen be a viable alternative, especially if only the tops of the rails would need to be coated?

To my thinking, it might also be less expensive, for maybe 2 tubes a $25/each  per 7.5 grams than replacing ~22 pieces of track at > $100.  There are other options on amazon with higher VOC levels if cost is an issue.

The question is would this solution work?

Steve, there's no real way to know how it would work without trying it.  My sense is anything that I would "pencil" on wouldn't be all that robust.  I know that the pens I've see to repair window defrosters and the similar circuit board repair stuff I've seen are pretty delicate "fixes".  I can't imagine it being very long lasting.  However, it's not my track, my track is not rusty, so I don't have a dog in the fight.  My opinion is it's a waste of time and money, but others may disagree.

Thanks John, that's exactly the kind of informative answer I was hoping for.

I might try one of these trace pen products on those filed switch points if oxidation becomes an issue, at least there the "fix" would not be subjected to as much friction as if applied to the tops of the rails.

On a side note, is it safe to use Evaporust on the terminal track since there is a wire attached to it? Also, will the paint on the grade crossing track be affected by the Evaporust?

I would only submerge the actual metal in the solution.  I rescued a bunch of the locomotives and rolling stock a few years ago that were in the Sandy floods up in New York.  While I had success with a lot of them, I also noticed that it could compromise some paints, especially the paint that Lionel used on their stuff.  Evapo-Rust will also leave the treated metal with a dull gray color, something to be aware of.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I would only submerge the actual metal in the solution.  I rescued a bunch of the locomotives and rolling stock a few years ago that were in the Sandy floods up in New York.  While I had success with a lot of them, I also noticed that it could compromise some paints, especially the paint that Lionel used on their stuff.  Evapo-Rust will also leave the treated metal with a dull gray color, something to be aware of.

Would the solution with paper towel do the trick?

@onetrackmind posted:

Would the solution with paper towel do the trick?

Nope, you really have to submerge the item in it for some period of time for it to work.  I tried "wiping" the metal with it a few times, it was ineffective.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Evapo-Rust will remove it, but note that  it may remove the fake painted on ties, it does affect some paints.  Also, if the plating is gone, the rust will come back real soon.

I meant to say I will touch-up the painted ties right after the rust removal and drying the track.

Another point about EVAPORUST ...

I soaked badly rusted O-gauge Lionel tubular track sections in Evapo-Rust, and (as others have mentioned) it removed rust from the rails -- and also the black paint on the crossties.

What I should have done ...
First, REMOVE the pins from the rails before the soaking so that Evapo-rust can seep inside the rails, where rust and corrosion can hide. Afterwards, re-install the track pins. I didn't do that step back then, but I checked every piece of cleaned track before installing them on my layout. I threw out some track pieces that didn't "pass" that test.

That Evapo-rust cleaning job was done 2+ years ago, and my trains now run on those tracks OK. However, the time and effort for that task was not worth the "savings."  With 20/20 hindsight, I should have bought new Lionel tubular track for a fresh start.

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I would only submerge the actual metal in the solution.  I rescued a bunch of the locomotives and rolling stock a few years ago that were in the Sandy floods up in New York.  While I had success with a lot of them, I also noticed that it could compromise some paints, especially the paint that Lionel used on their stuff.  Evapo-Rust will also leave the treated metal with a dull gray color, something to be aware of.

How long should I soak the rusted Fastrack pieces in the Evaporust and what are the best ways to dry them?

Does the de-rusted track make the trains run smoothly or should they be in need of replacing?

How long would depend on how much rust; maybe 12 to 24 hours.  As GRJ mentioned, evapo-rust will affect the painted surface of the roadbed, so you should check progress every few hours.  After using evapo-rust I wash the parts in soap and water then dry them throughly.  An old Neil Young album was “Rust never sleeps”, if do not coat the treated surfaces, rust will begin immediately after removal.  I suggest No-Ox ID applied to, at least, the rail heads.  Rub it on with your fingers until you get a very thin coat.  No-Ox is electrically conductive.

To answer your last question, track without rust will work better than rusted track.

Will the Evaporust harm the wiring on the terminal tracks?

If you track is rusting you may want to figure out why, that indicates it is in a humid, moist environment. If the track is in a basement area, you may want to get a dehumidifier and try and get the level down to 50% or less. A humidity gauge isn't expensive, put one in the area and see how high the humidity is, I know my basement if I didn't have a dehumidifier would be like 65 or 70% at times.

Without the plating, is Evaporust still worth using? Also, do I have to disconnect the wires from the terminal tracks?

To remove the leftover evaporust off the metal track, can you use either rubbing alcohol or wet paper towels?

Pretty sure the label calls for a water rinse.  I use it a lot for vintage bicycle frames by soaking inside and out followed by a full water rinse and then a shake dry followed by a denatured alcohol rinse which gets rid of all the leftover water moisture in hard to reach places which stops any flash rusting.  How’s that for a run on sentence?