Well, I must disagree with my friend across the continent! "Best way"
depends on the amount of dirt, etc.
My advice for washing was for track that is only dirty, not rusty or
encrusted with layout paint, etc. And when I'm doing that job, I use an old
toothbrush for disturbing the dirt. The job is tedious, no way around that,
but develop a "pattern for your cleaning (top of all ties inside the rail,
outside on left side, outside on right side, underneath all ties, then side
of ties, all four on one side, then all four on other, then right side of
both rails, then left side of both rails, and then bottom of rails, then
rinse and set on the "to be dried pile") You'll develop a rhythm for it, and
it can go faster. Play some train music while working, or whistle! ;-)
Any other stuff usually requires a dust mask (great advice, Tom) as you
don't know what your going to be disturbing--rodent droppings, etc. etc.
Then you can use wire brush, scratchy pads, Dremel with brush, etc. I
usually use a glass-bead machine. When you get this deep into stuff, it
usually also requires painting. I paint using a pattern too, and start with
the track right-side up, and flip it over onto some doweling or small angle
iron, so it's just setting on four small contact points. I do the bottom
last, as I don't care what the finish looks like on top of the rails, as I
will wipe or sand it off there.
I have found cleaning the paint off the top and inside edge of the rails
afterwards is best done with some wet/dry paper, 400 grit or finer, done
wet, and the track cleaned off afterwards. An air compressor with a blow gun
is good for this--as is the good old hair dryer.
Well, that's just some quick overviews, and not the only ways to handle
the problem either!
S"
David D.
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