Simple question really i have soem old 00 track thats been in the loft for years and years and i thought i would see if my old trains still worked before i build it backup again.
But the track as you can imagine is really quite dirty now, so whats the best way to clean it up? is there a liquid based solution that you can use to bring it back to new or do you just use a metal sandpaper.
Or am i wastining my time and should bin it all and go out and by some new track.
Cheers Ray
A proper track cleaning 'rubber', Peco make one that any half decent local model railway/hobby shop should stock, failing that there will no end of online stockists.
That really depends on what make it is and how old is 'old'...
"Ray" wrote
Firstly you need to ascertain whether the rail is manufactured from steel or nickel-silver (steel is magnetic). If it's steel then check carefully to see whether it is dirty or rusty - if it's rusty then you're wasting your time trying to make it useable.
If it's nickel-silver then wash the various pieces in warm soapy water and when thoroughly dry follow Jerry's advice and use a track rubber (Peco make one) to burnish the rail surface to a bright shiny finish. It should then be ready for use.
John.
Following from the earlier replies, personally I loathe Peco track rubbers; the grit is very coarse and scratches the rail making it more likely to get dirty, and they fragment into blue rubbery gritty bits everywhere.
A readily available alternative fine abrasive is a flexible nail polishing stick, sold at the cosmetics counter. It looks like an over-fat lolly stick, is flexible, and has a very fine abrasive on part of the front face of the stick.
- Nigel
In message , Ray writes
A lot depends upon the type of track that you are using.
If it's nickel silver it will clean up fairly easily with some *very fine* metal paper or if you can get on a glass fibre scratch brush. There are also a number of proprietary rubber 'eraser' types you can buy
If it's steel rail then you will see rust on the rails. These can, in theory be cleaned but I suggest that you just ditch them and buy new as you're unlikely to be able to get a good enough finish for reliable running.
But preferably NOT with washing up liquid, if you do then you need to make sure you *thoroughly* rinse all traces of detergent off, salt (which is what is in the manufacture, helps to thicken the liquid and acts as a mild cleaning acid [1]) getting into locomotive mechanisms will do no good what so ever... :~(
[1] and is why it's not a good idea to use washing up liquid to wash the car either!
I use chalk sticks mixed with a little warm water to form a paste, best done prior to fitting track to baseboard though !
Chris
It'll clean your teeth too, if you want - or should that be, if you're desperate!.... :~)
What teeth ?
Now see what you've done !!!!!!! You've created a dentist ad in the sponsored links :-(
Well get yourself a proper Usenet account and you won't be burdened by Google greed!...
Seriously, if you already have a newsreader or can install one then you really would be better off from doing so, you can obtain a free Usenet account at
Well, that's one of those apparently simple questions that turns out to be more coml0picated than it seems.
What is it, exactly? "Old OO gauge track" could mean all kinds of things. For example, is it old Triang track? Unless you want to run old Triang trains on it, it's not worth keeping (but some die-hard Triang fan may be grateful to get it.) Etc and so on and so forth.
General comment:
If it's made of brass, dump it. The oxides that form on brass are insulators, and you'll be forever cleaning the track, especially if you smoke (which I hope you don't, as cigarette money is is better spent on model railways!)
Otherwise, use washing up iiquid, or a mild, non-abrasive and non-corrosive cleanser, plus a tooth brush, to clean off the dirt. Do not use sandpaper or "track rubbers" to clean the rails, use steel wool instead. And a magnet to pick up the bits. Abrasive cleaners leave scratches, which have two bad properties: they casue sparking, and they accumulate gunk, both of which lead to even dirteir track than yoy started with. Once you've cleaned the rails with steel wool, use a metal polish (the anti-tarnish kind works best) to polish the rial head.
However, if the rail is really dirty, I wouldn't bother cleaning it. Track is relatively inexpensive compared to the value of your time. Not to mention that cleaning dirty track is not likely to sweeten your disposition. ;-)
HTH
many thanks to all of you for your comments. After reading all the above and looking at the track again i think its probably not worth my while and pain in trying to get it all cleaned up and to be honest some of it looks rather tatty.
So its looks like an ebay and shopping trip coming up.
Cheers ray
Contradict yourself why not!...
plus a tooth brush, to clean off the dirt. Do
A proper track rubber is less abrasive than steel wool, and less likely to leave harmful swarf behind, waiting to get picked up into the gears and motors...
A correction. "Salt" - sodium chloride is neutral, its pH in solution being 7. The reason that salt promotes corrosion in particular rusting is due to it being ionic not because it is acidic. In damp conditions the charged ions improve the electrical conductivity of water and thus electrolytic corrosion of metal is much faster.
Are you sure there is "salt" in detergent? The reason I ask is that when I was teaching chemistry one of the things I got my students to do when starting qualitative analysis was to test everyday substances like detergents for particular ions like sodium and chloride ions. Whilst as expected (since detergents are usually sodium or potassium compounds of organic acids) they found sodium ions (flame test) they didn't find chloride ions (silver nitrate test). However it was in dishwasher powder.
Lanolin used to be added to detergents ("hands as soft as your face") which would lead to a slightly greasy surface to whatever was washed so didn't make it very good for electrically surfaces like rails.
NB I am assuming that you are using the eveyday meaning of "salt" ie common salt or sodium chloride. To chemists salt means a class of ionic compounds.
Alan
The other problem associated with old corroded rail is the electrical conductivity between rails through the rail joiners. If you do manage to clean the track replace the old rail joiners with new ones and use a small needle file to clean the end of the track going into the joiners or solder wires between each section of track.
Alan
Or wire it properly with droppers to each piece of track.
MBQ
k rubbers" to clean the rails, use steel
So why did you recommend the Peco one? It's probably the worst possible choice of track rubber.
MBQ
A funny thing happened on the way to my chem lectures this week - we're studying detergents so I can answer your question.
There are 4 different detergent types anionic, cationic, non ionic and zwitterion (yes it's a real word).
Anionic surfactants have sodium as the active hydrophilic head. Anionic surfactants are used in dishwashing detergents as glass and china is negatively charged from the silica used in their production so tend to attract positively charged dirt and personal care products because its a cheap foaming agent.
Cationic surfactants have chlorine in their active head. They are typically used in fabric detergents to soften the fibres - the fibres have a negative charge that repel each other to produce stiffness. The cationic head removes the negative charges thus softening the fabric. They are also used in shampoo and mouthwash.
I wont bore you with more, but there was no mention of sodium chloride in any of the discussion of detergents, nor would I expect there to be given the alleged criteria for a good detergent is a hydrophilic active head and a hydrophobic part, which form miscelles. Salt is ionic and totally dissolves in water and I wouldn't expect it to form a conjugate base or acid either without an excess of protons or hydroxide ions in the water somehow as the result of another ingredient (although water ionisation is a further discussion for another day and not for an OT discussion on this group).
The Fleischmann track rubber is often available, is finer and harder and is far superior to the Peco one.
IYO, and considering that you don't have the brain cells to find a proper nntp server...
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