Do you use a track cleaning car, or elbow grease?
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Denatured alcohol & good paper towels.
I used LifeLike Track Cleaner for more than thirty-years. It is not expensive plus it is non-toxic and non-flammable. Which makes it safe around house pets and children. I used to purchase by the case from Walthers.
God Bless,
"Pappy"
unless your layout is very small, a track cleaning car just spreads the crud around. after the first few feet the pad or roller is dirty. a track cleaning car with a scotch brite type pad is good to remove oxidation, but you should follow up with a rag with denatured alcohol or some other fast drying cleaning fluid. nothing beats elbow grease for cleaning track
I use a track cleaning car on may layout that is not easily reached, tunnels or areas that the scenery would have to be moved to get at a section of track.
As far as spreading the crud thats coming off the tracks around I guess I never thought much about that.
The track cleaning car I have has a Scotch Brite pad on the bottom of it that can be replaced or flipped over and use the other side when it gets dirty.
For the rest of the track I use Goo Gone Product which is citrus based, and some old bath towels cut up in small pieces to wipe the track clean.
I then follow up going over the track with a sanding block that I got at Lowes.
I think everybody's right, it does takes some good old elbow grease to clean the track correctly.
You can defiantly see a difference how engines operate once the track has been cleaned.
Track - dry microfiber cleaning cloth by hand.
Wheels - Goo Gone, Q-tips and paper towels.
You need to do BOTH or you're just wasting your time.
find my post dated November 22, 2013 2:17 PM
been doing it this way for over 10 years 6 days a week and it works very well.
we use goo-gone and Denatured alcohol.
Dave, I agree that cleaning wheels is important. I usually have to clean loco wheels in particular more often than in the past. My pilot wheels also get dirty. I have also cleaned rolling stock wheels but that was some time ago. How often do you do that?
Originally Posted by David from Dearborn:
Track - dry microfiber cleaning cloth by hand.
Wheels - Goo Gone, Q-tips and paper towels.
You need to do BOTH or you're just wasting your time.
