metal polish

[jward]

a few years back using metal polish on your track was popular. supposedly it cut down on the amount of track cleaning. is this still conventional wisdom, or has this been debunked? if this does work, will any brand of metal polish work, or are some no good? what would i look for when buying metal polish?

[Jim Banner]

Brasso works great for polishing brass, other metals, and plastics to a high shine.  It contains tin oxide as a very fine abrasive so you might have to clean the last trace of that off with a damp rag.  Even better would be a small piece of rag very lightly dampened with conductive oil such as Conduct-a-lube, Labelle 108 or the classic - Wahl Hair Clipper Oil.  A very thin layer of oil reduces re-oxidation without reducing traction but be careful not to use too much.

Personally, I don't use polish as such.  I clean the track after laying it and shine it up with #600 wet and dry paper wetted with Varsol.  After wiping off the Varsol with a clean rag, I oil the rails as above.  I find that if I run the slightly oily rag over the rails once or twice a year, I only have to clean the rails every five years or so.

Jim