How To Clean Model O Gauge Track With Electrical Wiring

Keeping the rails make clean is a necessary evil in model railroading. And for decades, modelers have been searching for the all-time mode to keep the rails shining. To see if your track needs to be cleaned, just rub you finger across the top of the rail. First, you'll probably want to run to the sink and wash your hands. And then come dorsum and clean your rails.

Liquid Cleaners

maintenance kit

The half-dozen-62927 maintenance kit includes liquid track cleaner and a runway eraser.

At that place are many liquid cleaners on the marketplace, including in Lionel's maintenance kit (6-62927). These can be applied with a soft fabric or paper towel.

There are some household cleaners that will work as well. Through our extensive testing on our own examination tracks, we recommend a cleaner like Goo Gone ®. This is stiff enough to cut through the grease, it'southward easy to notice, and wipes upwardly cleanly. Plus it will leave your train room smelling similar oranges.

Y'all tin can as well utilize this cleaner on wheels. Only put some on a newspaper towel and lay it across the track. Drag your cars dorsum and forth across the wet towel to remove nigh of the dirt. Finish on a dry towel. For locomotives, place the towel nether one set of wheels at a time and apply power to the rails. Permit the locomotive do all the work! Of course you can also install the simple bike cleaners we showed in an earlier blog and you'll minimize your need for this chore.

Abrasive Cleaners

cleaning eraser

Don't forget the accessory rails when cleaning.

Sometimes the virtually effective cleaner is a trivial grease – elbow grease that is. Track cleaning blocks or erasers can be establish at most hobby shops. I is also included in the Lionel maintenance kit.

These cleaning blocks are rubbed across the superlative of the track to remove stubborn oil and clay. They are designed to exist stiff enough to clean the track, but not abrasive plenty to scratch information technology, which would issue in even worse conductivity.

When choosing a rails eraser, look for something designed for this purpose. Sand paper and steel wool may seem to make the job go faster, just they'll practise a lot more than impairment in the long run. Steel wool tin can go out tiny metal shards which get pulled into the armatures of your locomotives' motors (not to mention your fingers!)

These erasers are also helpful for cleaning in the small spaces between switch points where the sides of the track need to stay every bit make clean as the top.

Rails Cleaning Cars

cleaning car

The Lionel track cleaning motorcar uses spinning pads to make clean the track.

Nobody likes to clean track – so why not permit the trains do it for you? Lionel has made several dissimilar rails cleaning cars over the years. Other manufacturers take besides. Some of these use liquid cleaners, some an abrasive block.

To become the best results from any cleaning car, in that location are two things you must do. First, run information technology regularly. These cars do best when only taking a little dirt off at a time. If the rail is allowed to become too dirty, they won't keep upwards or potentially even operate at all.

2nd, change the cleaning pads frequently. When working by hand, it is easy to see when information technology is time to grab a new cloth. With cleaning pads often out of sight on the cars, it is tempting to simply allow them run and run and run. But a muddy pad just spreads the crud around.

Similar most chores, it is easy to put off cleaning your track until the next time you run your trains. Just doing information technology oftentimes volition brand each chore not only faster merely more than constructive. So, have you checked your rails lately?