Gleaming your track


A

Ash Pit

Well-Known Member
What happened with Gleaming track, I couple-few years back, this was HOT topic. i won't say that everyone was doing it; but there was enough talk about it that it was an interesting read. I never tried it as my cars that have hardboard Track Cleaners do a good job of keeping my track clean, also I had too much hidden track, so could not reach all of my track.

A few weeks back MRH's TMTV's Joe Fugate had a video on using Graphite sticks to apply a coat of Graphite to the inner corner of your rails, this was to be the "Be All and End All" to fixing track conductivity. I went out and bought some 2B Graphite sticks to try this system out. The one thing that Joe did not mention in the video was to be very sparing in the Graphite application. So I made a couple rounds with the graphite and all of a sudden my track was to slippery and trains could not make it up my grades anymore. So, then I spent a couple hours removing the graphite. I do think this process deserves further research, if done properly and properly means maybe only applying to a small section of track, as the trains will then track the graphite to the rest of the layout.

However, in my case, I think I will stay with an occasional work out with the Bright Boy and my Hardboard Track Cleaning Cars!
 
if your track is properly cleaned and coated your cleaning rate goes down substantially ...
on mine NOTHING abrasive was used, not even a brightboy ...
it was gleamed and treated with NoOxIdA Special ... now it gets vacumed once a year, nothing else, been seven years now doing this ..
 
The best and possibly cheapest way to clean tracks is to first wipe it with a steel washer and then run a cleaning car with a pad impregnated with a small quantity of kerosene (bottles in the camping supplies section for those kind of lamps). According to a credible analysis conducted and published about three years ago, kerosene tops the list of fluids that help keep rail-tops clean and that don't cause inordinate slipping.
 
any item that scratches the track [even finely like a bright boy] will lead to cleaning being required more often, ...
after gleaming [ rubbing with a washer] abrasive products of any kind should be avoided ... they -can- be used initially to make sure the track is level and even though ..
 
wvg_ca, Do you mind if I don't Gleam and do what I have been doing for 32 years with good result?
 
I have a question! What is the purpose of rubbing the rail with a washer? Or Gleaming? I have read about a lot of ways to clean track, but I just can not recall of ever hearing about rubbing the rail with a washer.
Thanks....
 
2Tracks said:
I have a question! What is the purpose of rubbing the rail with a washer? Or Gleaming? I have read about a lot of ways to clean track, but I just can not recall of ever hearing about rubbing the rail with a washer.
Thanks....
Click to expand...
smoothens the surface, closes up some of the cracks / scratches in the surface, evens out the manufacturers 'draw' marks ..
 
wvg_ca, What you say is true! I feel that my track cleaning cars actually polish the rail heads similar to gleaming. My layout was/is in the basement under an open joist ceiling and I have to figure there is a lot of dust raining down on my layout. However, track cleaning is as simple as running my track cleaning cars around for about one hour over the entire main line to get ahead of the problem. The track cleaning cars are run over the system in the fall after my layout has stood idle for the summer months (essentially five months of the year). My layout is now 33 year old and being torn down as we speak. I really have to say that track cleaning has never been a big problem. Why I tried the Joe Fugate's Graphite System is a anyone's guess, I guess maybe the process intrigued me.

I think what is important is that we find ways of doing things, that work for us!
 
for best results, its important to use a three step process ..
1st] get it clean, use kerosene on a track cleaner, or do it by hand [slow process]
2nd] polish it, to close up scratches and make it really smooth [gleaming]
3rd] coat it with an oxidation reducer, i used no ox id special a, graphite -may- work

the oxidation reducer is important, because athough nickel silver rail oxidizes much more slowly than straight brass, it still does tarnish ..and once you get to step two, please no more bright boys or other abrasive cleaners, it really does make a difference !
 
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