best track cleaning method?

NONE: I rarely clean my O gauge (FasTrack) and standard gauge (tubular) track, and both my DCS and Legacy systems work just fine. 

I don't know but I would think it would cause deposits of dust and ATF and built up on all the train wheels and cars , I don't think I would use that method .I've seen many hobbyist make there own design of a track cleaning car with different type of pads mounted on there cleaning car and let that car run with there regular layout, that works great and leaves no residue!

Alan

ATF is a petroleum product. Why would you put an oily substance on your track? Oil, grease, dust and dirt are exactly the stuff you want to remove. ATF is good at dissolving gunk, but then, where does that gunk go unless it is wiped off the track and wiped off the rolling stock wheels? And you don't want ATF, or any solvent for that matter, contacting traction tires. I use an O gauge Rail Lines track cleaning car that uses 2" long foam paint rollers (Whizz brand, at Lowe's) and denatured alcohol on the leading roller, leaving the trailing roller dry. I've used it for years without problems. Denatured alcohol evaporates quickly, leaves no residue on the track or rolling stock wheels, contains no water which can rust steel rails. It works. Or you can use a cloth wetted with lacquer thinner, but that will adversely affect some plastics and rubber - such as American Flyer plastic wheels and traction tires. Or you can use a Trackman cleaning car which uses an abrasive pad like Scotchbrite. However, long term use of an abrasive pad will remove the black coating on the top of the center rail of GarGraves track.

what do you think the other 30% of 70% denatured alcohol is?

I clean my 3-rail track about every three months or so using Goo-Gone and elbow grease. I use t-shirt rags from the Lowe's hardware paint section.  First one with cleaner on it (a little goes a long way) and then a dry one. My 9x6 layout takes about five minutes. This is also the method we use on the club's modular layout.

Since the SD3R Operate approximately 250 days a year, we have to clean track daily because lot of the members don't clean their wheels. (I am one of them.) We take two plate metal type flatcars, put a block in where the cut out is, and the way we clean track is using that block and a generic "Sham-Wow" cutted up to fit the track width, that the late Billy Mays always advertised. We clean the track with those and we use GOO-gone and Denatured Alcohol until you can see the pad as it was when it was cut, you can see no track marks on the pad.

Denatured alcohol is just that - alcohol. No water and nothing else. You can buy 91% alcohol in a drug store, it still has 9% water and will not ignite.

this msds states denatured alcohol is 91 percent alcohol, that leaves 9 percent something else.

far from your statement.

Except in the yard I just use my homemade track cleaning car designed to be run dry.  Works fine.

.....

Dennis

Denatured alcohol, also called methylated spirits, is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, extremely bad tasting, foul smelling or nauseating, to discourage recreational consumption. In some cases it is also dyed.

Denatured alcohol is used as a solvent and as fuel for alcohol burners and camping stoves. Because of the diversity of industrial uses for denatured alcohol, hundreds of additives and denaturing methods have been used. The main additive has traditionally been 10% methanol, giving rise to the term "methylated spirits". Other typical additives include isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, and denatonium.^[1]

Denaturing alcohol does not chemically alter the ethanol molecule. Rather, the ethanol is mixed with other chemicals to form an undrinkable solution. For many of these solutions, there is no practical way to separate the components. Labels such as "cannot be made nonpoisonous" communicate to users that they should not trust any alcohol claiming to be rendered safe by distilling, filtering, or additives. 

Use whatever you want to clean your track. End of thread.

Not to burst your bubble, but 91% and even 70% "drug/grocery store" isopropyl alcohol will ignite. The flame is virtually invisible.

As for major track cleaning, we use a cleaning car with a chamois-like cloth soaked with denatured alcohol. We usually don't have to do it because we have a dry cleaning car sitting in the through yard and typically one of the kids has it in a train.

North East Trains, Track Cleaning Car, O - Gauge, Peabody, MA 

Lionel Track cleaning stone & Goo - Gone

and a homemade track cleaning car. This video is from my YT Channel.

Gary • Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway

denaturing is a generic process.  there are many different formulations.  the MSDS you reference is only one of many.  aside from minor impurities, there are basically two alcohol mixtures which are commercially available, 70% and 91% which initially contain 30% and 9% water respectively.  alcohol is extremely hygroscopic, though, so after being opened, 91% alcohol does not remain that concentrated for very long.

in a way, mtnhi7 was correct in saying denatured alcohol "as the active component" is often 100% alcohol (a mixture of ethanol and methanol), but it is commercially impossible to produce a 100% alcohol solution which is why it is bottled in lesser concentrations.

cheers...gary

Hello, I'm old fashion and lazy so I just periodically hook up the old Lionel 3927 PW TrackCleaning car & run it around a couple of times. The trains run well & the TMCC works so I'm happy. 

Cleaning track is not something I enjoy doing.  On the other hand, I like very much to have a clean layout and that includes the track.  I do not oil anything that touches the track; I almost never use the smoke on the engines unless folks are over seeing the trains; and I always use household laundry ammonia on a micro cloth with a block wood to clean the track perfectly.  Yes, I have track that don't rust and always let the track dry overnight so they will thoroughly dry from the ammonia.  Layout is 16 years old runs great with DCS and I get a ton of enjoyment from it and all you folks!!

The two types are ethanol which is denatured, or made non-consumable and isopropyl, the common type found in drug stores.

The difference is that the commonly available denatured alcohol is diluted with another chemical and the isopropyl is diluted with water. Their chemical structures differ which allows isopropyl to be diluted with water and not lose it's properties.

I have found that the denatured can harm some plastics around trains depending on which additive is used by the manufacturer. The Sunnyside brand is readily available in my area and the additive only messes with certain types of plastics and not all of them.

I didn't like the water content in the isopropyl commonly available.

What I did find was a commercial grade isopropyl (99%) available by the gallon at my local Fastenal store. It could be that they have customer's that use it, so they stock it.

The isopropyl is definitely safer around plastics and has a lower volatility. The smell isn't as bad after track cleaning sessions. This has basically the minimum non-alcohol content one can get with isopropyl.

I have uses for both and keep both around as well as other solvents.

So, ATF gets no where near my trains, nor does Goo-gone or lighter fluid.

Use an alcohol for rail cleaning.

I think we just ran through this track cleaning thing last week.  from what I read in that thread and understand about physics is a track cleaning car is in reality a dirt spreading car after the first few feet if track (as soon as the pad gets dirty unless you change the pad every few feet)  alcohol of any type is highly flammable and I saw a spark ignite it while track was being cleaned, luckily an extinguisher was at hand. a better choice is and our choice now is "non flammable electrical contact cleaner". virtually the same price when purchased by the gallon and cleans extremely well.

I prefer to occasionally run a homemade track cleaning car like Dennis. It's a weighted flat with a 'scotchbrite' pad between the trucks - you can see it derailed on the right in the photo below.  Frankly, a soft rag and the previously mentioned elbow grease also work great

you all are funny.

the san diego 3 railers has been using denatured alcohol since 2002, on the permanent layout and on the modular layout before that, 6 days a week with no adverse affect.

none of you will ever convince us otherwise.

how can you argue with success?

care to identify the magic product?

One can't. You have hundreds of feet more track than most do.I second the denatured alcohol.

The best track cleaning method is to run some kind of a track cleaning car - whichever is your favorite - over every track on the layout at least weekly.  It is much easier to keep the track clean than to have to make the track clean.

I am currently engaged in crawling all over my own layout on 69-year-old knees with a brite-boy and an alcohol-soaked rag for having become lax in running the track cleaning car at least weekly.  That's my penance and I deserve it.

Well, if you don't want to use denatured alchohol, there's always "Simple Green".

(Said with tongue firmly in cheek.)

For the intent of our conversation here (i.e. track cleaning), you could dilute ethanol with water and it would work just as well as isopropyl as a solvent to clean your track. Both contain the alcohol functional group and are thus miscible in water. The issue is that, since any type of alcohol is dirt cheap to manufacture on an industrial scale, and ethanol is the type we consume, ethanol is doctored to make it undrinkable so to prevent people from circumventing the state taxes on alcohol by going to the hardware store and buying a gallon for $2. Sure, you could drink isopropyl, but it's not safe as your body will metabolize them into acetone and formaldehyde (which are toxic). Besides that and the ability of one to evaporate better, I think the deeper chemistry is irrelevant; sure, both are flammable, but in a normal setting (where you hopefully don't have any sources of ignition available) you shouldn't have to worry about that.

Rag and Goo Gone.

I think it is amusing how this subject (track cleaning) comes up on this forum in repeating cycles that are opposite the cycles of how to get more smoke out of engines, dummy engines, cabeese, and factories on the layout.

Tom B

I question the use of ATF fluid.  As someone pointed out, it IS a petroleum product and will leave an oily film.  And this film will attract, dissolve and hold dust.  I have never thought that ATF was a contact improver.

I use a car that has a felt pad held down by a weight and dragged over the RR.  This picks up loose dirt and any oil accumulation.  But I also use an old "Ribbonrail" track cleaning car that has three, spring loaded abrasive stones.  This is used to actually scrape off and eliminate any oxidation that occurs on the rail.  Running the two of them around my layout has proven to me to be very effective. 

One of the guys on the forum had built a track cleaning car with one of those 12v. car vacuums, set up to   work off of track power.  I think that this would be the "ultimate" as far as track cleaners are concerned.  By picking up most of the dust and residue from the abrasive stones, should just about eliminate any source of electrical resistance on the track surface.

Paul Fischer

Loctite?

"Loctite Nonflammable Electrical Contact Cleaner"

http://www.henkelna.com/produc...nodeid=8797898604545

It does have a warning about powdered aluminum

http://www.grainger.com/ec/pdf...eaner-Data-Sheet.pdf

I've tried the Centerline rail cleaning car but found that it slides as much dirt around as it picks up.

The best method is by hand with a rag that is constantly turned or folded to expose an unsoiled area. 

As for solvents, I stay away from denatured alcohol due to health concerns.

I tried 91 percent rubbing alcohol but have found that it doesn't work as well as Goo Gone.

After using it, I then wipe the track with a dry cloth to remove GG residue that might harm the traction tires. 

I've never had a layout that was too large to be cleaned by hand.

Yes Matt it will burn, i used to use rubbing alcohol to fire a model steam engine.

While I would agree that nothing works better than doing it by hand, sometimes that is not realistic.

We use these, with either Isopropyl or Denatured alcohol, both work great.

This always brings up a large variety of varied responses.  I wish there was a forum list that had track cleaning, what track do you use, what smoke fluid, etc that seem to pop up all the time.  Not sure how it could be other than a survey to be helpful to those asking. Just a thought as it does come up fairly often.   I have learned that what works great for you might not work great for me so I will chime in with the Goo Gone on my fastrack.  Simple green is death for fastrack.

the NJHR club does it by hand, very realistic when you have 4 or 5 volunteers dedicated to this task. pretty much the most track I have seen in one place.

depends a bit on the track,  but old school for me,  nothing but clean rags and elbow grease..........  I cannot imagine what big layout owners must do (or not do,  doing nothing at all)

Mark

That really is NOT true on my layout. I run the Centerline rollers and they BUILD UP dirt after about 5 trips around my 200 ft mainline run. That means they are collecting dirt for about 800 to about 1,000 feet.

I have tunnels now so the hand cleaning is out of the question for me, but spreading dirt evenly around seems better than having patches of clean next to patches of dirty accumulation.

I've done the hand track cleaning thing. I'm sure there are some places on the large hand scrubbed layouts that are just a little out of reach, on the other side of a building, hill or tree that are not getting scrubbed down adequately. 

This seems to be a recurring topic. It must be a universal problem.

I keep my track consistently clean by running "track wipers" on most of my trains. I use home-made track wiper cars in N- HOn30 - HO - S - O gauges. The basic principle is to use a disposable denim cloth material (cut from old jeans) which is replaced when it gets dirty. I run these in regular trains as a maintenance practice. It gives me reliable operation and minimizes the need to clean wheels over the long term.

There are many different ways to make your own track cleaner cars. Use your imagination with the equipment that you have. 

I use a Dewalt belt sander equipped with #40 grit belts.Want to be sure there is no dirt on the surface of the rails.Nick