Monday, April 23, 2007

BANG. And the dirt is gone.


lgb track
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
A couple of years ago I bought a load of LGB track from a car boot sale. A bin liner full of the stuff including a couple of points for, wait for it, a fiver ! (That noise you can now hear is LGB fans teeth grinding and their envious howls).

It was, unsurprisingly, second hand but not badly so. There isn’t any concrete stuck to it, just lots of dirt. While this isn’t a huge problem it would be nice to lay clean, untarnished track.

The first attempt to sort this out involved emery paper on the running surface. This worked fine but you only get the top and the imperceptibly small scratches would attract muck when it was laid in the garden.

My Dad was watching telly the other day and saw the advert for Cillit Bang degreaser. This features a shouty bloke dipping a penny in some of the magic liquid. After a few seconds the dirty penny comes out clean. He decided that it was worth a go on the track and took a bit outside to squirt with the chemicals.

These were left for about a minute and then the track washed off. Amazingly it actually worked. All the rail was clean including the bits between the chairs. Even the sleepers were brighter. I wouldn’t say that it was quite as good as new but not bad for very little work.

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