Soda Blasting 3 rail Train Track

While I cannot comment on the efficacious of blasting it, as to the question of damaging the track (further) the answer is likely "yes". If you are using a mechanical means to scrub the rust away, you almost assuredly will also blast away what remains of the plating that is (or, rather, should be) keeping it from rusting in the first place.  That being said...if the track is already very rusted you probably don't have much to lose.  Wiping down the blasted track with a light coat of oil may help retard the rust returning once it's clean, but you will likely have to rinse-and-repeat the procedure at some point not too far down the line.

Before blasting, though, a question: do you have rust on the rails or is it just discolored and grimy/dirty?  If the latter, there's probably no need to resort to blasting but rather you should focus on just cleaning first.  You might be surprised at how well it works once cleaned with rubbing alcohol, naptha, etc.

dpg posted:

I have a lot of older 3 rail track that has corrosion and grime on it. I recently got a blasting cabinet for other projects and was wondering if I could soda blast the old track?

Will using the medium ARMEX powder work and not damage the track ?

Thanks in advance for your help

Dave

It depends on how narrow of a blast area you can create. The risks are blasting out the insulating material under the center rail and blasting off the coating that's on the rail.

try a few pieces.

Soaking the track in Evapo-Rust definitely works to recover rough track.

Look at the cost of new track at Menard's and decide what your time and materials are worth versus the new track.

I second EvapoRust, amazing stuff. 

I recovered a bunch of cars and locomotives that were submerged in salt water for some time during hurricane Sandy using EvapoRust.  I even submerged the complete motors, didn't lose a single one, they all worked when cleaned up.  I did have to repaint the frames of the K-Line cars, the black paint came off in sheets.  Interestingly enough, the MTH car frames were like new, no paint damage at all.

Dave, since you already own the equipment, take a really bad piece and see what happens.

As both Carl and JTrains said there are alternatives.  If you have only dirt and oil, blasting won't help; just wash the track with alcohol or napththa in a well ventilated area or outside.

I was at a car show once and there was a guy there with a portable display for his business which was soda blasting cars. I talked with him for a while about it. He said that soda blasting does not remove rust only paint. I am sure there are other types of media that will but this is what the guy told me. I would go with the EvapoRust or new track as suggested above.

Bead blasting will remove rust, been there, done that.  However, it was much easier to pour the gallon of EvapoRust into a tray and just dunk the parts for a few hours.

I totally agree John. The reason why soda blasting became popular was if someone wanted to change the color of a car that had little or no rust it can remove the paint easily while not harming the body panels in any way. I saw pictures of the panels from a car that was in good shape body wise and they looked like new metal without any paint on them. In my opinion soda blasting isn't the right way to get rust off three rail track. You're right bead blasting will work but I am sure the EvapoRust is much easier.