Cleaning Atlas Track

I wipe the rails with a soft cotton cloth dampened with alcohol from the pharmacy (71% or 91%). The best track as far as I'm concerned.

MELGAR

I wipe the track down with Goo Gone first, then follow that up with a good wipe down with Denatured Alcohol.

Why the two step process you say...the Goo Gone really takes off all the dirt, but it can damage your traction tires hence the alcohol second step.

Try alcohol alone then go over it with Goo Gone and see how much dirt was left behind.   

I find most of the dirt on the outer rails. Probably due to traction tires. Sometimes, a second pass with alcohol is necessary.

MELGAR

Sometimes I use a Bright Boy eraser type track cleaner on the outside rails, and denatured alcohol, sometimes goo gone.... Then I wipe the track off again with a clean dry cloth.... The trains run so much better on clean track. Also, I found if I turn the smoke units off the track doesn’t get quite as dirty so fast. Great Question. Happy Railroading Everyone

I hate performing manual labor that does not interest me.  This is how I do it.

@Ron045 posted:

I hate performing manual labor that does not interest me.  This is how I do it.

Ron,

Great idea!  I may try it.   NH Joe

We use the the track cleaning cars from North East Trains on the G&O garden railroad.  Because it is a garden railroad, the G&O track gets very dirty between every operating session.  

We push two track cleaning cars ahead of an engine.  The cars need to be ahead of the engine so that the engine will not stall on dirty track.  (Ron shows this arrangement in his video above.)

We put Goo Gone on the leading pad of the leading track cleaning car.  The second pad of the leading track cleaning car is soaked with 91% isopropyl alcohol.  The two pads of the trailing track cleaning car are left dry.  The pads on the trailing track cleaning car soak up any liquid, including water, that may be on the rails.  

We have tried other cleaners on the pads but the combination of Goo Gone and 91% isopropyl alcohol has worked the best.  

The track cleaning train is run over the entire layout including all the sidings.  This gets the Atlas track clean in a few minutes.

The North East Trains track cleaning pads can be washed and reused many times.   We have used some of them for 10 years. They become stained but they still work if they are washed.  Hand washing is best.  

The basic car is best because it can withstand rough handling.

NH Joe

Oh my gosh New Haven Joe ... You are cleaning track on a garden railroad???

You should investigate battery operation.  Simple and easy.

Bob Delbridge and Bob Walker here on OGR are local experts.  Check out the DeadRail Society on FB.

I just did some O Scale F-7s in battery.  I absolutely love it.

Ron

Ron,

We are a club so we need to be able to run anything that a member brings to the club - conventional, TMCC, Legacy, DCS, battery, etc.  Only one member has battery operated engines.  I am in the process of having one of my professionally converted to battery power.  Most of my engines are Legacy or DCS.  

Here is a link to the G&O Story on the forum:

https://ogrforum.com/.../the-gandamp-o-story

NH Joe