# Finding a good brand of affordable track+ cleaning that track.



## ScaleModelAddiction (Sep 2, 2010)

*Finding Affordable track+ cleaning it*

Okay so I'm beginning to understand the logistics of building a layout and I've begun to plan my layout, I know I need 22" curves and I plan on putting in a straight away long enough to display most of the train on one side because my parents were nice enough to allot me a room in the basement for my layout and other model supplies. I want anyone who walks into the room to see my train in it's glory! So that still leaves me with my question of: What is a good brand of affordable track that won't corrode and how do I maintain it? My random shot in the dark would be 90% alcohol rubbed on the track to prevent corrosion as my dad uses it to clean electronics and wire.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Evan, 90% alcohol is a good choice. Any of the following cleaners can be used with a plastic scrubbing pad, soft cloth, paper towel...your choice. General consensus is this, and everyone who disagrees or has something to add, please chime in. For track that's new, the alcohol is a good choice. Once it's had time to get a little goop on it from use, a light cleaner like 409 will take off the oil better and then the alcohol will remove any soap film. Other members swear by Goo-Gone, an excellent product to clean with. My personal belief is it needs to be followed by alcohol as it, IMHO, leaves a film that's not quite as conductive as raw metal. For really tough spots, there are Brightboys, a rubber-eraser type product available at most train stores.

DON'TS: 1. Steel wool should never come near your track or your locomotives. Small fragments break off and eventually become one with the magnets in your motor or the gears and bearing-surfaces in your drive train. This will destroy your locomotives.

2. Sandpaper has no place in the process of cleaning track or electrical pickup wheels and rollers. Yes, people use it and it works well. However, it's destruction is of a more insidious nature. Sandpaper scratches. Those micro-scratches make your track, wheels and rollers uneven: what once was polished smooth, to a glass-like finish, now has a multitide of tiny scratches. Those scratches are now the surface that communicates your power to the train.
Consider lightning: it is the gathering of potential power in the earth's surface to finally leap from the highest conductive point from earth to clouds (I know it looks like the reverse, but that's another thread). What does it leave behind, when that massive spark jumps? Carbon---a charred surface where anything present briefly burned.
The goop that accumulates on track and wheels is exactly that: a comination of dust, dirt, oil and the carbon produced by that spark leaping. If your track is scratched, you generate a zillion tiny sparks. If your track is smooth, the metal-to-metal conduction of electricity is uninterupted and you get no sparks. Smooth track = less cleaning. Sandpaper = "my that looks clean!" followed by "Why am I constantly scrubbing this stuff?"
Finally, be careful of anything remotely like a solvent getting close to your plastic. Cars can melt, lettering run, and a bad day suddenly set in big-time if you get careless. If you use extruded pink foam sheets for landscaping, acetone and some paints will dissolve it.

Best wishes!


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Reckers said:


> Evan, 90% alcohol is a good choice. Any of the following cleaners can be used with a plastic scrubbing pad, soft cloth, paper towel...your choice. General consensus is this, and everyone who disagrees or has something to add, please chime in. For track that's new, the alcohol is a good choice. Once it's had time to get a little goop on it from use, a light cleaner like 409 will take off the oil better and then the alcohol will remove any soap film. Other members swear by Goo-Gone, an excellent product to clean with. My personal belief is it needs to be followed by alcohol as it, IMHO, leaves a film that's not quite as conductive as raw metal. For really tough spots, there are Brightboys, a rubber-eraser type product available at most train stores.
> 
> DON'TS: 1. Steel wool should never come near your track or your locomotives. Small fragments break off and eventually become one with the magnets in your motor or the gears and bearing-surfaces in your drive train. This will destroy your locomotives.
> 
> ...



As in Chinese proverbs,
di shui zhi en dang yi yong quan xiang bao.

Meaning,
Literally, A drop of water shall be returned with a burst of spring.

Meaning
Even if it was just a little help from others, you should return the favor with all you can when others are in need.

You learn well butterfly!:laugh:


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

ScaleModelAddiction said:


> Okay so I'm beginning to understand the logistics of building a layout and I've begun to plan my layout, I know I need 22" curves and I plan on putting in a straight away long enough to display most of the train on one side because my parents were nice enough to allot me a room in the basement for my layout and other model supplies. I want anyone who walks into the room to see my train in it's glory! So that still leaves me with my question of: What is a good brand of affordable track that won't corrode and how do I maintain it? My random shot in the dark would be 90% alcohol rubbed on the track to prevent corrosion as my dad uses it to clean electronics and wire.


I can't comment on track cleaning because I don't have a layout, but I do have a suggestion for track, since I've already acquired all of the track I need to build one: 

*Atlas Nickel Silver Code 83* :thumbsup:

Widely Available. Decent Quality. Affordable.


Greg


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

big ed said:


> As in Chinese proverbs,
> di shui zhi en dang yi yong quan xiang bao.
> 
> Meaning,
> ...


The name is Grasshopper, not Butterfly, biotch! *L* And you're right!


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Reckers said:


> The name is Grasshopper, not Butterfly, biotch! *L* And you're right!



But you my friend transformed from the grasshopper stage to a butterfly a long time ago.:thumbsup::laugh:

Now.....if you could only do something about your avatar.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Thank you, Ed---my transformation was due to you and others taking the time to teach me, so thank you and all my other teachers. Now...gimme that damn pebble! *L*

My avatar stays---it was a gift from Komodo. I shall use it until it until the "3000" on the av makes it look like I'm hiding the fact I jabbered my way past 3000 a long time ago. *L*


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

Monk:

"There! You have it!"

Ace Ventura:

"I have achieved Super Creamy Oneness... 

...while avoiding the chewy chunks of degradation."


Greg


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

How to keep your track clean (without really trying):
http://www.willegal.net/railroad/rr-tc.htm


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## ScaleModelAddiction (Sep 2, 2010)

Yeah, I kinda figured steel wool and sand paper are generally bad, I have a massive supply of Goo-Gone as it works very well with my airbrush in removing some really sticky situations. I actually went to a hobby store near me that specialized in trains... they closed down. it was really too bad since they had two complete floors of model train supplies.
Edit: I think I'm going to use code 100, if I'm understanding it right code 100 is 150 pound main rail ties. New question, can brands of track be mixed and matched if their the same code type? Also Does anyone has thoughts or experience with flex track?


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

choo choo said:


> Monk:
> 
> "There! You have it!"
> 
> ...



I left the chewy chunks with my ex-wives. *L* Never felt better!


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