Why does my track get dirty

A rag with  denatured alcohol on it. Don't use rubbing alcohol, denatured only. Tom

Too much oil will do it.
If you clean your track and then put a loco and/or rolling stock on it with dirty wheels, your track will be dirty again.

That, and airborn dust adds to it. Also, some steam locos might leak excessive smoke fluid out the bottom.

Cleaning your track may not be enough, you also need to clean the wheelsets on your rolling stock and powered units. They pick up the stuff from the rails, and if you clean the rails then run them, it gets back onto the rails. I would recommend cleaning the track and cleaning the wheelsets of your rolling stock and such, and see if that cuts down the cleaning you need to do. 

 

As others have pointed out, you may be putting too much oil on your trains, the key word is sparingly, the oil gets on the tracks and among other things, attracts dust and dirt. 

 

One other suggestion is if you have hot air heat, have a HEPA air filter running in the room, it may help keep down the dust (not a bad idea in general). 

The primary cause is the electrical current passing between the wheels/ rollers and the track creating the byproduct of black oxidation on the track, oil etc can exacerbate the problem. 

 

I use 91%( or greater) isopropyl alchohol on a paper towel, because it leaves no lint.

Running smoke seems to get my track dirty quicker.  Some claim they never clean the tracks, myself I end up doing it every 6 weeks or so.

 

The denatured Alcohol does seem to do a good job, just be careful with static electricity and please don't do it with the power on to the tracks.

 

Jim

We clean the track with NON-FLAMMABLE Lectro-Motive Cleaner by CRC. Short money for a large can at PEP boys, Lowe's, etc. Spray on a lint free rag and wipe the track, or spray on the cleaning pad or roller on your track cleaning car, no more dirt or excess oil. We use it to clean wheels and rollers also. Every new Locomotive has it's wheels cleaned and bearings oiled before it's run, and every locomotive here has it's regular maintenance done in the shop; getting wheel and roller bearings oiled, wheels and rollers cleaned and batteries charged. It's the only way to run a railroad efficiently.

Has anybody ever invented a section of track(s) that you can run trains over to clean their wheels?

I thought I read on a post some time ago that, in addition to the reasons above, traction tires will leave a coating on the rails.  If that's right, I assume the longer the consist (i.e. engine strain) the more traction tire wear.

 

Bill

Even when my track is coated with oil and grime, I have 9's and 10's on the DCS track signal and no trouble with TMCC. Except for getting black track marks on my arms if I need to work on something, maintaining clean track, IMHO, is over-rated in 3-rail. HO DCC is a different story.

 

          Bob Di Stefano

In HO and N I've used paper towels over the rails, with and without cleaning fluid, then manually worked cars back and forth with varying side pressure to clean the wheel treads. I don't think this would work so well in 3-rail because the crud builds up so thickly on O-gauge wheels that I often have to pick it off in chunks with a tool, then finish-clean metal wheel treads with a miniature wire wheel in a Dremel tool.

 

So the bottom line is, I don't think there is an easy and effective way to clean wheels just by driving your trains over a special piece of track.

 

Actually I do very little wheel cleaning, after initial cleaning of equipment acquired second-hand. I run simple home-made track cleaner cars (with replaceable denim cloth pads) on many of my trains, so the rails are cleaned regularly during normal train operation. I've been doing this for 20+ years in HO, N and O. That way I have consistantly clean rails, better electrical pickup, wheels stay cleaner much longer and maintenance overall is reduced.

 

 

Home-made track-cleaner car for O-gauge.

 

 

A cheap BEEP modified for track cleaning service.