Boomer...that Barge is just simply another level of modelling..There is Boomers modelling and then there is the rest of the world. I dont even have my own layout and have never built one but I watch your videos because im just amazed..What you can do is simply amazing..

I have watched some videos 10 times.. and now I am going to give them a try. Glued cork tonight. I am hopeful. Thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks for sharing my friend.. I have to get back into my big shed… thanks this may help..

Thanks Boomer for all the great content and teachings this past year. All the best to you and yours in the upcoming year , hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season . Cheers .

Watching your videos keeps me motivated and inspired. Thanks so much for all your work to share your build with us! I cant help but look back how far the hobby has come. My first layout (early '60's) had code 100 BRASS rail on fiber tie flex track and an Athearn jeep 9 with a RUBBER BAND belt drive! All the cars had plastic wheels. Good old days? I don't think so! Like you, I'm back in the hobby after being away for a while. Sure do wish my new layout was far enough along for me to be cleaning track! LOL.

i could hear the electrical connectivity through the camera when you touched the rails with your fingers. as always awesome job. i love it😄😄👍👍

its Monday just wanted to say Happy New Year I am looking forward to what you will share with us all in 2024 ! have a blessed New Year.

Boomer, while I'll likely never achieve the level of detail you are able to do, I have to thank you for inspiration you have provided as well as the fascinating details of how you do things that I am able to adapt to how I do them.

Thanks for this video and your comments regarding track cleaning. I live in Aus and the location I live is very hot and dusty in the summer and cold and a bit wet in the winter. I have tried several ways cleaning track but found the old track rubber, vacuum and masonite works the best for me . Like you say lot of snake oil out there it's just a pity some people try to make you feel guilty if you don't do it thier way. Thanks for your videos.

Looking good!

Happy New Year, Boomer. I agree, I find the more you run the trains the less you have to clean the track.

I’m amazed about the ‘static’ you hear when you touch the tracks (or when the remote came close to the camera.

Just thought I’d jump in here in concurrence. I’m one with a larger layout (32x33) and cleaning track is a must when prepping for a weekend op session with friends. I’m like you, I never use any additive on the rails. My track cleaning tool of choice is a small block (1 1/2” x 2”) of homosote which doesn’t scratch the railheads but yet wipes up all the carbon deposits from previous operations. You continue to be an inspiration and a constant source of education for this long time modeler. Thanks for all your efforts. They are greatly appreciated!

Happy New Year. Thanks for all the memories.

Happy New Years my friend, really agree with your view on cleaning the track work and not using oils etc. I find the best way to keep track clean is to operate regularly I rarely need to clean the track as long as the layout is operated on a weekly basis.

Getting ready to start painting my track. For cleaning I use the back side of a piece of masonite and the little pads that are sold as chair feet/floor protectors. Looking forward to seeing what the new year brings to River Road. Cheers!!

Happy healthy 2024 Boomer. Keep on keeping on.

Thanks Boomer, your wright, cleant track is always a muts for trouble free OPS .Happy New Year see joy in 2024 take care

Totally agree that frequent running trains is the best way to keep track clean. I do prefer using mineral spirits for routine track cleaning.

Boomer, Happy New Year. Track cleaning appears to be very much the flavour of the month, lots of contributors are recommending different, and I like your term, Snake Oils. Can get very confusing, Once any paint if off, minimal cleaning appears to be the go, soft cloth rub down works. Great shots of the real track grinder. CHeers, and stay safe, Michael

Happy New Year Mr Boomer. My 2 cents re track cleaning. No 1 after painting/weathering isopropyl alcohol will give the best results. No 2 Kerosene (very small amount) on a rag wipe the rail and then a clean dry rag to wipe off any residue. Track cleaning now basically zero, maybe once every 6 month's. Everyone has there own opinion regarding that. Hey whatever works. Probably the most important part of any layout is some form of dehumidifier in the room depending on climate/location of the layout. Cheers.

Dear Boomer, cool point, “the big railroad has to maintain their track and so do we!” That’s it! Looking forward to all your next episodes and definitely the furthering of the Seaspan Corsair tug! HNY cheerio

Happy New Year, Boomer. Great video and thanks for sharing. I need to make this happen, too. A good track cleaning always helps with performance on the layout. Bruce in Minnesota

Always enjoy your videos. Thank you for making all the videos you do. Happy new year

Happy New Year and thanks for an informative 2023!

Just stopped by to say Happy New Years.

Boomer, I'm glad to see someone's working between Christmas and New Year. It warms the heart. Saw a rail movement the other day which might make for a great train run on the layout. A well car was moving a very, very large electrical transformer. A loco reversed the well car to a section of track where a lead loco could attach itself to the front of the car. Then very slowly the 2 loco's with the well car between moved off down the line. Since Christmas the railway has moved 4 of these transformer's, one a day from the port. All the best for the New Year. Cheers, Chris Perry.

And I thought we were done for 23. Glad you got another one in. My 2 cts on track cleaning; yes, Run the trains a lot. Daily if you can. I deep clean with a little Mineral Spirits about once a year. Last did it about six months ago. But before running I wipe the rails with a soft (old t-shirt)cloth. I live in a high dust area so I have to dust Everything regularly. Thanks again for sharing. Bob Harris

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!!! I completely agree with you about having to do "scheduled maintenance" on your model railroad. I subscribe to your method of Climate Control (Dehumidifier is the key), Run your trains regularly, and when it does need cleaning I use a piece of scrap wood (oak, poplar, or plywood) to clean the tracks. NO SNAKE OIL REQUIRED!

I would go a step beyond climate control to clean air. I think dust causes more trouble than anything. I have a long tunnel and I have never cleaned the track under it for 5 years. Trains run perfectly under the tunnel. I do have to clean the rest of my track 450 feet. Where dust doesn't settle, the track stays seemly clean or clean enough. My train room is in a filtered air-conditioned area in the interior of my house. That barge ramp is just stunning the way you painted it. Have a great day, cheers, Rob

Happy New Year and thank you for another great year of learning from the best. Looking forward to seeing you next year. Stay safe and good health to you and your family.

Happy New Year & thanks for all your videos. 🎉

Happy New Year Boomer ... I can't tell you how much I enjoy your videos. I look forward to every episode.

You made some very good points that I will mentally file away until needed. BTW, nice footage of the Loram rall grinder. I watched one of these tie up at Imlay City, MI on the CN (ex GTW) one night. These guys were the filthiest crew I've ever seen. Everyone wore a respirator and they were covered with black grinding dust. Gets my vote for the dirtiest job on the railroad.

Happy New Year Mr. Boomer. May you and yours enjoy your new year.

Bonne fête de la saint Sylvestre Boomer ! Rendez-vous en 2024 dans peu de temps

TY for that!! As always I'll be looking out for the next tutorial/commentary. TY once again and I wish you and SWMBO ('the Boss') a HAPPY NEW YEAR! See you next year!!

To clean tracks embedded in roads I made a scraper out of about 1mm thick x 20mm wide brass sheet. I cut the end to have a tongue that goes along the inside of the rail and a flat the width of the rail head, then it can't scrape the surface alongside the rail. I profiled the tongue so with the scraper edge on the rail, the side of the tongue just touches the top edge leaving paint on the rail inner side.

I wisch you and your family a Happy New Year. Thank´s for your great videos. You have inspired me so much this year. Thank you for all.

Hey Boomer, I really admire the run characteristics of your HO models, everything must be well maintained. After seeing so much content lately, involving dirty track problems for this scale, it gives me even more validation that tin tubular O is the way to go. I never knew this was such an issue for that scale and thaught it was exclusively related to O. I've completely forgotten how much time I was spending cleaning track before I started my permanent layout 4 years ago. I have a climate controlled basement layout and I run conventionally on tin tubular track and have five loops, with the three lower loops all interconnected with turnouts and an 18' section of a double main line tunnel. I'm one of those who cleaned my track and wheels with non-polar mineral spirits and applied a micro thin coating of No-Ox-Id four years ago when I laid my track. I have not cleaned it since, and I never vacuum anything other than the mess I'm making in the area I'm working on. Yes, this product is an electrically conductive grease with atioxide inhibitor properties, I have never experienced any negative effects since. Quite the contrary. Although I run conventionally and pull 20+ car consists and most of my collection is postwar, I have no issues operating at uniformly consistent, slower scale speeds around all five of my loops and I painted and ballasted my track. When I was exposed to this information over 4 years ago, being an electrician who fully understood the characteristics of such a product, and it was a code requirement for us to use, especially on aluminum alloys in my line of work, I knew it was worth trying. Like I said that was four years ago. I haven't cleaned anything since. Wheels or track and have long forgotten about it. I recall before that I was cleaning constantly because I was doing a lot of restoration and running to break them in and gunk build up was a common isse. I run almost every day now, mostly with the restored models and perhaps thats the difference but I no longer see any of the thick black gunk, oxidation, or rust that used to form on my track and wheels. Personally speaking, for me. I'm definitely sold for now. I would have to say for me, with my parameters, it's been an overwhelming success. If there is any micro dust forming on rails, it must be helping tractive effort overtime without compromising conductivity becase my engines with magnetraction or traction tires gently and easliy pull away from a standing start with a long heavy consist. Either that or the dust doesn't have a chance to settle with the running of the trains, and the treatment has had a chance to molecularly incorporate into the metals to form surfaces that are oxidation free conductive barriers. I have to say it's been a godsend not needing to devote so much time to track cleaning while building the layout and running trains. My advice, use what's proven to work best for the scale you operate in and never become complacent and give up trying somthing new because you just might find something better in the process. To each his own. It's good to be mindful that what might be effective for a given scale, track type, or operating system my not provide the same results using identical products. It's likely a topic that is better not pigeonholed depending on the scale and metal alloys being used. I do have some concerns if I were ever to switch to any other type if operating system, if the conductive properties of the grease could have a negative impact on signal performance in some way. Happy new year Boomer.

In my opinion, "Putting oil on your track" was the first successful method of unintentionally applying static ground cover to your roadbed.... hairs from the hobbyist, pets, and even neighbors next door, dust sucked right out of the air from other rooms, and gunk that made your track all fuzzy. It was amazing how much stuff would be attracted to the track the day after it was oiled. On the bright side, cleaning it off kept you warm with all the repetitive arm motions... Happy New Year.

Happy New Year! 🥂🎊🎉

Thanks

cool vid nice work keep up the cool vids thanks lee

Great topic, part of the hobby we really don’t like dealing with but it is a must,and that loco running in the background by mistake was really cool creeping out of the trees as if another crew was shuffling cars. Happy New year to you and your family.

Happy New Year Boomer!

Boomer, I'm conflicted, I really don't care for the green tape decking, I much prefer the wood !! HAPPY NEW YEAR SIR !!!

Hé hé Boomer, you´re a celebrity ! I hear about you in distant France in LR presse officiel where Benoit was talking about you. You inspired him so much that...he made the same location and railroad. Amazing to see 2 layouts managing the same reality. That´s my late Christmas present to you. My best wishes for 2024 that will be here in a few hours. Cheers .

Hi Boomer, Happy New Year. I use a champagne cork to polish my track. It is easy to hold, and as it gets dirty you can slice off a thin slither to reveal a new surface. Cheers Peter from downunder.

Hey Boomer Hope you had a great Christmas! Enjoyed the video. Always lots of jobs on the layout to keep us busy. Happy new year! Cheers Bob (from Ontario)

All the best for the new year Boomer best regards Fred 🎉 ps love the outdoor running shots

Happy New Year Boomer.

Boomer, Thanks for the update. I am looking forward to the future builds. I am running Pro Rail by Ring Engineering on dead rail. I power my locos with 3.7v LiPo batteries, since I have only a couple small modules. That means I don’t Need to clean track, or juice frogs or need loop switches. I can even run the loco on the table with no track. It will never stall. Happy New Year!

Happy New Years Boomer

I think four axle locos often pick up better as the trucks and axles can flex better, keeping contact with the rail, they also have more weight per wheel on them. I make sure that one truck can pivot from side to side well, that has converted bad running locos to good running, Proto 1000 & 2000 guilty here.

Dear Boomer thanks for another year with wonderful video's on your channel. Hope you had a nice Christmas, must be strange this year without your brother. I have learned again so much from you that I can call you my teacher :). Same as you I also use always a rail gum for track cleaning. Think it is the best way. Have a prosperous and healthy New Year and keep on posting the great video's. All the best from the Netherlands, Cheers Ronald

Happy New Year. I am looking forward to the completion of the Seaspan Cosiar and the start of the barge. Before I tore ut down and moved cross country, my layout was in the garage and shared space with my woodworking and my wife's car. I did keep it covered. However, it's not exactly the best environment. I lightly ran a 2hb pencil along the tracks, and that seemed to solve the problem for me.

Thanks for your videos 👍 Been following your videos for a while, and appreciate you sharing your build and knowledge/experience. Awesome layout your are creating! I've recently started doing videos of the Nanaimo side of the operation. I hope to make it over there at some point, to see the mainland side.

"Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, strummin' on the old banjo" (I think that's s'posed to be 'innuendo' but I ain't sure)

I think I know what track cleaning oil you are talking about and you need to use it super sparingly so that there's no dust buildup etc. Having said that, I had a simple double-loop test track and used it on one loop the other just cleaned with IPA. Both loops worked fine for ages but gradually started to discolor again at a similar rate so I'm not convinced of its efficacy either. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

Hope you had a great xmas and a better new year. I agree the more you run trains on the track the less you have to clean. I like to run mine while I am doing other things. Don't look like you have any space for the ferry.

Just plug lighting system. It’s brilliant.

Happy new year from France Sir! I wish you will keep on make us dreaming on River Road.

Happy New Year to you Boomer As with most things, everyone has an opinion on what works best. I haven't tried cleaning with wood, but after talking to an exhibitor at a model rail show, he simply used small squares of cereal box and a finger, and I've been doing that every since. Cheers

Happy New year Boomer, I would be more worried about your track gettin "Dusty". If you let her walk on the track the trains won't paws as much, better than a Bright Boy track eraser. Dave...

The track becomes dirty because of micro arcs between the wheels and rails. I would think the more it is used, the dirty it would get. Maybe rolling the train over the oxidization help to wear it off a bit. Idk.

Thanks! Greetings from Colorful Colorado WJ, Another awesome Vlog from the world's Greatest Diorama Artist! I forget how many feet total all 3 sections will be. 18' ? I am guessing that you will have the best Shelf Layout / 18' Mult-Diorama with 50+ Vignettes in the world. I am going to relax and do diligence to create my personal Masterpiece. YES Doctor Boomer, You inspire us all. I truly "Get" your Philosophy on the many subjects you talk about and I am learning to adapt myself to it. I am way more comfortable in all aspects of life today than I was a year ago thanks to your Vlogs. Today is New Year's Eve and you will find me playing with Trains. Your Dedicated Student, John Millard Arvada Colorado

Boomer is there any chance you could do a ride along with SRY if you signed a waiver? Or even on the ferry, how cool would that be? Ride along as they pull cars off the ferry! That would make for a heck of a video. Cheers, man!

Happy New Year Boomer. I was wondering what your approach to cleaning track would be. I will have to tackle this issue in 2024 and was going to invest in a track cleaning car which I think you fill with isopropyl. I agree that using oily substances intuitively does not sound like a good idea.

Of course opinions may vary and they are what they are, but... Never use those "track erasers" on the track railhead. They're too coarse and leave deep scratches that only hold dirt/oil/grime. Super glue strips of 2000-3000grit emery paper to some hardwood scraps and use that instead. I go so far as to knock the grit on the paper down by rubbing two sheets together prior to using them on the rails. If you make sure the railhead is proud of the surface of the decking/crossings, use a hardwood scrap that's wider than the track gauge and you can polish the rails without worrying about removing the paint. For me, this method leaves the railhead free of oxidation and more importantly, scratches... Use 99% IPA to clean before and after polishing with the high grit/ultra fine emery paper. I use the same method for polishing all the rail parts when scratch building turnouts... Points, frog rails, etc... Works great and you'll have near mirror finish on the railheads...

With ESU I’m surprised you haven’t made all of the lights independent instead of directional

Boomer, I'm looking to pick up some AV model air paint. What colors would you suggest besides a basic color kit?

There’s a weird electronic sound when you touch the rail. I wonder if you can hear it in person or if it’s being picked up by the electronics of the camera and microphone.

Im hearing a dcc buzz, not sure if u have a short, or what

What wuz that bizarre rolling stock? Was it a 'track laying' train? Cheerios

Hi, is there a way to send you a personal message concerning an article I am writing for a magazine?

I'm watching the switcher and Mr. Hand shows up and reminds me it's bl**dy HO (!)

Happy New Year to you and your family, Boomer. We're presently halfway through the first day of the New Year and it's time to get back to work on the layout (@paulc1881 - formalising the engine service area). Thank you for another year of tutoring and inspiration! Cheers!!