# Cleaning Brass Track



## Train Dan (Jul 11, 2018)

What should I use to clean my USA brass track? I thought I saw something about using scouring pads or something like that but I can't find any that said for brass? The track was outside for a few months but I read that it loses electrical conductivity if you don't clean it? Fairly new to outside running!
Thanks!


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Dan;

There are several "dry" methods for cleaning the rail heads (that is where your locomotives get their power). One of the simplest is a medium grit drywall sander. It allows you to buff the rail heads while standing upright (much more comfortable than stooping or kneeling). Other people prefer Scotch Brite pads. The shorty caboose shown in the first photo was made by Aristo Craft, and carried a fine grit buffing block beneath its frame. While this product is long out of production, there are other similar products still offered. Recently Piko has produced a track cleaning battery locomotive. The locomotive uses a Scotch Brite like material that mounts on the pads that would ordinarily be used for current pick up. This is a more expensive solution. The street price is around $200.00. The ultimate track cleaner may be the LGB track cleaning locomotive. I'm not sure if they are currently in production, and the cost will most likely make the Piko machine look like a bargain. 


















Lastly, there was a powered track cleaner made by Brawa that works like the LGB machine. With a bit of fiddling, it could be set to rotate counter the direction of travel. The last two photos show a vehicle I built using that track cleaner. It was designed to buff and sweep, but the sweeping function was only marginally successful.



















Happy hunting,
David Meashey


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## Nick Jr (Jan 2, 2008)

Dave gave some very good methods of cleaning the track, If I may add, NEVER use an abrasive that will leave scratches on the rail head. That will only lead to more corrosion a place for dirt to accumulate and insulation to the wheels. LiG


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

LGB track cleaner is in production and is the most expensive, however it can go around layouts in hard to reach places on its own. I added wiring to mine to connect to a trailing car with power pickups and found it runs a whole lot better. I obtained a second unit not working for $100 and added a digital control to this unit and now can clean in both directions.


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Dan;

Forgot to mention that the Piko battery track cleaning locomotive uses 6 AAA batteries. It runs for almost two hours on that battery pack. The locomotive will also get into those hard to reach locations, but the cleaning pads are "passive," i.e. no powered scrubbing. I bought my locomotive mainly to have something to keep moving at steam-ups during those times when nobody has raised steam yet..

Regards,
David Meashey


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## Train Dan (Jul 11, 2018)

Thanks, All!
I'm going to buy a Piko Clean Machine when it's available in the RC version later in the year. In the interim, I will try the drywall sander medium grit.


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

Nick Jr said:


> Dave gave some very good methods of cleaning the track, If I may add, NEVER use an abrasive that will leave scratches on the rail head. That will only lead to more corrosion a place for dirt to accumulate and insulation to the wheels. LiG


Technically, any abrasive will leave scratches from very fine, you need a magnifying glass, to gouges. It's the nature of abrasives and why they're called abrasive. Nick's right, you want to pick the least abrasive abrasive. I'm not sure about corrosion since a stainless steel wheel tires, loco drivers wheels, will wear down brass brass being considerably softer than stainless steel. 

Kinda ironic that quite a few years ago at NGS in Santa Clara, CA. Two LGB reps giving a clinic brought up this wear issue. LGB sell only brass track and their loco driver wheels tires are stainless steel. I attended that clinic, being in my LGB period, and I left scratching my head over that one.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

While the LGB track cleaning engine may work well (mine never did and the internal switch continually failed), it becomes very expoensive to run. Back in the day, before Massoth, the wheels were $35 and I would go though a set for an open house (~600 feet of track).

I took an AristoCraft U-35 and made and mounted an articulated drywall sanding head between the trucks that follows the track through the curves. This has a sheet of lead on it for weight and I run it with 120 grit drywall sand paper (not the 220 screens that I use on my hand pole and hand sander). This works well and these pads seem to last forever and don't wear like the screens do.

I also made a similar articulated car that has a pipeload. Some of the pipes are filled with sand (and sealed off) for weight.


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## RkyGriz (Feb 14, 2019)

Don't use medium grit sand paper! If you're going to use any type of abrasive, then use 400 to 2,000 grit body work type sand paper on a sanding block. I buy it at Walmart.It's near the Bondo body filler ,in the automotive department It does a fine job of cleaning and polishing the rail head.It's even better than a Scotch Brite pad. Medium grit sand paper will scar your track ,and leave deep scratches on it . Trust me, you'll regret it if you do that!


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## Nick Jr (Jan 2, 2008)

RkyGriz, I must agree about the 2000 or 2500 grit body paper. When using it even on the car painted surface, can't see scratches. it's like a polishing paper. Used it on the Salvage Tug to remove scratches. LiG


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## RkyGriz (Feb 14, 2019)

Yup. It's great stuff for models,too.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

I've been at this for 22 years and use what works.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

While I agree with the conventional wisdom about not using medium grit sandpaper, I'm not convinced it is all that it's cracked up to be in the real world. The Denver GRS has a garden railroad at the Colorado RR Museum. We primarily use drywall sanders with 200-grit (plus or minus) drywall sanding pads on them to clean our track. Been using them for the 20+ years the railroad's been there. Maybe because we're a club we clean more regularly than an individual's railroad, but we don't seem to have any issues with premature rail wear or dirty track.

Later,

K


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

LGB locos and metal wheels have nickel plated brass as far as I know. 

Trainli does make stainless Passenger/freight car wheel sets.


I see a lot of wheels advertised as steel and only the axles are steel on all the wheel sets I have seen.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Dan Pierce said:


> LGB locos and metal wheels have nickel plated brass as far as I know.
> 
> Trainli does make stainless Passenger/freight car wheel sets.
> 
> ...


Wheel plating, and its removal, are a whole 'nother can of worms to be dealt with.


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## Darkrider (May 21, 2010)

I’ve seen someone locally using a track cleaning block that you can get. From Ana.kramer on eBay. Looks like one uses a pair of scotch bright pad strips, and mounts the floating unit to the bottom of a bachmann bobber caboose. Seems to work well enough.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Actually, a lot of it will depend on how often you clean it, how it is treated, and how old it is.

My track gets watered every day (sometimes twice) with_* really hard*_ water leaving mineral deposits and oxidizing the brass. Trains _may_ be run (and track cleaned) as late as September and it doesn't get cleaned again until June the following year (8+ months). That's 8+ months of mineral (and other crap) buildup and oxidation.

Do you really think some scrubbie or polishing pad is going to cut through that?


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## Darkrider (May 21, 2010)

I see less running, and less watering with softened water. Some lengths of track are approaching 15 years of constant exposure. And yes, it does get buried in 3 feet of snow for 8+ months. Smaller layout, but scrubbing it with Scotch Brite brand did the trick for me. Yes, I did try a few other off brand names. Didn’t hold up. 

Just speaking from my personal experience

Then again, the guy I saw using it had said arrangement on every caboose he had.


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## Dick Friedman (Aug 19, 2008)

Scotch Brite pads in a drywall sander are very good, especially since they won't abrade the track (pads are softer than brass). A drop or two of Dexron III automatic transmission fluid on the rail will help clean the track, sliders, and wheels.


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

Never have tried it and I don't know if there is a reason not to, but wondered about using Brasso? It sure works good cleaning brass thing, but don't know, maybe it would leave some sort of bad residue? Also wondered about Bar Keeper's Friend?

A side comment, I always watch the monthly Model Railroad Academy podcast and sometimes I send questions just to see what bad answers I will get from their "expert", who claims to do commercial G installations. I asked about the brass track oxidation prevention issue and his (non) answer was to go R/.C. I have also heard him several times say brass track is obsolete and not to use it, so I asked about who currently manufactures stainless track in G and he said he didn't know and to contact some train store he frequently speaks of. I think they need to include a G expert for G questions or just admit ignorance on our part of the hobby.

Doug


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## du-bousquetaire (Feb 14, 2011)

I have had some experience running gauge one electric and live steam trains since 1982 in my garden and using brass track. Our climate in the greater Paris (France) erea is oceanic with regular rainfall which more or less prohibits electric running from late October to March, which is one prime reason for moving to the south of France. After many years of experience, I tended to run either electric or steam and to run steam when rain was announced in the weather reports. Rain tended to wash away the oil deposits sprayed onto the track by early Aster steam locos. (the ones with graphited yarn piston glands and packing) since they now fit teflon ones and O rings the problem is less critical). During good spells of weather, when we had a dry spell for two to three weeks on end (not often) I found that if I stuck to electric traction supplied by the track everything was good for a good week, this even with MTH DCS installed [with large section feeders fed every 4 meters to the track, bonded rails (I hate rail clamps), Bridgewerks power supply, as recomended by Raymon Manley] without a track clean. I cleaned the track with an LGB abrasive track cleaning block.
Whith rainy weather I had to clean the track more often. due to quick oxidation, which could be due to the fact that our house was situated on the path of air traffic landing at Roissy airport.


After over 62 years of model railroading mostly in HO, however there are some established rules about electric pick up which people should understand: Primarily keep the current draw of your engines down, on my older HO pike when I switched from regular open cage traction motors to Portescap, coreless motor drive (most of my motive power was built from kits) the current drop ennabled me, on an indoor layout with nickel silver rail to eliminate track cleaning to a once a year occurence. The quality of the tire on the engines is also critical: Stay away from aluminum tyres (IE Lionel, my Geep is refited with NWSL wheelsets). Also worm gear drive can be a source of problems because an engine won't coast over a dead spot, whereas a direct drive one will. In the case of my very powerful SNCF 2-D-2 9100, which has four maxon motors nose supended through a direct gear train to each independent axle, the engine tended to coast right through my number 8 pointwork, when I reopened the line after winter in the spring and some of the point blades didn't establish contact. Thats a big help. 

This of course goes in direct oposition to US garden railways suplyers practice which use extremly high current load motors (My lionel GP9 can draw over 4 amps!) worm gear drive etc. So it won't be much help for most fans reading this. Also direct drive doesn't always respond to expectations I still have in storage two early Märklin six wheel Henshel diesel switchers whose AC motors work so badly on DC that I never use them. [I am keeping them because they would make ideal mechanism for a SNCF Baldwin A1A-A1A 6200 switcher - a lighter less powerful version of the AS-616, we got with the Marshal plan; in which case I would remotor them with coreless motors).
On my pike which was partly ground level, cleaning rails was becoming a pain in the kisser with age, so I am thinking about using battery on my new line in southern france (Ardèche). Or dedicated portions of electric tracks with perhaps a bit of catenary.
I have tried to cover this in detail having some experience with it.


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## GoldenBrassRail (8 mo ago)

LGB brass track? I will rub just the TOP surface of the rail with a good dab of mineral spirits on a sock. This rubs off the plastic residue and electrical residues real easy. Avoid exposing the plastic ties to mineral spirits, it's not great for the plastic. If you don't have mineral spirits or turpentine, but have stubborn plastic residue, then you can get out your dremel, put on a really soft and fine sanding bit, and with a high RPM it can gently buff the rail clean and good. I came up with this dremel idea myself, so if anyone objects feel free to do so since I heard that a sort of similar method with steel wool is bad, but I don't think the dremel method kicks anything up beyond the finest brass or plastic dust.

After I address the rail top surface, i get out the vinegar and a tooth brush and will brush this lightly on all over the rest of the rail and perhaps any dirty spots on the ties as well. A toothbrush with 2 parts vinegar 1 part water really cleans up the black dust from the rail. After the light toothbrush scrub, I come back around with a damp paper towel and remove all the dislodged scuzz from the track, and then maybe even come around the crevices of the track and rail using a damp Q-tip.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

While (single lead) worm drive does not allow coasting, you have never lived until you parked your double lead worm drive (which does allow coasting) on a grade, only to come back and the train has traveled backwards down a 3.4% grade 60 feet!

Without real brakes, trains that can "coast" will have issues with an outdoor layout unless dead flat. Really not for most garden railroads.

Also, I would love to have more efficient motors, but ce la vie... would be prohibitively expensive to replace what we have. So I run a 12 to 20 amp DCC system.

Greg


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