What is the best cleaner for old tubular Lionel track

Everyone will have a favorite...Me I use rubbing alcohol, have for years. WD-40 is for rust, not good for the top rails so if you use it clean off the top of the rail before running your trains.

Lemon Pledge

Jerry

quote:

What can be used to get inside the rails to get rid of rust or dirt?

Pipe cleaner, and WD would be alright for that. Let it dry, then shoot it with a few drops of this:

http://store.caig.com/s.nl/it.....f?sc=2&category=188

I've been using it for years on my music and pro sound gear, expensive but it works really well! I think RatShack may have it now, if not, Guitar Center should.

Pete

As mentioned, everyone has their personal favorite. Me, I use Goo-Gone first followed with an denatured rubdown to remove the crap that the Goo-Gone loosens up.

I've tried other things but keep coming back to Goo-Gone. No matter what I used, if I would follow up with a Goo-Gone "test" I would get more dirt coming up. So now I start with it but like to remove it from the rails, thus the denatured follow up.

I use a pipe cleaner for inside but with the modern tubular, it's impractical to do both ends, given that they newer track has its pins crimped in place. I started doing this one year after seeing black gunk on the pins where ever there was any type of gap between 2 pieces of track, which is almost unpreventable. I was amazed at how much gunk seemed to force it's way inside the rail. Not far in, but definitely there.

- walt

soak it in CLR cleaner for 2 hours.

I may get a lot of heat for this answer...i have tried Goo-Gone several times..i can't find any good use for it at all..infact i think its a big joke..on the back of the bottle it states what it's suppose to clean...didn't clean a thing it was suppose to do...Lionel track cleaner is a joke too...Life Like works the best for me plus that hard eraser that comes with the Lionel pack. which brings me to this point..how much oil does Lionel have to give you with that pack its sells??? How about more grease instead Lionel?????? I have three tubes of oil with maybe a inch out of the first one i bought...DOES LIONEL THINK I AM GOING TO LIVE TO BE 200 YEARS OLD TO USE THREE TUBES OF OIL????? AS I HAVE BOUGHT THREE OF THEM PACKS OVER THE YEARS...THAT IS JUST ONE OF MY PET PEEVE'S ABOUT LIONEL'S LUBRICATION/MAINTENCANCE SET...IT SHOULD BE PRICE AROUND $10.00 not what it's going for nowdays...
RN...and don't worry group...i have thick skin..i can keep up with the best..

quote:

Originally posted by walt rapp:
As mentioned, everyone has their personal favorite. Me, I use Goo-Gone first followed with an denatured rubdown to remove the crap that the Goo-Gone loosens up.

I've tried other things but keep coming back to Goo-Gone. No matter what I used, if I would follow up with a Goo-Gone "test" I would get more dirt coming up. So now I start with it but like to remove it from the rails, thus the denatured follow up.

I use a pipe cleaner for inside but with the modern tubular, it's impractical to do both ends, given that they newer track has its pins crimped in place. I started doing this one year after seeing black gunk on the pins where ever there was any type of gap between 2 pieces of track, which is almost unpreventable. I was amazed at how much gunk seemed to force it's way inside the rail. Not far in, but definitely there.

- walt

quote:

Originally posted by RN:
I may get a lot of heat for this answer...i have tried Goo-Gone several times..i can't find any good use for it at all..infact i think its a big joke..

RN...and don't worry group...i have thick skin..i can keep up with the best..

No heat, but I've been using Goo-Gone for well over a decade on my S Scale railroad with excellent results. I just soak the roller on my Centerline track cleaing car and orbit 3 times and presto, no further electrical problems.
I probably clean my track every 3-4 months, depending on how often I run.

Works well on Flyer, AM and SHS track as well.

Your mileage may vary...

Rusty

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Pete:

quote:

What can be used to get inside the rails to get rid of rust or dirt?

Pipe cleaner, and WD would be alright for that. Let it dry, then shoot it with a few drops of this:

http://store.caig.com/s.nl/it.....f?sc=2&category=188

I've been using it for years on my music and pro sound gear, expensive but it works really well! I think RatShack may have it now, if not, Guitar Center should.

Pete

I agree with Pete.

Download the Deoxit brochure here.
http://store.caig.com/s.nl/it....?sc=17&category=-117

Deoxit is an electrical contact cleaner. Your train engine and cars make electrical contact with the track.

I use these McMaster-Carr SS Spiral Brushes to clean inside the track ends. Scroll down the page for the proper ones, I'm using the 0.125" ones.

Dishwasher, then a little buffing with Scotch Brite pad and wipe clean.

quote:

Originally posted by Susan Deats:
Dishwasher, then a little buffing with Scotch Brite pad and wipe clean.

Susan, I've heard this before but never tried it. Does it help with rusted track? Does it remove any of the paint on metal ties? Thank you.

quote:

Maybe, but perhaps not having that around is the reason you don't have kids with six fingers or toes.

Then you've never heard one of those kids on a piano!

quote:

Originally posted by Cubbie:

quote:

Originally posted by Susan Deats:
Dishwasher, then a little buffing with Scotch Brite pad and wipe clean.

Susan, I've heard this before but never tried it. Does it help with rusted track? Does it remove any of the paint on metal ties? Thank you.

It removes all the powdery rust, not paint.
Wet or Dry Sandpaper (black) will remove what's left after the dishwasher.

OK, it's been almost a year since the last post on this thread and I'm still looking for a miracle. I have 80 pieces of old Lionel O gauge tubular track thats rusty. I've sprayed it with Goo Gone and rubbed it with Scotch Bright but the rust is still there. So I'm going to Home Depot to get sandpaper but what grit? 200? 400?

Isn't there something I can soak the track in that will make the job easier and faster? I've finally got enough of my attic room finished to lay some track and run some trains but I gotta get this track cleaned up first.

Help!

 

Oh, one more thing...the pins are covered in rust, too. Should I just replace them?

Well, we know it's not this stuff. Don

For cleaning I usually use 90% iso. Alcohol.  Let dry.  Then use TV tuner cleaner.  Then run a Marx 333 or 666.  If the center sliding shoe does not spark too muth, I am in good shape.  Let track dry before placing an engine with rubber traction tires on it.

 

Now for rust, depends how bad of shape it is in.

If you have rusty tubular track and want an easy way to remove the rust, it may be worth your time to look into a gallon of evapo-rust.

I think Simple Green is a great idea!  Buy several gallons, put it all in a tub.  Then soak your track in it for about two weeks.  At the rate it ate up my Fastrack it will completely dissolve your track--> problem solved, you have no more rusty track!

 

Seriously, a year ago I "restored" about twenty feet of very old (might even have been pre-war) Marx track including two switches and a similar batch of very old Lionel track, so it worked well.  Now, quite honestly, it does not brand new - but it works well.  Also, I started with twenty four feet of each -  ten to twenty percent of each batch  never did clear up well enough to work and look good. 

 

Deoxit is worth it.  Texas Pete's recommendation is certainly good. I used another brand, a penetrating electrical cleaner/decorroder I bought on Amazon - don't remember what, but essetnially the same I think.  But that was step two . . . 

 

First, I used Evapo-Rust , pretty much doing just like it says in the video in the link below - put some in a tub and soaked pieces for an afternoon.  This product is not quite as fast or complete in removed rust as it shows in the video but it did a good job and it certainly seemed safe and non-toxic. I was concerned that it might "eat" the insulating pads in the track center rail, etc, but I didn't have any problems except with a few that were bad anyway.   

http://www.evapo-rust.com/

 

Second, I rinsed and dried the track well putting it in an oven and heating it to about 240 degrees (i.e., above boiling) and leaving it for an hour in case evaporust or water had soaked into the track pins, etc.  I'd didn't warp badly or anything doing this.  I have no proof this step was necessary but it took nothing but a little time.  Then when cool again, used the Deoxit on the pins, trying to get it to soak into the pins held in the track as a final "chemical" step. 

 

Third: Bright Boys - I bought several and wore them out.  About half the track (both Marx and Lionel)  worked well once cleaned as above and then bright boyed "aggressively" - just lots of gentle pressure and time - stroke after stroke.

  

Sandpaper -in my opinion it is only a last resort.   Don't use anything like 200 or even 400 sandpaper.  Most auto parts stores stock at least 800 - the Autozone near me stocks down to 1500 grit wet-dry sandpaper, and sometimes you can find all the way to 3000 (which feels about like paper, it is so smooth).  If bright boys don't work, 1500 won't either, so I generally use around 1000 and gentle pressure and a little time, maybe 800 if desperate.  However - if a bright boy will not clean it up, it may be so bad that sandpaper is only going to make it worse, about 10% of my old track did not restore well..  Anything over 600 will ruin the track.

 

Pins - I oppose removing them if you don't have to: sometimes it takes enough force to bend or open up the track so why not leave well enough alone if it is?  On my track, just because the visible outside part of a pin was rusy did not mean the pin did not have good connectivity to the rail.  I used a penetrating electrical cleaner like Deoxit or something similar, then cleaned the rust off the pins with a Brightboy or sandpaper if need by.  I then tested the connectivity of pin the track with a mulit-meter.  If it was bad, then I pulled the pin and cleaned agressively.  I used no new pins.  I never thought of a pipecleaner to clean the inner side of the track, but had made sure the Evaporust got into the open ends of the track when pins would go and all, and cleaned each out well with the end of a fine rat tail file, carefully.

 

I then wiped it all with a thin layer of WD-40.  Yeah, I know what people say, but I did it, and some friends did it, and if the track was badly rusted it will try to rust again, so this does work.  Thin - keep it thin.

 

Just about all of the track treated like this "worked": trains would run on it.  About 20% would rust again soon or looked really worn and bad.  But 80% was good.  I have some of it on display in my study (with my Dad's 1937 Marx train set) and it has not rusted in the last year.  The rest I'm not using now and I put it in a sealed plastic bag into which I threw a bunch of old descicants from trains I bought in the hope they had some effectivness left.

Here, someone actually made a video on cleaning Lionel Tubular track!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObcKEQ6_Em0