Cleaning Track
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I have looked at many ways of cleaning track. The track cleaning cars, liquid cleaner and the 3M Scrubbing Pads with Dry Wall Sanders.  They all do a good job of cleaning track, but I was looking for a better and faster way to clean track.

My problem is the first cleaning after the long winter months when the Garden railroad was covered in leaves, snow and ice.  By Spring the track has a good layer of oxidation after all that time.  I just didn't want to spend all day cleaning the track to start running trains.

Well, one day I was browsing through a wood working store and discovered some sanding disks for my orbital sander.  These where not the ordinary sandpapers from 60-600 grit, but they had 1800, 2400 and 3200 grit paper. 

Well I decided to buy a package of 2400 grit and try it on a piece of track that I removed from the railroad. This piece had not been cleaned in 2 years.  Well when I passed the sander over the track 2 times it was clean as new on the top of the rails.  Well I had to see if this also worked on turnouts, it did a better job in cleaning that I have ever have done manually, I was hooked.  Now I do all my initial cleanings using the Orbital Sander and touchup cleaning using the Dry Wall Sander method. 

The Orbital Sander I am using is a Porter Cable Model #333 with hook and loop pads.  

The 2400 Grit Sanding pads come from a company called 

Micro-Surface Finishing Products Inc. 
(Phone: 319-732-3240) 
(FAX: 319-732-3390)

I have not experienced any electrical problems using this method in 2 years. It only takes me 15 minutes to clean about 175 feet of track now the first time.

Click on Thumbnail pictures for a better view.