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Tarnished Train Track

Mike wants to clean tarnished track and asks readers:

“After nearly 50 years in storage, I decided to show off my Lionel Santa Fe to my 7 year old Grandchild. Upon opening the box, I was disappointed in finding all the tracks were tarnished. Using a wire brush, I began to grueling task of polishing or maybe one would say burnishing them up. The dozen or so I did looked pretty good… not new… but much better then when I started. I couldn’t imagine repeating this for the other 30 or so tracks.

I tried a variety of concoctions such as oven cleaner, oxi clean, navel jelly and chrome cleaner but to no avail.

Can someone give some suggestions as I have been away from this hobby for many years and not sure if there isn’t a simpler solution than a wire brush. Thank you to people in advance.”

One Response to Tarnished Train Track

  • Geof says:

    Mike,

    Just use a rubber ink eraser. DON’T buy the track cleaning pads that LOOK like ink erasers. They are the same thing and have the same abrasives but the ones called track cleaners are way over priced.
    Geof

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