# Cleaning Afx/tomy Track



## hbfatty (Dec 7, 2009)

I've gotten my track set up and doing some racing. I can't believe how quick the power rails get dirty causing a spot or two that slow down the cars. I am aware of the pencil eraser method of cleaning as well as using the nickel to shine them. Does anyone have any other methods to clean up the rails?


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

I always used a 3m or similar superfine sanding pad with Weiman's (sp?) Stainless Steel Cleaner lightly spayed on it, followed up with a dry cotton rag. The cleaner seems to condition the rails to some extent resulting in less carbon buildup over time. 

:thumbsup:


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## rbrunne1 (Sep 22, 2007)

For general cleaning, I spray WD40 on a rag to collect dust and provide some rust protection.

For tough spots, I use a RR track cleaning eraser.


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## jensen b (Nov 3, 2009)

A diy abrasive foam cored rubbing block, with fine grit does it for us:thumbsup:


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## Grampa Ho (Feb 25, 2009)

I remember something like a track zamboni that had an eraser on the front of it to run on the track. Did a pretty good job too! Can't for the life of me remember what it was called


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## LeeRoy98 (Jul 8, 2005)

Grampa Ho said:


> I remember something like a track zamboni that had an eraser on the front of it to run on the track. Did a pretty good job too! Can't for the life of me remember what it was called


Are you thinking of the AJ's Oscar the Track Cleaner? Check ebay item 320584071830

Gary
www.marioncountyraceway.com


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*More beef, RFO, and getting small*



hbfatty said:


> I've gotten my track set up and doing some racing. I can't believe how quick the power rails get dirty causing a spot or two that slow down the cars. I am aware of the pencil eraser method of cleaning as well as using the nickel to shine them. Does anyone have any other methods to clean up the rails?


Methods ya dont see er think about...til ya go..... hmmmmm?

Somewhat tongue in cheek:

After coming back to the hobby my track was always a tar pit. I fingered that it was over use of oil/lubricants because I play with the OPEC promoting lil guzzlers we know and love....t-jets. Then again I've been a mechanic all of working life so I probably know how much oil to fricken use ...right?

What made the difference? 

A better POWER supply! Yes folks it's true! Night and day difference! Without a doubt and absitively true! It was THE single most important and MADE an obviously noticeable change in the appearance of my rails and the electricals of my cars.

HEAT, yes it is also true that a heated room helps forstall the rapid oxidation of your rails caused by moisture in the air. Oxidation in one form or another is the well spring from which the entire problem arises. Go on do yourself a favor flip open the heat vent to the hobby room...ya know ya want to.

Finally I got to thinking about other things like ....SCUZZ! Take a new set of PVT slip ons and burn a few laps onto them...then take a close look at their contact patch.

What is scuzz? Bit's of silcone or rubber tires, airborne minucia, copper slag and ash from arcing shoes, the atomized microscopic brass slurry that the gears eject and pile up on your gear plate, jack rabbit's and dust bunnies, pet hair and dander...and of course it's all emulisidied with lubricant into a stickey tarlike oozum that you could caulk a wooden boat with.

Not that the make up is particularly relavent, it just suffices to acknowledge it as a player, BECAUSE it is self replicating to a degree. Scuzz makes more scuzz because it causes more arcing, thus more ash and slag for the other FO's to combine with. FO's in work order speak is foriegn objects. To RFO is to remove foriegn oblects. 

ALWAYS dust your track before use! I go around twice.

BEFORE you place a car on the track remove the oxidation from the pick up shoe contact patches....thats scuzz...and it will make more scuzz because ya didnt clean it off.

If you have sectional, MASSAGE those particularly nasty steps at the rail joints...you know the ones...if you were in a 1:1 car youd spill yer coffee! Everytime you slam one of those, a clod of copper is garged out of yer contact patch and vaporized in the arc, cast aside for revaporization on the next lap, stuck in your nice new silicone tires, or recombined with all the other FO's on yer track to make the tary crap that by nature really likes to stick to oxidized rails. As others have mentioned time and time again, keep those rails as clean and smooth as possible....not just once....but periodically as part of your program. 

KEEP your tires clean! They are paintbrushes...er...paint rollers that smear the scuzz from one lane to the other. They are the carriers! 

It's not so overly important what you clean with....it's a well established fact here that there's more than one way to skin the cat....what is important is that you clean periodically and accept the forces that play a roll in gunging up yer track. 

:thumbsup:


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## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

Bill makes a good point about track power being a big contributor to arcing shoes and resulting dirty rails. If your car spraks a lot it is a sign of poor power transfer, whether it be bad contact with the shoe or the car is trying to pull more current than the track can supply.


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## cwbam (Feb 8, 2010)

Have you ran a high power magnet car?

1. shop vac track
2. clean rails Erasure , 800 grit block from (harbor freight tools)
many different ways . TEST ON SMALL TRACK AREA.
3. Windex (or safe on plastic cleaner).
4. vacume
5. drive fast with a high magnet car.

may 2 cents.


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