I certainly hope that "sand blasting " is a facietious answer . Strangely enough I do have sand blasting equipment in the shop in two different sizes, but I seriously doubt that in would be worth the mess that would result.  Finding an oppropriately sized media would be a chore, not to men-
tion the the environmental hazard of airborne dust.  The only safe method would be to do the job in a booth , which would entail disassemblly of tracks.
Even worse I don't think anyone actually manufactures equipment small enough to do the job, nor are most people actually skilled enough to do the work properly without magnification and micro manipulaters. I did some peach pit blasting on molded plastic contact insulations when I worked at Pyle National to remove flash before inspecting & measuring Parts and its loud & messy.

Try using iso-prophyl alchohol it comes in  70% & also 91% . It is readily available in drugstores.  Crocus cloth is extremely fine graded abrasive cloth normally used for polishing metal . The dust should be vaccuumed up to remove it from the area as it is abrasive.

I vaguely remember reading an article about some parts of the Canadian railway  were laid with extremely  long sleepers when going through some regions of Canada with boggy ground . This is a fairly ancient practice. The ancient wooden roads in keltic regions of Europe were similarly constructed. The Romans replaced some of these original roads with stone.  The Celts had superior war chariots  ; the wheels had  bearings  constructed with wooden rollers for higher speeds and less friction .

Nice upgrade .  Looks really good on my widescreen LCD Monitor.

To Engineman :  I don't think there is a spell checker on this site. Due to the typos and really bad grammar I have seen , it does not exist. Your chose of spelling appears to be British English . This should be intelligable to American and Canadians . The only problem with English is that it is not spelled phonetically and loves to retain archaic spellings but aside from that it is one of the most flexible of languages in current use.  Goodday.

Wouldn't it be better to raise the couplers on your diesels instead of lowering the couplers on your cars ?  All of your couplers should of course should be in conformance to the coupler height gage .

Please remember that Locktite comes in several different formulations. Use one that doesn't  require a jackhammer or blasting caps to remove if you have to do repairs later.

Tried both tests .   Clockwise ,  Totally left brained dominant.   Suprises me since I'm such a fan of science-fiction and fantasy literature.

Dihydrogen Monoxide  is also Hydrogen Hydroxide.   H2O   is its chemical symbol    and  in English    Water is it's common Name .  Like everything in the universe when misused  is dangerous.

To Pacific Northern :  The Manufacturer is Bachmann . The Set is Overland Limited , Product Code : 00614 , Road Name : Union Pacific , Price :$250.00
I hope that information Helps .  I had to look up what type of 4-8-4 it was in some of my train books as I don't remember that was specified in the literature . Please note this is a DC Set. Currently this is my largest steam engine  and  I admit will  influence  my  track layout if I ever get a design finalized.   It came with freight  cars , but  I have puchased  a heavy-weight set of Bachmann  UP passenger cars. 

Since my  4-8-4  FEF  came packed with  22" Radius  track I would assume that is the Minimum  for that type of  Engine  anything larger would require a  larger radius .  I would also assume that a #5 turnout would also be the minimum  , and would probably  prefer a #6 for crossover use.

Interesting  flix . I suppose it was more efficient to blow  up trains  going over tressels and bridges  where sufficently large amounts of explosives could be planted .  I do remember a article about the utilization of American  16 inch Railroad guns being used in France during the First World War to shell  Railroad Yards . They had a degree of success but the French were a tad upset by the amount of damage the Large guns recoil did to the
tracks the gun carriages were riding on . Don't remember where the article was in whether it was in a railroading magazine or in a book on war machines . It has been a while.

Everyone should be able to endulge their dreams . Sure do wish I had the money to the same .

Just checked catalog no such animal as 20 degree crossing. However, have you checked continuity of rails ? Take either a VOM  or a continuity tester to determine if you an electrical connection through the crossing from one side to the other.  If no continuity you have defective track , if you have continuity you probably do need another feeder .

I  think the newer style 90 dergree crossings make it much easier to make up crossings for multiple line tracks allowing a much closer centerline to centerline track spacing . Atlas gives gives a lot of information in their books on track Layouts , hopefully the new Bachmann Book will be as informative .