cleaning unitrack: which fluids best?

[nik_n_dad]

Yesterday Nik and I spent better part of the day at a local humongous layout

 

http://www.gfsm.org/museumLayout.html

 

Including a very thorough tour under the layout (If you're ever in colorado, this layout is a must-stop).

 

The gentleman that took us around explained how they clean the 1,244 feet of mainline track (not to mention sidings, yards, etc), which is to use a combination of the CMX Clean machine followed by a Centerline car.  They use denatured alcohol for the "wet" car.

 

So here's the question- what do folk here use for cleaning kato track that a) does a good job; b) is friendly to all the plastics; c) won't go boom when we spark something on the dcc system; d) safe enough that we won't grow a third eye from being around the fumes.

 

Here on the forum and elsewhere, it seems like the opinion is everywhere.  Some sites talk about possibility of fire with denatured alcohol, some folks talk about removing pain from cars, etc.

 

thoughts?

 

Here's the cleaning cars as a reference:

http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/clean_machine.htm

http://www.centerline-products.com/catalog.html

[CaptOblivious]

I use this stuff in a Tomix cleaning car

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Aero-Car-Hobby-Lubricants-ACT-6006-Track-Cleaner-p/aer-act6006.htm

 

Makes the track rather slick for a little bit (it's the same stuff as their Conducta Lube, only in a bigger bottle for less), but works a charm.

[The_Ghan]

I use good old, Brasso.  I have a cork block with some cloth glued to the underside.  It is impregnated with Brasso and I rub the track.  I have a similar block with clean cloth that I use to wipe it all off. 

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

I've always used good old isopropanol.

 

Did the chap say if their denatured alcohol was isopropanol or ethanol?

 

Jeff

[vadimav]

I've always used good old isopropanol.

 

Did the chap say if their denatured alcohol was isopropanol or ethanol?

 

Jeff

 

I  would reccomand dry cleaning with LUX cleaning machine and vacuumer.

Cleaning with vertical felt wheels is  more and more effective than tomix with horizontal schwab.

 

-------

Vadim

[keitaro]

I use this stuff in a Tomix cleaning car

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Aero-Car-Hobby-Lubricants-ACT-6006-Track-Cleaner-p/aer-act6006.htm

 

Makes the track rather slick for a little bit (it's the same stuff as their Conducta Lube, only in a bigger bottle for less), but works a charm.

 

i second this the stuff is great since applying to my track there is less flickering of lights and the older not so great models run better.

[nik_n_dad]

 

Did the chap say if their denatured alcohol was isopropanol or ethanol?

 

Jeff

 

He didn't- and I didn't know enough to ask.  In my mind, there's two types of alcohol: "rubbing" and "booze".

 

Whichever it was came in a gallon can (not bottle or jug).  The can may have been gold in color (maybe with blue?)

[nik_n_dad]

I've always used good old isopropanol.

 

Jeff

 

I think (?) isopropyl (common here in US) and isopropanol (not sure what that is) is the the same thing?  Is the difference the percentage of alcohol?  The stuff we commonly have is about 70%.  I see people discussing 90-95% alcohol.  thought?

[cteno4]

nik,

 

its very confusing as the common names like denatured alcohol and rubbing alcohol are used for both ethanol and isopropanol.

 

the nol at the end of the name is just short for alcohol. so ethanol is the short name for ethyl alcohol an isopropanol is the short name for isopropyl alcohol. ethyl and isopropyl are just the names for short carbon-hydrogen chains and then there is an alcohol (OH) group stuck on.

 

ethanol is the good drinking stuff. when you buy it in the states it has a nasty denaturant in it so you will throw up if you swig it. works well as a cleaner but can attack some plastics and paints more than isopropanol.

 

isopropanol is the stuff you usually buy in the drug store. it usually has a denaturant in it as well so folks dont try to drink it (would not be pleasant as you dont break it down well at all!). usually comes in 50, 70 and 90% bottles. 90% will usually go to about 85% if not sealed up well as it draws in water from the air well. for cleaning the 70% seems to do great as i think having a bit of water in there helps as its a good solvent as well. 90% works good if you are stripping paint. isopropanol is usually less reactive with plastics and paint, but will still take up most paints given time -- sometimes not much time! but its usually a tad safer than ethanol most of the time. it also drys fast and also evaporates the water with it very well. so its a great thing to use if you spill the coke in your keyboard! flush it with distilled water well then flush it with isopropanol well and put it in a warm place and the isopropanol will have not only displaced most of the water, but speed the evaporation of any water left behind. its these properties with water that makes it the thing to use in wetting agents to help water seep into things like ballast so you can then apply your glue solution and have it wick in well.

 

jeff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

What do folk here use for cleaning kato track?

 

Thanks for reviving this topic.

 

I use a CMX Cleaner Car with denatured alcohol. Drip rate is tuned for each situation. Run slow and very wet for very dirty track.

 

I am waiting to find a Tomix/Atlas cleaner car with the right color or at least Dr.Yellow color.

 

This car has a rotating brush that will break up the dirt collecting on the webbing and a vacuum to pick up loose debris. I don't know that it is also equipped with a magnet or not.

 

Then I can run this car in front of the CMX (wet) car. Another scenario is to run 2 CMX cars back to back. One with a fine sand paper above 1000 grit, and the second with standard wet wipe.

 

Erasers, scotch bright pads, disposable razers on a stick wrapped with old tshirt strips only clean the crowns. It's important to clean the webbing where the wheel flange contacts the track. Thats the other 50% of the electrical contact.

 

Unlike the ability of a rubber tire to conform to road contours, solid model railroad wheels barely contact the rails. Electrical pickup is restored and cleaned track.

[nik_n_dad]

 

I use a CMX Cleaner Car with denatured alcohol. Drip rate is tuned for each situation. Run slow and very wet for very dirty track.

 

 

Thanks for the notes.  So when you say "denatured alcohol" is that the hardware-store stuff in metal cans or the pharmacy stuff in plastic bottles?

[Hobby Dreamer]

Thanks Jeff for that informative look back into chemistry!

 

We have 99% isopropanol in Canada, as well as lower percentages... I use it to clean the nose pad rubbers of my glasses and it works amazingly!

 

As for drinking it - one day I was doing some plumbing under the bathroom sink and reached up for a bottle of water that I placed on the counter near, guess what, the rubbing alcohol.  I would not call it smooth!  I called poison control just in case!!

 

Cheers

Rick

[nik_n_dad]

I use this stuff in a Tomix cleaning car

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Aero-Car-Hobby-Lubricants-ACT-6006-Track-Cleaner-p/aer-act6006.htm

 

Don- we've been using this with the manual-old-t-shirt method.  I may try using it in the CMX car if I can't figure out the whole denatured alcohol thing.

[nik_n_dad]

Ok, quick trip to the pharmacy and the home depot leaves me more confused than ever:

 

1) Home depot has large cans of "denatured alcohol" with more warnings on it than anything else

 

2) Walgreens pharmacy has 3 choices (ok, 4, but one of them is green so it doesn't count):

 

          - "isopropyl rubbing alcohol": 70% isopropyl alcohol

          - "isopropyl alcohol": 91% isopropyl alcohol

          - "ethyl rubbing alcohol": 70% ethyl alcohol

 

Ok.  so we're looking to balance reasonable track cleaning vs. lowest risk of damage to paint, plastic, etc. vs. lowest risk of growing a 3rd eye, cancer, etc. vs. having fireball if something short and makes a spark.

 

I bring up the last one, as one time I had a pretty incredible fireball on a Super Rail Cargo i was trying to drop a dcc decoder into.  I'm worried that alcohol + spark/fireball = call to 911.

[cteno4]

Dad,

 

Isopropyl 70% is your safest bet. It's not harmful if not drunk and it's nOt going to catch fire on your track. It will evaporate quickly and not stink. Isopropanol is also the gentlest on plastics. I don't use the colored dyed stuff as I worry the dye might stay behind when the alcohol evaaporates.

 

Denatured alcohol is usually ethanol with some other spirits in it to make both poisonous and difficult to refine back into pure ethanol. I just questioned the term denatured alcohol as folks use the term loosely for both isopropanol and ethanol. Rubbing alcohol the same as well.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Oh change that.

 

It's mineral spirits that I use.

 

I only pull the car. Usually a Gevo diesel.

 

You can push the CMX car with an engine that's having pickup issues. The wheels will clean up fast.

 

Isn't there a cleaner car with a rotating brush?

 

I sold off my Centerline car because it wouldnt stay on the tracks and kept snagging points. Just could not trust it where I couldn't reach. Worst buy.

[The_Ghan]

Skip,

 

The Tomix cleaning car has a rotating disk.  You can use either a cloth or abrasive pad.

 

How's that new Eurostar going?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Guest Closed Account 1]

It's the Aztec I was thinking of. It has brushes for the rail webbing.

 

Anyone like their Aztec? Which is the best model and is it DCC?

 

The Tomix only cleans the rail crowns.

 

The Eurostar hasn't run yet. I'm finishing installing the lighting in the Daylight full consist.

[cteno4]

I would be cautious of mineral spirits around plastics and paint. its a much more aggressive solvent than isopropanol or ethanol. it is a great cleaner for metal, but anything organic could be game as it was designed to help solvate organics like paint, tar, varnish, etc. also a bit slower on evaporating than isopropanol. if the smell bothers you you can get higher grade distillates that have less of the aromatics like at an art store.

 

but if it works cool, but something to keep an eye on you dont pick up a train car with it on your fingers.

 

jeff

[Spaceman Spiff]

G'day folks,

 

Has anyone used No-Ox? We use it at the club I belong at. I believe we initailly cleaned the track with traditional liquids and then we used the no-ox.  We hardly ever clean the track. Just spot cleaning over the last couple of years.

 

 

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Bar-Mills-Scale-Model-Works-0226-NO-OX-ID-Track-Cl-p/bar-0226.htm

 

Spff

[KenS]

I use isopropyl alcohol myself (70% I believe, although I haven't bought any for a while and the bottle isn't in front of me). So far I haven't tried using it in my Tomix cleaning cars, but have been hand-cleaning with cotton pads. That's mostly because I clean infrequently and there's a lot of construction dust when I do, so I need to adjust the amount of cleaning to the dirt level.  I use a relatively lint-free cotton pad (for cosmetic removal), but it does sometimes shed fibers at rail joints if it catches, which I need to remove by hand (or vacuum) and eye-inspect the track to ensure they're gone. So I wouldn't call this a great solution. But the alcohol works.

 

One warning: 70% isopropyl will remove paint from Unitrack.  If I'm not careful with the pad positioning, sometimes it picks up a bit (or more than a bit) of brown from the ties.  Used with a pad that only contacts the railhead, the only scenery at risk would be grade-crossings and guard-rails at switches and bridges. Over repeated uses, this could have an obvious effect. If you paint or ink-wash your Unitrack to make it look less "plastic", there's additional risk to that if you aren't careful with pads.

 

I like this approach better than abrasives that create micro-pitting for dirt to adhere to. I used abrasives on my old HO layout (mostly Walthers Shinohara track) and it seemed to re-dirty itself excessively.  There are rails that need abrasives, but in my experience well-maintained Unitrack in a relatively clean/dry environment does not.

[Bob_NZ]

I ordered the Aztec Eliminator earlier this year with Handiwipes roller (wet).  Unfortunately they did not read the order form and sent their standard roller so I ended up with an expensive “track rubber”. 

 

Therefore I cannot comment on the wet roller other than there is no reservoir.  So it would forever run dry on larger layouts.  It does have a magnet and pipe cleaners as brushes underneath but its hard to gauge how effective the brushes are.  Overall their standard roller is not much of an improvement on a box car that I have which uses a rubber underneath (Atlas or Roco I think). 

 

For value for money, I could not recommend this Aztec as the Tomix cleaner is far more versatile.  The Tomix does have a reservoir but I found their application pad cuts up quickly on my layout so I may have to improvise (the vacuum in the Tomix is very effective and there is also space to glue a small magnet underneath).

 

 

Bob

[nik_n_dad]

One warning: 70% isopropyl will remove paint from Unitrack.  If I'm not careful with the pad positioning, sometimes it picks up a bit (or more than a bit) of brown from the ties. 

 

We have the same problem with the ACT-6006 the Captain mentioned.  We've been using that stuff for a few years on cut-up old cotton t-shirts (when you have a growing kiddo, you have an endless supply of those).  But we notice as we clean the track, we get black lines from the dirty track, and a reddish-brown that gets picked up from the ties.  However, we haven't lost any detail, or color from the ties

[cteno4]

in years of rubbing the jrm tracks with isopropanol we have never really seen a warn track in the center of the ties from picking up paint.

 

if you use your finger tip with the cloth you can see a bit of brown in between the two black track lines on the cloth but its not much at all.

 

jeff

[clem24]

I use 99% Isopropyl. Applied with a folded over piece of paper towel, using 2 fingers to press only over the rails. Yes it DOES remove paint if you're not careful. Will have no effect on stuff like their viaduct which has no paint on the track. Oddly, when I do this over Unitrack, I get some reddish streaks. I also made the huge mistake of trying to clean some windows on my Kato Urbanliner with it. Immediately smudged the body lines. :( Ah well lesson learned. Anyway if you just stick to the track, it'll be fine. Picked up a bulk package of 4 bottles at Costco for like $6.