Testing the brand new Gaugemaster GM 25 Premium Track rubber, does it scratch? Find out here! 

Thanks for taking the time to produce this experiment. very interesting to see the comparison. and the surprising detail of the results. Great recommendation , I would think that continued use of the Gaugemaster rubber would polish out the deeper marks over time?

Excellent video! I bought a Peco rubber last summer and then immediately afterwards found all the videos everyone made about how bad they are. I'll have to grab a Gaugemaster one if I can.

What an excellently produced test. Very informative, well done. A couple of boring things: I believe the AlOx cleaning rubbers are used in the electrical industry, cleaning boards, contactors, brush surfaces, that kind of thing. Secondly I've always thought the Peco (bless 'em) track rubber was always too hard and abrasive, however, in Pecos defence (although it should've been upgraded) the rubber dates from some years ago. Remember farish formaway? Triang series 3? The old triang hornby or Lima? Playcraft? They were all steel, came pre-rusted from new. Didn't have to paint the rail sides, they'd turn rusty by themselves. Ballasting? Spray that glue and water, you can never have too much rust. And this was the world that the peco track rubber was born into. It was a miracle over the 140# sandpaper that was usual. Since then of course trackage is now a completely different thing, and the good peco track rubber, like the good Hornby Dublo, entered into a world very different from when it departed. I personally think it should've been retired many years ago, but of course where there's a market. And of course Peco streamline, setrack, premium high quality track products; folks will always take it the the track rubber peco makes is the right one for peco track, understandably so. I forgot how good your channel was actually, nice to get back to

The Peco track rubber uses fragments of carborumdum, the same as Emery paper. The Guage Master track rubber uses aluminium oxide (AKA ruby crystals). The tarnishing of nickel silver track over time, even when covered over and not used, is actually caused by the silver content oxidising with the air. It's one of the disadvantages of nickel silver rails versus steel rails. I have both Peco Streamline flexi-track in nickel silver and steel, on my layout, with the parts of the layout with steel track requiring the least amount of cleaning, just the removal of traction tyre residue maybe once a year.

A very interesting video. Personally don't use track rubbers as they scratch and mark. I've always used isopropyl & a cotton bud. Works every time and no scratches!

Great video, really informative, thanks for taking the time to make it, the info is incredibly useful.

A very conclusive job and a very well-produced video. That will be so helpful to so many.

Heres the spoiler lol.. .these are rebranded Garryson / Gareyflex rubbers that have been used in sheet metalwork for decades. They are available in different grades, and the one ive been using on my track is now 35 years old and barely worn. But in fairness to gaugemaster, similar to most of their other rebranded products, they havent ramped the price up from the originals.

@Mike just used this for the first time based on your recommendation over the weekend - wow super impressed, peco in the bin now!

DCC Concepts also supply an aluminium oxide track rubber, good to have alternatives to the abrasive Peco one. Thank you for the comparison video 👍🏻

Nice comparison Mike. It would have been interesting to see what difference the Gaugemaster rubber made over the section previously cleaned by the Peco, would it reduce the scratching. I have tried chemicals but it seems more time consuming and the cloth catches on points and rail joints. Although there have been many videos swearing by the oil based methods like Inox, I would never use them due to the loss of traction and the problem they cause with traction tyres that a fair few of my loco's have.

Mike, an excellent technical inspection and comparison - well done - we need more dies like this! 👍 The only issue I can see with the Gaugemaster rubber is it physical size when it comes to cleaning scenic track - particularly where conductor rail of other lineside apparatus is present is present (and between platforms).🤔 Notwithstanding I'll be looking to purchase one of the Gaugemaster rubbers.🙂 As an aside, the PECO track rubbers tend to harden with age - have you thought about a comparison between a brand new PECO track rubber and one a few years old (I suspect the results will be similar)?🧐 Colin 🌞

Interesting experiment Mike I bought two guagemaster ones (one for my mate) but they cost over 30.00 AUD each to get here !! Thanks for heads up you gave my channel by the way , all the best, Stewart

Great comparison. Might look into getting the gaugemaster version. Thanks for showing. Regards Paul.

I’ve had an old Gaugemaster track rubber for many a year now: one of the strange, slightly spongy black ones that smell funny. So old, it came from ModelZone! It’s always done a good job (even if it’s full of deep gouges from cleaning wheels with it) and that too is quite forgiving and spongy. As far as I can tell it doesn’t have any metallic content - though I could be wrong? - which I imagine makes a difference. Only issue is it leaves some small crumbs behind. The Peco ones have always made me frown a bit with how rough n tough they are.. I’ve used them at my local shop, but always felt like I’d be safer using a piece of concrete.. 😅

Thanks for this one Mike, I wondered if at first it was an April fools!

hello Mike, Top of the Model Railways, in at no1 is the Gaugemaster track cleaner ! a top hit. Mike's product of the week, down from no1 is Bachmann 's booster loco which is no2

Great video.

I use gaugemaster track rubbers on my older Tri-ang track and it works wonders

I'd be interested to see the Hornby track rubber compared.

Gaugemaster wins!

impressive

I saw someone cleaning track at Pendon using a small piece of hardboard.

I have used cars track cars track rubbers for the 20 years no trouble on my garden railway oo gauge

I recently bought the DCC concepts track cleaner, can you tell me if the new Gaugemaster is the same product? Thanks for doing your most enlightening video.

Nicely done 0:16

Thank you for the video sent to Tri-ang society today, probably nudged by my own poor attempt to demonstrate the same. Any chance you can do a test using 1200 wet & dry paper or even 2400? Very good information video, thank you for that.

Try a small off cut of Balsa wood. Since using this I now only clean track every few months and as I always have a bit of balsa going spare it’s free and no residue or particles 👍

I wonder if the Gaugemaster rubber would polish out the scratches made by the Peco one?

can you test the woodland scenics track rubber next! i dread to think what my track looks like under magnification!

It is good but its sooooo big ! I have used in the past the smaller track rubber,but i tend to use now IPA and a glasses lens cleaning cloth.But would a few scratches really hurt? I guess it all helps in smooth running thinking about it.😀

Where you used the peco rubber, could you use the gaugemaster over it to see if it gets rid of the scratches made by it

Thats timely, I was about to pop over the town and grab a peco rubber tomorrow. I think I'll ask him to grab a gaugemaster one. How easily do you think that would cut? Not covered in the video but what happens if you use it on already scratched track? Would it restore it? Or not really as its not super abrasive? Happy modelling 🙂

Only problem seems to be the dimensions... way too wide. If you are cleaning in situ, it will wallop everything at the side of the track. It might merit a cut-down to mitigate this. The Fleischmann track rubber is of similar substance and is suitably sized.

Thanks my old peco rubber is now in the bin..

I had a Hornby track rubber, but it was too thin. A friend of mine bought a PECO track rubber and sent it to me. The PECO track rubber is as good as the Gaugemaster one: no scratches. Whatever floats our boats.

Balsa wood is meant to be excellent as a track rubber🤔