Keeping Points Clean

[cleanerg6e]

On the new bit of railway that I've built in the last few months some the points were already causing the locos to stutter. I've found that I need to clean the side of the point blades with 1000 grit sandpaper, available in car accessory shops for rubbing down the paint work of car bodies. I then clean with Isopropyl alcohol to remove any small particles. It's a 2 minute job repaid with faultless running.

Roy.

[grockle]

Never use any form of sandpaper, I have been using P600/P800 wet and dry for track/point cleaning for years now. Sandpaper will wear away the track/points everytime you use it, therefore you will need to replace your trackwork in the very near future.

Ian

[mick]

I'm sure that Roy is referring to wet and dry. I wouldn't have thought that a car accessory would bother to stock 'sandpaper' which I've always associated with woodwork.

I've used 1200 grade wet and dry myself. I saw it advertised as suitable for jewellery making so I thought it would be fine for the rail tops used beneath my CMX track cleaner. It was certainly extremely fine and probably less destructive than my track rubber but I decided I would sooner continue cleaning manually with the track rubber.

[grockle]

Track cleaning is mainly a matter of personnel choice. Everyone has their own chosen best method.

What would be interesting is though, is to see who uses what to clean their tracks.

Ian

[essex2visuvesi]

On n and z gauges I use IPA (Isopropylalcohol, not the stuff by Greene King which while tasty does not aid track cleaning) on a lint free cloth. I also regulary run a track cleaning wagon, and use a Relco to improve slow running.

Something that is often overlooked is cleaning the wheels.... make sure all wheels are kept clean (IPA on a foam cotton bud is what I use for this)

Try to avoid anything abrasive on the rails or wheels when cleaning as this will leave small scratches that attract dirt quicker.

Finally a great aid to track cleaning is to upgrade any plastic wheelsets to metal ones, or at least metal tyred wheels.

I have heard of Z gaugers using a dremel with a polishing mop to clean the track

Edit.... Also avoid over lubrication of locos another way to attract dirt