What is Rail Dust? (2024)

What is rail dust? At times you may have noticed little orange specks on the paint of your car and have wondered where it came from. When small metal particles land on your vehicle and rust, small specks can form. This is called rail dust.

The term originated when cars first started being delivered by train – small particles from the track would fly up and land on the cars. If it was wet outside, these particles would start to rust and rail dust was formed. Nowadays you can get rail dust anywhere. If you’re driving in an industrial area or near train tracks, you run the risk of coming in contact with the metal particles.

Fortunately, rail dust can be removed and if done properly, won’t come back. Start with taking a rail dust remover such as Iron X and cover your entire car in it. After the product has settled for five minutes you should rinse it off. It is important to make sure the remover doesn’t dry on the paint.

Once that’s complete you want to get a clay bar and some kind of lubricant to lower the amount of friction. All you have to do is spray the lubricant on the specks and then gently rub the clay bar back and forth a couple times to remove them. Once this process is complete, your car should look as good as new.

Now if you have orange specks on your car or see them in the future you know how to remove them. Rail dust can be an annoying problem but it’s not a hard one to fix.