Clean rust off tracks

After reading many threads on rusty track, the most popular were either CLR or evaporust. I opted to try CLR, which was $5 at Target. I soaked some very rusty track in it for about 10-15 minutes, then scrubbed the rust with a wire brush (gloves and goggles). All of the rust came off, I then used a drill bit just about the size of a track pin to clean out inside the rails. They all work well now.

With how well the CLR worked, I wouldn't try anything like muriatic acid, which may eat away at the rails, ties, your hands, etc. I use it to acid wash my pool filter and it is nasty stuff.

Thanks for that info, will use CLR. Ands about using a small drill bit to clean out the inside of rails, sounds good to me.  Never thought of that.  Ed

While the drill bit worked for me, I'm not sure if I scored the insides of the rails or took off the plating. The jury is still out on how long the electrical connectivity will last. If I did it again, I would use a round wire brush (like a pipe cleaner, but with stronger bristles) instead of a drill bit in the drill and run that inside the rail. Good luck.

I used evaporust to clean about a dozen pieces of standard gauge track.  I took the track apart and soaked the rails, ties and pins for about an hour.  I used a toothbrush to loosen up the solution and then rinsed with clean water through the rails and you could see the rusty solution run off.  Fifteen minutes in the oven at 180 degrees dried the metal.  All that was left was a light grey residue, but the rust was gone inside and out.  I used a carbon steel wire brush on the Dremel tool to clean up the rails, painted the ties with Rustoleum and re-assembled.  It took a Saturday afternoon, and the evaporust goes back into the container for next time.

 

Before and after:

 

 

 

Installed on the layout with no conductivity problems:

 

muriatic acid is very dangerous, be very careful.

you can get badly burned if you dont know what your doing

Here's a method you won't hear a lot about, vinegar.  You can also use Evapo-Rust.

Samplingman - that's astounding.  Those look brand-new!

There is a burnishing service but they charge around $1 per piece plus shipping.  Can you tell me how much time it took to do this once you got the process down?  It may be like me taking an hour to iron a shirt.  Not really worth doing it myself. Your results look phenomenal. 

Interesting. I'll have to try that.

I use vinegar to clean off rust and corrosion, you have to thoroughly rinse after the treatment.  Baking in a 150 degree oven is a good way to chase the moisture away before you get more rust.

 

For cleaning inside the rail ends, I use some very small stainless steel brushes I got from McMaster Carr.

I've wondered how to clean inside the rails, and envisioned something like the brushes.  That sounds like the way to go.

With the evapo-rust solution it takes care of the rust inside and out. I had a little assembly line going and basically took the better part of a Saturday afternoon to do 12 sections, I'd say about four hours. At 5 bucks a section I saved $60. The most time consuming part was using the Dremel, but I'm sure there is a better tool out there. I picked up the box of 36 pieces for $10, very common find at York, and the jug of evapo for $15, but I can re-use a couple of times. It was worth it to me, and once I got the process down I could probably do more in less time. I'm going to try vinegar next time and see how that works.

I get boxes of usable but ugly track given to me all the time. I just restored a box of 60 straights that were removed from an old layout. It was a shame to toss it out because it was rusty and filthy. 

 

I bead blast each section, up, down, over, and under until stripped and clean. I then disassemble each section, give each tie another shot with with the blaster then I blacken the ties with gun blue, and wash with soap and water and hand dry. I then five each tie an oil bath and wipe clean and dry. Then I reassemble each section using the rivet press to crimp each tie tight. Looks factory new when done.

 

Gandy

Hey guys...

I just wanted to throw this idea out at you...I know we all don't have this option but once I gave a prewar train to a good friend, he took the original track I gave hi with it and he put it in his sandblast cabinet using walnut shells for the media. I just couldn't believe it, in fact he sent me a section of track to show me how they turned out. It cleaned up everything and didn't seem to me to hurt the plating or anything. Just an idea if you have the equipment and want to try it....

 Vinegar is the ultimate household cleaner, it has many, many uses around the house and is not toxic or dangerous to use.

 

 I wonder if a hair dryer could be used as a drying method instead  of an oven.?

 

 I think I will try it on a section of track, thanks for the tip.

 

Thanks Again,

 

John

Vinegar works well, but you MUST totally rinse it off after cleaning with it.

I just tried vinegar to clean up some rusty train car parts and it works pretty well. Soaked some items 2 or 3 hours, depending on how much rust. Thanks for the tip!

I use Evapo-Rust for some stuff, but the vinegar is good when there is also some calcium deposits, eats that stuff right up!

When I cleaned off my Super O track all I used was abrasive buff's with a Dremel tool  

I got a bunch of them and seems to work pretty good and sometimes I polish them 

With Flitz polish for a nice shine.

 

Tin

I used Metal Rescue.  Worked great.  Non toxic, environmentally safe, leaves no residue behind.  You have to soak for a couple hours or more, I put a set of PW trucks, wires shoes and all in the metal rescue and gave it a quick rinse when it was finished -  even though the bottle says I didn't need to and it came out clean and no damage to the other parts.

 

Metal Rescue sounds just like Evapo-Rust, it works the same way.  Works great, so if Metal Rescue works like that, it's a keeper.

I Love EnvapoRust.  I get it at Harbor Freight with a 20% coupon.  One of the great things about it besides being non toxic is that you can reuse it over and over again.  I have a Tupperware container on my workbench that I put my rusty parts in when I am cleaning.  I just leave them in there overnight.

If you can find agricultural vinegar, that should do the trick quite well.

It's not your home vinegar, very strong stuff.  I've use it as my pickle

when doing silver work. Just rinse it off with water. Can be found at

real Farm & Garden stores not the Big Box stores.

id watch american restoration..Rick said vinegar...but apple cyder vinegar works the best.. id use metal prep..it a acid cleaner to clean steel brass and other metal ..we use that after we sand the metal down to get,that rid of any rust oils off ..we use that stuff to clean new bear metal before we etch primed and  prime it and paint..thats how new cars trains are done by this method..also I use my metal prep with a red scotch bright pad to scuff the tracks down with..

I just use the white vinegar from the supermarket, it's worked well for me.  I'll have to check out agricultural vinegar, might work faster than the white vinegar.

All vinegars are acid. Household white vinegar is fairly dilute.

I add some vinegar and Simple Green to water, and use it in my ultrasonic cleaner to dissolve rust. The solution also removes all blackening.

 

As has previously been written, one has to be careful to rinse away the solution afterwards.

The solution also removes any oil based metal protectant. So the metal will rust again quickly unless something is applied.

Hmm, I never thought I'd see a recommendation for Simple Green and track here.

I'd used to use sinple green unit purple power came out..It's better and stronger cleaner.. I'd use that to degrees engine compartments ,clean carpets.floors,even for laundry on stuboren stains..

 This is getting scary.  Where's Lee?

 

 How about bead blasting ? I've never tried it,but I wonder if it would be too much on track ?

 Or how about a shaker with walnut bits ?

Is that anything like Glacial Acetic acid? Used to have a botle of it when I had a darkroom, straight out of the bottle it could eat holes in stainless steel!

 

Jerry

I've bead blasted chassis and shells, and it's a bit too labor intensive to do a bunch of tracks, at least IMO.  The only problem with a shaker is you're liable to pull the track apart, especially if a bunch of track were all co-mingled in the shaker. 

here's an option I read about in Classic Toy Trains.

Put them in the dishwasher! Dont know if the original

author got any good results and I cant garantee what

your wifie might say about putting that stuff in her dishwasher!!

I can't see where the dishwasher would remove rust, it doesn't remove it from old utensils I put in there.  Also, the same issues about wrecking the paper insulator would apply as would for other submersion methods.

i suppose if you put viniger in the dishwasher

it would do double duty, clean the track and the

inside of the dishwasher, but i didnt even think

about the paper insulators, it would probably ruin them.