Ztrains: Track Cleaning Techniques

Smooth Running Z Scale Trains
Few things can diminish the realism of a Z scale railroad scene faster than a locomotive that runs in fits and starts. The primary components involved in getting electricity cleanly to your locomotives are the wheels and the rails. I've previously designed a simple but effective method for cleaning your loco's wheels, you can read about it here. Now I'd like to look at the rails, as well as the track area in general and how best to keep them clean.

Vacuuming

The first line of defense against dust, dirt and other contaminants is a vacuum. No matter how clean you keep your train area, the tracks will accumulate dirt. In addition to the everyday dust and dirt is all the scenery materials you'll have on your layout. Fortunately there are small, relatively inexpensive ($15.00 - $20.00) portable vacuums available. I recently came across the TurboVac 800 at my local home building center and snapped it up immediately. These newer portable vacuums are a far cry from the earlier generation of cordless Dust Busters™. This TurboVac 800 is remarkably powerful, comes with a wide assortment of cleaning wands and accessories, and has a 20 foot power cord so you can roam all over your railroad empire. I'd strongly recommend you purchase one of these units and keep it as a dedicated layout accessory.

Clean The Rails

I have been using isopropyl alcohol (the 99.9% pure variety) for some time as a cleaner. I'd soak a foam pad with it, then ring out the excess and run the pad around my rails. This worked reasonably well, but the damp foam pad would naturally bend in the center and over the edges of the of the rails. Some of the alcohol would then get on to my nicely weathered rails, and it would also loosen bits of static grass that were glued down.

On a recent internet search for track cleaning products I came across a few links that mentioned using small squares of balsa wood, soaked in cleaning fluid, as a track cleaner. I initially dismissed the idea of balsa wood as a viable cleaner, thinking it was probably just an old school method and probably a bit outdated. Still, I thought it was worth a try so I bought some balsa strips (1/8" thick x 1/2" wide x 3' long) and then cut them into lengths of 3/4". I poured the alcohol over the balsa square, shook of the excess, then placed the balsa on the rails and ran it along a section of track. I was very surprised at how well it cleaned, the balsa wood had really absorbed the dirt on my track beautifully and it didn't seem to leave any bits of balsa behind. Just as important is that since it is a solid piece of wood, it doesn't bend in the center when pressure from your finger is applied... my weathered rail, ballast and static grass stay perfectly dry!

Rail Impressions
Another benefit of using damp balsa is that with the gentle downward pressure from your finger, the balsa will yield slightly to the rails creating very subtle rail impressions, or grooves, in the wood. These grooves help to keep the balsa in place as you run it over your rails, very convenient. I then tried a few different techniques with the balsa, positioning it at different angles to the rails. You can see these positions in the above illustrations.

I've used both the isopropyl alcohol as well as Goo-Gone™ as the cleaning fluid, and both have worked very nicely with the balsa. The Goo-Gone™ works particularly well on very oily sections of track. I always finish up (after the Goo-Gone™) with another balsa square and alcohol pass, just to remove any residue. The Goo-Gone does leave a slightly slick residue.

Great Cleaning, Low Costs
The total cost for all these track cleaning products is remarkably low when you see how effective they are. The vacuum is clearly the most expensive piece to this puzzle, but it really is a worthwhile investment. The balsa strips cost about .70¢ each, and when you consider that you can get approximately 48 double sided cleaning blocks from a single 3' strip, it's downright cheap. The 99.9% alcohol is only slightly more expensive than conventional 70% alcohol, but it has much lower water content. A single $3.00 bottle of Goo-Gone will last a very long time, as it's a highly concentrated formula. Great products, great results... and no more fits and starts for your Z scale locomotives.

See Also: David Karp has written a comprehensive article on additional track cleaning methods at Zscale.org. He covers abrasive, chemical, electronic and rolling stock track cleaners.

July 7, 2008

Making Styrene Look Old

Styrene in both strip and sheet form is used extensively in model railroading as it is very predictable to work with.

Now learn one technique for making your styrene look like real aged wood. This tutorial is a keeper!

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