Track cleaning revisited

 The tl;dr version is this:

1. Mineral Spirits is the best bet for track cleaning fluid
2. An abrasive like a Bright Boy is said to be bad due to creating micro-abrasions, which can hurt conductivity as it causes gunk to build up.  But if you've neglected your track for 10+ years there may be zones where you need an abrasive material to get rid of rust or similar just to get it to work.

Starting up again I knew I was in for a major cleaning job.  I'd neglected the layout for 10 years, often it was used for storage so stuff got spilled.  It was all kinds of dirty.  I tested 3 types of cleaning fluid on 3 parallel tracks for a 12 foot distance.  I used several locomotives, all which had been opened out of the case for the first time and had newly installed decoders (and which had been confirmed to run well using a separate, fully clean, test track).

Mineral Spirits is recommended by many prominent model railroaders.   Denatured Alcohol is the main cleaning fluid that the Colorado Model Railroad Museum in Greeley, CO, uses.  (A great place - a future post about it is warranted.)  Isopropyl Alcohol was my mainstay since the 1970s - both 70% and 91% versions.

Well, the Isopropyl Alcohol lost the test badly.   Probably fine for a frequent light clean of an already clean track.  The other two both did great.  So, I started with the Denatured Alcohol because the CMRM has very smart people.  But they also have great ventilation.  I don't in winter.  The next day in that room my eyes watered badly and I had to air the place out despite the freezing temps.  So Denatured Alcohol was disqualified, leaving Mineral Spirits.  I may do Denatured Alcohol again in the summer when the windows are open.

Even after my first cleaning there were bad spots on the track and some track areas showed visible rust and just would not clean no matter how much scrubbing was done. The Bright Boy tool, something I bought decades ago but used rarely, followed by more cleaning with mineral spirits, solved most of the remaining cleaning problems.  But even then a new unexpected behavior occurred: Locomotives would run just fine over track but in some spots wouldn't notice DCC commands to, for example, stop moving or turn off lights.  More repeat cleaning would solve that, but I then had to retest all of the track I thought was clean to detect those DCC-fuzzy spots.

Track cleaning car revived

Got the CMX Track Cleaning car working again.

"Track Cleaning" is another one of those internet forum debate topics. Everyone has to do it, there are lots of products and solutions out there, and there are a few people who post extraordinary claims such as "I just put a drop of flubber oil on the track once every 10 years and never worry about dirty track again". But the reality seems to be that there is no perfect solution, so you keep trying stuff until you find what works for you.

I won't go over every thing I've tried, however in the end I've always returned to cleaning by hand with rubbing alcohol and a paper towel. Alas, that doesn't work for out of reach track, and it's also a slow process. Furthermore, experience is that it's easier to keep clean track clean proactively than to reactively address dirty track. So I figured that it is best if I start a regular habit of automated track cleaning for this new staging area now, before it gets dirty. And that means finding a cleaning car that works.

The CMX solution looks pretty good, actually, and it seemed to work well today. I bought this car a couple years ago, but ran into a problem. The CMX has some very detailed instructions. One thing they talk about is using either very strong solvents which are good for very dirty track, but dangerous, or milder solvents which are good if the track is already pretty clean. The list of mild solvents included Fantastik and Formula 409. Well, as far as I can tell whatever 409 they were thinking of was a different 409 than the one I got -- which is possible since manufacturers often use the same product name for lots of similar things. In any event, I simply used the wrong solvent. Too sudsy, it got gunk on everything. The CMX car was a mess and the track needed manual cleaning.

So, I set the CMX aside and tried the Atlas cleaning car I got at the same time. I, alas, opened it to find it was for DC only. But, I found someone on the internet who was selling imported DCC board decoders for the car. I bought one, but it didn't work. Possibly because the instructions were a Google Japanese translation. At that point I gave up, picked up the paper towels and rubbing alcohol again, and put the two cleaning cars in boxes that went into my "project stack".

Today I opened the CMX project box, used water, an old toothbrush, and a scrubbing pad to clean everything off. Put all the pieces back together and tested that the car ran okay. Then re-read the instructions and used 70% rubbing alcohol (hey, it's not strong but it is a solvent I know and trust). I fiddled with the valve to get the drip rate correct and ran it around the track a few times. The only thing is I don't really know how well that solvent cleans -- but if I find dirt accumulating I'll use something stronger.

Oh, and my Kato F7 had trouble pulling the car. The CMX car is heavy and of course has a lot of drag on the track. The 6-axle SD90/43MAC did much better. It's worth noting that the CMX instructions (which are really written for their HO version) mention that with dirty track you may need two engines to push the cleaning car.

Mid tier bridge complete

The mid tier bridge is now in place, track is down and wired, and testing was completed this morning, as shown in this photo:


The SD90/43MAC engine being tested in this photo has not been converted to DCC yet (a little more than half of my 50+ locos have had decoders installed). The power back being used for testing on the right is a DC power pack. I bought 2 of these packs for about $25 each in 2002 when I first got into N scale and thought I'd try DC cab control.

Now I use DCC on the layout, but the DC power packs are still useful. Being modern packs they function a lot better than the old DC power packs I'd been hauling around previously (and have since given away). In addition, you want at least one DC power pack to test new locomotives before installing a DCC decoder. And the other power pack is useful for powering accessories like lighting or switch motors/machines, unless you want to control switches with DCC.

The yellow and green wires you see running from the power pack to the track are alligator clip wires that you can get in a bundle at an electronics store. These are, IMHO, pretty much a must-have for model railroader as they are so darn useful.

Finally, some discussion about the middle tier bridge. This is a useful bridge technique if you have the need to span a long distance with minimal clearance over the level below. This is, of course, appropriate only in an off-layout area where you aren't trying to model a real bridge. The base of the bridge is thin lauan plywood that is strong enough to hold comfortably the weight of the heaviest train, and has good properties with regard to gluing and retaining screws. The width should be enough for the train and some space on either side for finger access. Too wide, however, may cause the floor to bow inwards. The sides can be made out of any stiff material that attaches easily to the floor -- typically the floor material can be used for the sides, as I've done. the sides should be cut so that the bottom will be a straight edge, because that will define the roadbed level for the bridge. The top-to-bottom width of the sides needs to be sufficient to provide enough strength to hold the trains and prevent sagging.

Support for the bridge comes primarily from the plywood at either end of the bridge. To keep the surface level a notch is cut in the 1/2" plywood so that the last inch or so of the bridge floor rests on the plywood. You can see the notch area in the picture below. In order to fix the bridge in place I first verified all was level (two thin plastic shims helped here) then used Elmer's Wood Glue, which creates a very strong bond with two pieces of wood.

This photo shows the underside of the bridge and the notch area where the right side of the bridge will rest:


When constructing the bridge I was anticipating having to use the wood glue to attach the sides to the floor, but it turned out that the wood held #4 1/2" screws very well -- these are the smallest wood screws you can get in bulk at my Home Depot.

The only real challenge was holding the side and floor in place for the drill hole and the screw. For that I found these very useful:



A small table vise, and an example of the large and small C-Clamps I use. I don't suggest these are the best available. Rather, they are what I've acquired over the years. The red-handled clamps were bought to assist with my German layout almost two decades ago. If I were buying new now I'd go to Micro-Mark, where they have a lot of very slick looking clamp and vise tools.

The next step will be to revive the CMX Track Cleaning car. At each stage so far I've cleaned tracks using the tried-and-true method of isopropyl alcohol (70%) and a paper towel, with a Bright Boy eraser only to get rid of stuff like glue drops. Once clean though, the best thing to do is to keep it clean with regular runs with a track cleaning car. So, I'm going to start that process now before the staging loops get dirty again.