Cleaning old track

[Chris Cleaver]

Hello

I have bought some second hand brass track which has gone almost black. I will need it clean to get good connection at track joints. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

Chris

[krusty]

You can use fine wet n dry for the rail heads 1000 or 1200 grit. Clean the ends of the rails with a fibre glass pencil or fine wire wool before fitting the fish plates. This should give a good connection, for how long I would not want to say, brass starts to tarnish in a matter of hours, nickel steel rail is much better for track power.
John

[bazzer42]

I cleaned a job load of tenmille with wire wool and solvol autosol chrome cleaner, it was good for cleaning up old bike bits and worked a treat. Unfortunately it is going to need loads of elbow grease. I jumped my joints with copper wire and micro selftappers from susses precision. A quick wipe with a rag and wd40 always helped running.

[Enginehouse]

This is the simple method I use for brass track cleaning. For ends of brass rail sections, to improve connectivity and remove tarnish without creating more surface scratching and further damage while avoiding hard work is easy.

Use a 10 to one mix of ammonia and soak track ends for at least ten minutes. An ideal solution available on Ebay for example is Kleen Off multi purpose household cleaner, which is approx the correct mix undiluted. Works like a dream and is relatively cheap. Rinse clean with water, dry off and lightly re grease ends rail with graphite grease before assembling into fishplates.

Another method is to use baking powder, white vinegar and household salt. In a ratio of half cup of baking soda to a cup of white vinegar with 2 tablespoons of household salt. Make into a sloppy paste and coat or dip ends of track into mixture. Allow the mixture to remain in wet contact with the brass rail for at least ten minutes. Rinse with cold water, dry off and buff with soft cloth. Tarnish will be gone. The relatively weak acid, sodium and salt will chemically clean the brass without any risk to health or hands.

Before using either of the above pain free methods of cleaning, make sure any old grease is removed from track ends. A brush and turps works fine.

I will admit to using a much stronger solution to clean my track, but I have easy access to ammonia at much higher strengths.

*IMPORTANT* Point to note. Ammonia is not nice to breathe in so do this job in the open air and don't breathe in the fumes.