Track Cleaning

Here's how I keep my tracks clean and show just what I have been using for the last 30 years. Long before “Centreline” brought out their roller on wheels made out of brass, I had thought about a contraption, which could alleviate the tedious method of track cleaning, and came up with the following ideas.

1)         This simple flatcar using a   Track scrubber with very fine Wet/dry 800 emery paper

2)              A cleaner that rolled around using Isopropyl Alcohol soaked into a cloth (J-cloth)

3)                 And a cloth cleaner to clean off the residue afterwards. Again using J- cloth.

Here are all my units being used at once, the scrubber followed by the rolling  cleaner followed by the stationery dry cleaner.

The first unit to do its job is what I call a scrubber using 800 wet/dry paper (Very fine)

This unit has a sprung weight with the wet/dry paper on it and is pressed onto the tracks. Needless to say the unit itself is quite heavy being made out of steel.

The second unit has a revolving wheel, which actually rolls on the track; the roller is solid stainless steel and has a j-cloth around it to serve two purposes. 1) to allow the  Isopropyl Alcohol to be soaked on it and 2) to stop a dead short across the tracks.

The last unit is similar to the second but the roller doesn’t revolve, it stays still and picks up the gung. The roller needs to be rotated occasionally to allow a clean part onto the tracks.

For those wishing to make a roller for your selves, it is quite easy. A piece of Aluminum (for H0 and 0n30) 5” long by 1 ½” wide and 3/8” thick is needed. Stainless steel rod ¾” diameter with a 1/8” clear hole in the centre. One stainless steel rod  1/8” by 1 ½” long.

Well, there you have it. No need for dirty tracks anymore, just make yourself one of the above and it will help to keep your tracks clean. Making all three will certainly keep all tracks clean without the needs to scrub the tracks by hand.