Well, it feels like spring is finally here and I was cleaning up my back patio were I’ve had my old layout stored since last summer. It’s been sitting on my wife’s air hockey table with a tarp over it through the winter. I decided to be brave and open it up to see how much damage has developed. There was a ton of dust and spiders. A huge black widow took up residence in the passenger station, but when I tried to blow out the dust, the roof blew off along with the spider. I haven’t checked the rest of the buildings but I’m sure they are occupied as well. My background did not make it however due to the moisture and when I pulled off the tarp, one corner got torn. I don’t think I can fix it and I’m undecided whether I’m going to replace it. It’s going to be awhile before I get my new layout built and I want to run some trains, before I forget how. Anyway, I got a real track cleaning chore ahead of me. At least its a small layout. I’m going to try cleaning by hand first and then tryout my brand new Atlas cleaning machine for in the tunnels. I’ve never used a cleaning machine before and I was wondering if I should push it in front to clean the track before my loco hits the dirty track. How many times around does it take to clean a really dirty track? I can use any advice you might have to get it running again.
That all depends how dirty your track is. Run a loco on the layout after you think the track is clean. The loco will tell you if you need more cleaning.
