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I used to use goo be gone. It worked great but you need to be sure to follow up with a cloth to clean it all off.

Started  using 91% alcohol which does a great job.  I apply a liberal amount to a small piece of balled up rag and rub over the track a couple of times and follow up wiping the track with a clean dry cloth.  Gives great results.  I do not let it dry if I can help it because while it is 91% alcohol I suspect the remaining 9% is water or something similar.   

Been using that method for 5 years now and am happy with the result.   

I also used a bottle of denatured alcohol that I had laying around.  But you need to be careful with that stuff. I wore gloves and opened the windows for ventilation.  I would just stick with the 91%.

This topic comes up every so often and it is always interesting to read people's experiences with track cleaning fluids.  But it  is a good question to being asking. A while back there was a fellow on the forum (no longer here) who used some cleaning product to clean his fastrack and it created havoc with the tracks joints.  I can't remember what the product was but I seem to remember it was a very common cleaning product.  

Ed

Ed Walsh posted:
A while back there was a fellow on the forum (no longer here) who used some cleaning product to clean his fastrack and it created havoc with the tracks joints.  I can't remember what the product was but I seem to remember it was a very common cleaning product.  

Ed

That stuff was called Simple Green.  Based on his experience, NOBODY should use that stuff to clean track! 

Tinplate Art posted:

Track cleaning is overrated - honestly, I have not cleaned my O gauge or my standard gauge track in years and both my Legacy and Proto 2 & 3 locos run fine. As for my LGB track, NO cleaning is necessary!

In your opinion

lucky you. do you only run once a year?

but wouldn't it be great if you did clean the track and got better performance?

C.W.

I have never used Mineral Spirits for any purpose and therefore I don't know anything about it.

I am wondering if it would work with a track cleaning car and specifically one that had small foam rollers.   I guess my real question is does it evaporate and if so how fast. 

Just thinking maybe I could use that on the rollers to clean the track.  I usually do it by hand but being about the finest example of laziness there is  my track is usually in need of cleaning.  It would be good to use the cleaning car if mineral spirits made it more effective.

Thanks,

Ed

  Mineral spirits are very close to paint thinner in evaporation time. It has more mineral oil in it so I use that on natural brushes to help keep them soft. The mineral oils should help protect the metal as well (slightly, low content). I use mineral oil in the kitchen on wood chop blocks and wood knife handles. Someone throw your Chicago Cutlery in the dishwasher? Mineral oils take care of the dry, washed out look. My pharmacist does the same. (found in his dept. too).

  It may cause foam issues, but I can't think of a much safer solvent to try really. Especially the low oder types. I have nearly bathed in it at times.

  Since the Simple Green scare, at least one person has claimed to use it on FT regularly. Not that I actually doubted Lee, but I sure wish someone else would sacrifice a scrap from a custom cut to a wipe, then soak test to verify it wasn't a bad batch of SG or track. IMO experience speaks loudest.

I never cleaned track till my slightly oily track met 2 big dusty dogs (50 years at leat +/- a few , and some is Dads from the 40s too. Now I wipe the tops by hand if it's idle a while. (easy with 6 smallish layouts).

Mostly the gunk is attracted to the electrical flow at the wheels imo.

For the MOW cleaning critter, Gramps used the blue stuff in an orange labeled bottle....(brand ? ) or alcohol. But I know something was modded about the disks on that one too. The other one was not to be touched; original. I had one, but don't recall using it to clean. I had no pads, no fluid, etc.. I traded it to Gramps for a tie ejector at some point, but it didn't get used, likely was just sold or traded again.

I am wondering if it would work with a track cleaning car and specifically one that had small foam rollers.   I guess my real question is does it evaporate and if so how fast. 

It probably would not hurt your track or track cleaning car to use mineral spirits, BUT I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DOING SO!

See this Wikipedia article: Mineral Spirits

Mineral Spirits is a type of paint thinner. It is volatile (evaporates), and I believe the fumes are flammable.
I am a big believer in minimizing exposure to chemical vapors of any kind. (I tolerate smoke pellets, rarely will I use smoke fluid).

I often write about using mineral spirits here and there. It is always in very small amounts, and the items moistened with it go into a metal can.
Over the years friends and I have discussed how repeated exposure to some of the nasty things we use in our hobby seems to have affected people we know, and even their families. It pays to be careful!

Last edited by C W Burfle

Mineral spirits are very close to paint thinner in evaporation time. It has more mineral oil in it so I use that on natural brushes to help keep them soft. The mineral oils should help protect the metal as well (slightly, low content). I use mineral oil in the kitchen on wood chop blocks and wood knife handles. Someone throw your Chicago Cutlery in the dishwasher? Mineral oils take care of the dry, washed out look. My pharmacist does the same. (found in his dept. too).

  It may cause foam issues, but I can't think of a much safer solvent to try really. Especially the low oder types. I have nearly bathed in it at times.

  Since the Simple Green scare, at least one person has claimed to use it on FT regularly. Not that I actually doubted Lee, but I sure wish someone else would sacrifice a scrap from a custom cut to a wipe, then soak test to verify it wasn't a bad batch of SG or track. IMO experience speaks loudest.

As an aside, here is an article on Mineral Spirits versus Paint thinner.

I am a little confused by the comment above.
Which product has mineral oil in it?
I only purchase 100% pure mineral spirits, usually low odor.
I aware of many companies selling mineral spirits that is cut with water (There are discussions about this on some of the woodworking boards). But I was not aware of mineral spirits ever being mixed with mineral oil. Is that the paint thinner?

Regarding Simple Green: It is very powerful stuff. I use it to clean all sorts of things. But I would not use it on decorated or painted surfaces of trains. I know as fact that it can remove lithography, because I've done it (boo hoo).  I also would not use it on anything that could not be thoroughly rinsed. Plus it will completely remove any oily coating on metal parts that were there preventing rust.
While it indirectly can cause rust, I find that it helps remove light rust too.

Be careful what you use in the 3927 track cleaning car. We've discussed tracking cleaning many times on this Forum and many will use a product that does have flammable properties, which is fine if used correctly. However, the 3927 cleaning car usually generates some sparks underneath. That would not make a good combination if used with a flammable cleaning solution. 

FYI: The original LGB smoke fluid had a cleaning function and the current fluid made for them by Massoth (a German company) also is a smoke fluid/cleaning oil (8412501). I use it to clean the contact slider shoes on my LGB engines, as well as a smoke fluid. It is very similar to the Seuthe fluid, and meets the European Union safety protocols. NOTE: It is flammable!

Last edited by Tinplate Art

I  have used life like blue track cleaner with my track cleaner car.  The main advantage is that its non-flammable.  On the downside it stains, the sponge turns blue and if it drips on the layout it stains it blue along with your fingers

What I do now is merely wet the wiper cylinder with an eye dropper of fluid and  let the car go around the layout a few times turning the blackened wiper to the clean side.

Also need to thank my dentist for giving me a bunch of cotton cylinders to use.   I still have several of the original ones in the round box from the 1950's.

George

   I don't know if there is an industrial mineral oil or not, but the bottle from the pharmacy is labeled as a "Lubricant Laxative" complete with dosage of up to three tablespoons.

An orange ifs flammable too, enough to be used as a candle, but can a train reach the requirements to get it burning  

   My mineral spirits are not in the original container. I use a glass bottle to keep from sloshing too much out. I can recall painters trying to use it in a Zippo without success too. So flammable is likely, but also likely not easy to do (with some brands at least.  I'll try a "Flame on" test later, someone moved my bottle. (another modeler lives here)

  I was always more worried more about paint's additional content than the spirits themselves.

   My mineral spirits are not in the original container. I use a glass bottle to keep from sloshing too much out. I can recall painters trying to use it in a Zippo without success too. So flammable is likely, but also likely not easy to do (with some brands at least.  I'll try a "Flame on" test later, someone moved my bottle. (another modeler lives here)

From the Wikipedia article I linked above:

Although not normally marketed as a fuel, white spirit can be used as an alternative to kerosene in portable stoves, since it is merely a light grade of kerosene.[citation needed] It cannot be used as an alternative to white gas, which is a much more volatile gasoline-like fuel.

Be careful with anything like kerosene. When I was a teenager in Mt. Vernon, NY, across the street lived another family. They had kittens with fleas, The father sprayed the kittens with kerosene to get rid of the fleas in their basement. There was an explosion. The father and his daughter ran out of the house in flames and died. 

Small amounts of substances like kerosene may not be dangerous, I don't know, but I would not take any chances with kerosene or substances  like it, in my basement.

Be careful with anything like kerosene. When I was a teenager in Mt. Vernon, NY, across the street lived another family. They had kittens with fleas, The father sprayed the kittens with kerosene to get rid of the fleas in their basement. There was an explosion. The father and his daughter ran out of the house in flames and died. 

Small amounts of substances like kerosene may not be dangerous, I don't know, but I would not take any chances with kerosene or substances  like it, in my basement.

Sad. 

Another similar type of accident is known to occur when people use a flammable glue to attach floor coverings in an unventilated basement. The fumes collect near the ground, reach the pilot light on the gas water heater and BOOM!

Then there are the folks who mix bleach and ammonia (or something with similar properties). That creates a very unhealthy gas. I have and use both, but not together.

There is quite a difference between using small amounts of mineral spirits on a QTip to work on trains and spraying kerosene around your basement, where there are multiple ways to ignite the vapor.

As I wrote earlier, It WOULD NOT be a good idea to use mineral spirits in a track cleaning car, or in any large quantities that would result in a concentration of vapors.

Regardless, it is not kerosene.

People should stick with what they are knowledgeable about and comfortable doing.

Last edited by C W Burfle

   I know the flammability of kerosene and fuel oils much better.  Our family has had many kerosene heaters and furnace stoves.  Lamp oil is a slight bit less powerful, but basically a kerosene. Gasoline was once a byproduct of kerosene production with little use till the internal combustion engine created a demand. Kerosene has a much lower evaporation rate than gasoline.

Spraying was the big mistake. It atomised the kerosene far more than if it was simply in a container, even an open one. It is the mix with air that likely started the fire at a furnace or h.water heater's pilot light.  Kerosene atomized in the spray is nearly explosive in flammability. As a liquid, it is only flammable at the surface. Liquid K. when on fire,  raises liquid temp and therefore the evaporation rate, but it needs to be near boiling to become dangerous. A large pool size can keep boiling in check though, the liquid cools too. Heaters and stove regulate the amount of liquid flowed to a burn trough/pan or use a wick to keep the bulk cool and safer.

  The spray increased the normal evaporation rate and that basement was filled with fumes. The fumes ignite, flame traveling in the air till in contacted liquid. No liquid, and the airborne flame would have lasted a about a second before exhausting the vapors of the flammability.

Don't try, but....I.e., much like gasoline, you can put out a cigarette in the liquid, the vapors are the flammable part. Most of the time, the embers don't contact the vapors long enough to start a reaction and the  liquid cools the embers as it hits. A loose spark is hotter that most cigarette embers, fanned by the air, exposed to more oxygen as it travels, it gets hotter, therefore more dangerous. 

Bleach and ammonia = mustard gas, basically anyhow. Outlawed as a chemical weapon, used extensively during WW1.

   The end result is chemically burnt skin and more deadly; the lungs. Painful and often results in the drowning of a victim in their own mucus.... I don't even keep them in the same cupboard because they don't seem to teach kids about home safety and chemicals at school anymore. Not your fault if you don't know, but I knew this in first grade.

If you seem to get sick every time you clean the bathroom, your inhaling too many fumes, and having a mild but similar reaction. 

Adriatic posted:

   I know the flammability of kerosene and fuel oils much better.  Our family has had many kerosene heaters and furnace stoves.  Lamp oil is a slight bit less powerful, but basically a kerosene. Gasoline was once a byproduct of kerosene production with little use till the internal combustion engine created a demand. Kerosene has a much lower evaporation rate than gasoline.

Spraying was the big mistake. It atomised the kerosene far more than if it was simply in a container, even an open one. It is the mix with air that likely started the fire at a furnace or h.water heater's pilot light.  Kerosene atomized in the spray is nearly explosive in flammability. As a liquid, it is only flammable at the surface. Liquid K. when on fire,  raises liquid temp and therefore the evaporation rate, but it needs to be near boiling to become dangerous. A large pool size can keep boiling in check though, the liquid cools too. Heaters and stove regulate the amount of liquid flowed to a burn trough/pan or use a wick to keep the bulk cool and safer.

  The spray increased the normal evaporation rate and that basement was filled with fumes. The fumes ignite, flame traveling in the air till in contacted liquid. No liquid, and the airborne flame would have lasted a about a second before exhausting the vapors of the flammability.

Don't try, but....I.e., much like gasoline, you can put out a cigarette in the liquid, the vapors are the flammable part. Most of the time, the embers don't contact the vapors long enough to start a reaction and the  liquid cools the embers as it hits. A loose spark is hotter that most cigarette embers, fanned by the air, exposed to more oxygen as it travels, it gets hotter, therefore more dangerous. 

Bleach and ammonia = mustard gas, basically anyhow. Outlawed as a chemical weapon, used extensively during WW1.

   The end result is chemically burnt skin and more deadly; the lungs. Painful and often results in the drowning of a victim in their own mucus.... I don't even keep them in the same cupboard because they don't seem to teach kids about home safety and chemicals at school anymore. Not your fault if you don't know, but I knew this in first grade.

If you seem to get sick every time you clean the bathroom, your inhaling too many fumes, and having a mild but similar reaction. 

Thank you, Adriatic, for sharing this important information.

I did my mineral spirit test with a 1/2 teaspoon in a stainless sauce dipping dish inside another metal container with a lid. Proper fire extinguisher ready, pin out and I was not alone.

Sparks and red hot wire would not ignite my brand.

Flame test: It would burn, then extinguish when the host flame was removed.

Zippo test: A working Zippo lighter was filled, it will not light.

   A second Zippo was filled with proper lighter fluid (Naptha) and lit. A drop of mineral spirits was introduced to the wick by glass dropper. The flame extinguished and the lighter will not re-light, fouled by the mineral spirits.

I'm seeing the wick as an equal to a soaked cleaning pad. A pad may actually more flammable than the spirits. 

  It is now closed and I will attempt to light these lighters every hour or so and post my results.

 

However, there is a possibility that the pad itself may cause a reaction.

Cotton and some oils CAN spontaneously combust after a while. Linseed oil is one example of this. Hence the flameproof garbage cans in most woodshops is a given for disposal of staining rags.

I could see some plastics/foam doing the same.

Adriatic posted:

I did my mineral spirit test with a 1/2 teaspoon in a stainless sauce dipping dish inside another metal container with a lid. Proper fire extinguisher ready, pin out and I was not alone.

Sparks and red hot wire would not ignite my brand.

Flame test: It would burn, then extinguish when the host flame was removed.

Zippo test: A working Zippo lighter was filled, it will not light.

   A second Zippo was filled with proper lighter fluid (Naptha) and lit. A drop of mineral spirits was introduced to the wick by glass dropper. The flame extinguished and the lighter will not re-light, fouled by the mineral spirits.

I'm seeing the wick as an equal to a soaked cleaning pad. A pad may actually more flammable than the spirits. 

  It is now closed and I will attempt to light these lighters every hour or so and post my results.

 

However, there is a possibility that the pad itself may cause a reaction.

Cotton and some oils CAN spontaneously combust after a while. Linseed oil is one example of this. Hence the flameproof garbage cans in most woodshops is a given for disposal of staining rags.

I could see some plastics/foam doing the same.

You are a good and brave chemistry student, Adriatic.

  I'm great at nothing, but good at most things I attempt. While most likely to succeed is usually reserved for a valedictorian, my high school created a special award for me...least likely to fail.   I hated homework 

Two hours later: the naphtha Zippo lites. (failed at one hour). 

The spirit filled Zippo will not light by spark, hot surface, or flame.

The conclusion and risk is yours ....

Adriatic posted:

  I'm great at nothing, but good at most things I attempt. While most likely to succeed is usually reserved for a valedictorian, my high school created a special award for me...least likely to fail.   I hated homework 

Two hours later: the naphtha Zippo lites. (failed at one hour). 

The spirit filled Zippo will not light by spark, hot surface, or flame.

The conclusion and risk is yours ....

Thank you for the research and information.

ADCX Rob posted:
Tinplate Art posted:

...honestly, I have not cleaned my O gauge or my standard gauge track in years...

Same here...  O-27 layout - never been cleaned since 1971.

Same here although my current layout only dates back to 1996.  But I'm using super O and Gargraves track that I had used on previous layouts without cleaning.  That's another advantage of 3-rail track - 50% more contact points for conducting electricity.  OTOH when I set up a temporary American Flyer 2-rail S-gauge Christmas layout I have to thoroughly clean the track and wheels before I run them the first time and then again every few days. 

Bill

Last edited by WftTrains
Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Be careful with anything like kerosene. When I was a teenager in Mt. Vernon, NY, across the street lived another family. They had kittens with fleas, The father sprayed the kittens with kerosene to get rid of the fleas in their basement. There was an explosion. The father and his daughter ran out of the house in flames and died. 

Small amounts of substances like kerosene may not be dangerous, I don't know, but I would not take any chances with kerosene or substances  like it, in my basement.

That's a new one Arnold.  I wonder if we can market kerosene a s a flea repellant.....LOL

When I served in Vietnam, we had very dusty conditions due to the make up of the earth in the area.  A crew would periodically spray kerosene on the dirt roads to keep theist down.  Another crew would come through all of our pooches and spray the plywood floors with kerosene for the same reason.  We actually looked forward to it.  

On the subject of Simple Green.  It gives me an instant horrific headache.  I am very chemical tolerant.  Not many chemical orders bother me at all, except for Simple Green.  Haven't used it for many years.  But once in awhile someone may be using it and if I am in the area it hits me like a ton of bricks.  

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