Cleaning old track

[The_Ghan]

I'm going to give away some old OO stuff to a nephew.  I pulled out the track last weekend and noted that it is quite dirty.  I've just finished cleaning a ship's bell (don't ask) with a metal polish called "Brasso" and the though has crossed my mind that it might do a good job on the nickel rails.  I did a test on a short length of track using a cloth glued to a piece of flat styrofoam so that I only cleaned the top of the rails.  It seems to have come up nicely.

 

Has anyone done this before?  Is there any problems with using polishes like Brasso?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[bill937ca]

Won't the wheels slip?  What about Emery board? Its used to clean surfaces for soldering.

[The_Ghan]

Won't the wheels slip?  What about Emory board? Its used to clean surfaces for soldering.

 

Interesting point.  But the wheels don't slip on a piece of flex fresh out of the box, so why would they slip here?  You mean Emery board?  I could.  I was always told that using an abrasive material to clean the tracks left micro abrasions on the rails that attracted more grime and reduced conductivity.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[KenS]

I think that's true, but thousands of people use bright boys (including me back on my HO layout, although I avoid abrasives now).  At worst, using an abrasive is going to cause you to have to clean the track more often.  And the effect could be negligible; I don't know of anyone doing a formal study.

 

And if the track is really dirty/corroded, abrasion may be the only thing that works.  Brass is particularly bad for that, since the corrosion is non-conductive (unlike nickel-silver, where the oxidized track will still provide power to a locomotive) and you need to get nearly all of it off (and it comes right back).

 

When I first started out (a long time ago) I used brass HO sectional track.  I switched to nickel-silver as soon as I discovered it and never looked back.

[cteno4]

ghan,

 

if you use a cleaner it might be wise to clean the stuff off afterwards with a rag and something like isopropanol. i think the slipping most folks get from using polishing fluids on tracks like brasso, wahol and clipper oil is they usually leave a coating to try to protect from future oxidation and that can have the slipping effect.

 

brass track is tough as it will always want to oxidize

 

cheers

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

Guys,

 

The track is actually nickel as per my original post.  It is mostly Peco from the early 1980's.

 

I've given one loop a clean.  It seems to work fine.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan