cleanerg6e Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grockle Posted December 27, 2011 Share Posted December 27, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grockle Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essex2visuvesi Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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