It appears that the Walthers track cleaning car uses springs between the cleaning pad and the underside of the car to keep the cleaning pad in contact with the rails.
True it does have springs
Unless the car is extra heavy, such springs could intefere with the cars normal tracking over the rails.
Also true if were not extra heavy. It is: 0.7 ounces over NMRA guidelines. So far it hasn't ripped the couplers off.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
In view of the recently published list, which is really about three years old already, and that kerosene came out on top as a fluid for keeping the rails clean and not interfering with running, why not use that on a disposable pad? It is the fluid of choice, is a distillate of sorts of oil, and it should both clean and maintain the surface of the rails.
I built a variation on the "John Allen" masonite pad track cleaning car. I used an Athearn 40 foot boxcar for my track cleaning car. Instead of the usual pad of masonite, I used a rectangle of aluminum flat stock with the leading and trailing edges bent upward slightly. I glued the aluminum rectangle to the heads of the nails I used to locate the pad under the car. I next glued a piece of Fun Foam 2mm thick sheet foam to the aluminum pad (no more short across the rails). Using the points of the nails to mark their locations on the underside of the boxcar, I drilled holes slightly larger than the nail diameter to ensure the pad would stay aligned with the track but be allowed to "float" between the car and the track. Before replacing the body of the boxcar on the modified frame, I marked, drilled and press fit a block of hardwood to the top of the nails as weight to force the pad against the rails. The hardwood block is sized so as not to touch the body of the boxcar. I can run the car with the pad dry or apply a few drops of CRC 2-26 if I haven't run the layout in a while. Maybe not quite as effective as a CRX car but a heck of a lot cheaper!
It appears that the Walthers track cleaning car uses springs between the cleaning pad and the underside of the car to keep the cleaning pad in contact with the rails. Unless the car is extra heavy, such springs could intefere with the cars normal tracking over the rails. That is the real beauty of the "John Allen" style car as the cleaning pad puts no more strain or tracking interference on the car itself beyond that of coupling another car or two to it.
Hornblower
My layout had subways, mostly underground. I had liftoffs for access, but there were always places I couldn't get to. The CMX car was always in my plans, and I have never regretted getting it. If you have inaccessible tunnels, you need a good track cleaning car.
Several years ago, I got to visit Gulliver's Gate in NYC. It's a 1:87 model of world scenes, with at least a loop of HO track and trains on every "continent."
I noticed one anomaly. Although the appropriate national railroads were represented faithfully, I kept noticing a few CN and Rio Grande boxcars, everywhere. I finally chased down their "train guy," who explained that they were Walthers track cleaning cars, which ran constantly to keep the track clean, but they hadn't gotten around to repainting and re-decaling them yet. He was quite happy with the way they kept the track clean.
Sadly, Gulliver's Gate couldn't pay their sky high NYC rent and they shut down.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Walthers made a John Allen wannabe track cleaning car
You can find those on Ebay and a couple times a year, a tarnished CMX car sells for under $100
SeeYou190I hope not because of me.
Kevin, have sent you a PM.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
JaBearI’m going to have to bite my tongue…
I hope not because of me. Sorry if I stepped on some toes with my explanation.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Shock ControlWhat exactly do you mean by "John Allen" car? How do you find one on the InterBays?
You will need to build it yourself, but it is easy.
This crude drawing shows how mine were made. I used Athearn 50 foot gondolas for them. I bought these all from the bargain baskets at train shows.
Mine are crudely painted and lettered "MOW SERVICE", but some people get very creative with their John Allen cars.
The brown in the drawing is the masonite pad, and the blue are the pins that go through the car floor and keep the pad on the rails.
I added the tray represented in red. This allows me to add weight to the pad for tuned performance. Most people's do not have this.
I intend to add rare-earth magnets to my track cleaning cars to pick up any loose debris.
I hope this helps.
Shock ControlThanks. What exactly do you mean by "John Allen" car?
The "John Allen" track cleaning car is very simply a masonite (hardboard) pad that is mounted beneath a freight car. It has worked simply and reliably for 60+ years.
This is not mine, but a picture I found on line. Mine are packed away.
This should give you the basic idea.
A "John Allen" car will not clean track very well that is already dirty, but it is very good at keeping track clean and gleamed.
Shock ControlSince you do not recommend the eraser, until I get a track cleaning car, is isopropyl alcohol on a cotton cloth OK?
Other people have already replied to this one. I am a track gleamer, and only use kraft paper on a wood backer to hand clean my rails.
Thanks. I can haz nickel silver track.
Shock Controluntil I get a track cleaning car, is isopropyl alcohol on a cotton cloth OK?
That's how I cleaned my track for the sixty years before I got smart and bought the CMX.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
SeeYou190Do not use any rubber eraser thing on your track. They just cause worse problems later. The "John Allen" masonite pad car is the only thing I use, but it should be run as much as possible. Two or three of them are good. -Kevin
The "John Allen" masonite pad car is the only thing I use, but it should be run as much as possible. Two or three of them are good.
Thanks. What exactly do you mean by "John Allen" car? How do you find one on the InterBays?
Since you do not recommend the eraser, until I get a track cleaning car, is isopropyl alcohol on a cotton cloth OK?
I have to agree with those who have praised the John Allen masonite pad car. I built one and just place it in front of one of my trains every so often and that seems to clear everything up.
wdcrvr
Shock ControlUntil I get one, am I better off just using the rubber eraser-like tool, or is there something in between, like the Walthers car?
Do not use any rubber eraser thing on your track. They just cause worse problems later.
jjdamnit Hello All, OK, I'm going to "Ass-u-me" that you are referring to HO scale track cleaning cars. I, and the Colorado Model Railroad Museum, use a Dapol HO Track Cleaner. This car is on the pricy side but...
Hello All,
OK, I'm going to "Ass-u-me" that you are referring to HO scale track cleaning cars.
I, and the Colorado Model Railroad Museum, use a Dapol HO Track Cleaner.
This car is on the pricy side but...
Just visited their web site.........
Price does not matter when the item is not available (there does appear to be 5-6 in stock at various places here in the colonies)..........
Looks way too fussy, way to many moving parts.........
Again, as posted in the track gleeming thread, I've never had much trouble with dirty track since leaving brass track behind in 1973..........
Leave it to a Brit or German (I'm of good German stock) to over engineer something.
I like the American approach - "parts left out cost nothing and cause no service problems".
Does anyone recognize that quote?
I have rags, a baby shop vac, various chemicals, several simple track cleaning cars...... again have only needed to use them occasionally.
Oh, and no pets in the train room.......... (what are pets anyway? There is cat upstairs who lets us hang around becuase we open the cans, but she would never venture to the basement).
And then there is topic of gleeming?
I have never seriously gleemed a whole layout either, never had any issues.
Yes the gunk is nickle oxide, plastic wheels don't cause it, but they attract it. Metal wheels not so much.
My understanding of the science supports the idea of gleeming, but I know lots of guys with big layouts who have never done it, their trains run fine, they clean track seldom to never, have few to zero dirty track issues.
I will be interested to see what happens on my new layout? I run DC, at a max voltage of about 14 volts, PWM speed control. More arcing or less arcing than the hybrid AC signal of DCC?
Sheldon
I do own a CMX track cleaning car and I use denatured alcohol as the cleaning agent. It is OK, but I cannot get as excited about it as other others do.
I never find a need to clean my entire track. The one issue that has always caused problems for me is the infamous "black gunk", a gum-like residue that will appear in spots along the mainline and on the wheels of locos and rolling stock.
No track cleaning car is going to remove that stuff from the rails. So, for that purpose, I use denatured alcohol on a piece of white cotton cloth and a bit of "elbow grease".
Rich
Alton Junction
It has several features that "drip" type cleaning cars or "scrubber" types; masonite, abrasive pad type, don't have.
For one, it has a vacuum function that actually works! (Caveat listed below.)
Great for picking up pet hair from the roadbed.
It also has a "drip" type cleaner.
From the factory this unit comes "DCC Ready".
The "What's In The Box" includes- -the non-self-propelled car; it needs a pusher or puller, two sets of abrasive pads, an adapter for the abrasive pads, and a tool for removing the vacuum impeller to install the abrasive pad mount.
Unfortunately, it does not include the cleaning fluid, which the manufacturer claims is proprietary.
Now for the caveat: The pick-ups from the wheels to the motor, that power the vacuum, are are a circuit-breaking type.
If the voltage (inductive heat) from the wheels to the motor exceeds 12v DC the "coupling" is designed to "break" or fail.
Replacement links are available.
There is also an "On And Off" button on the top of the car to control the vacuum function if you only want to run this unit as a "drip" type.
What the gurus at the Colorado Railroad Museum did was install a 9v battery clipped to the outside of the car to maintain a voltage that would not trip the circuit from voltage overload by also isolating the wheel pickups to the PCB that controls the motor.
They run this car only after-hours when no guests are present.
One Facebook post from the museum showed what the vacuum had collected after one run around the pike.
I installed a simple DCC decoder (motor function only) into the DCC Ready NMRA 8-pin socket.
Assigned a 2-digit address so I can control the DC voltage from the decoder to the impeller motor. At 128 speed steps I run the track cleaner at 32-steps.
With this speed the unit has vacuumed up stray ballast and the previously mentioned pet (cat) hair.
The "drip" fluid function saturates a sponge-type pad from the reservoir. This reservoir does not have the capacity of other fluid type track cleaning cars which might require more frequent fillings.
Within the reservoir is, as the manufacturer described, a "Top Hat" inertial valve.
Care must be taken when inverting the unit to empty the chamber which holds the vacuum debris, so as not to lose the "Top Hat" valve and reservoir cover.
Despite all the, caveats I am thoroughly impressed by this unit and I feel it is well worth the investment.
Full disclosure, I have not used the abrasive pads and have just used the vacuum and drip type track cleaning functions.
As some previous posts have written, using several different types of cleaning cars in a consist for track cleaning is probably the best solution- -forgive the pun.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
Don't use any kind of abrasive track cleaner. It will scratch the surface of the track, and the scratches will collect more dirt and be more work to clean.
The only thing I regret about my CMX track cleaning car is not buying it sooner. I always thought spending that much for a track cleaning car for my small layout was overkill until I finally broke down and bought it. Worth every penny as they say.
You got that right! When I bought my CMX it cost about $60 in the early 2000s or late 1990s.I would think any car with a bit of weight dragging a flat chunk of metal (6 to 8 ounces) with a piece of felt on the bottom soaked in ACT-6006 would work pretty good. The thing that makes the CMX so good is the metering valve keeping the felt pad wet. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
This is a tad on the steep side.
Until I get one, am I better off just using the rubber eraser-like tool, or is there something in between, like the Walthers car?
I've used the CMX car and the 6006 solvent for years on my On30 layout. Just run it occasionally and it will make a world of difference. I've tried other track cleaner cars but none can come close to this one. A bit pricey but well worth the investment.
Mark B.
Another happy CMX owner. If the layout has set idol for awhile, it makes a noticable difference in just one pass around.
I am planning a larger layout, so when I had the chance to pick a used one up at a good price on ebay, I bought one. So far on my small 4x6 layout I have only used alchol for a solvent and just dampened the pad, not used the tank. I will use it when I have the larger layout and possibly a different solvent.
I do have one Atlas RS-3 that will pull it, but will hang up on my homemade road crossings, if it is not going fast enough. As Mr B said, two locos work best.
Have fun,
Richard
Bachmann made some boxcar track cleaners, but I'm not sure if they're any good.
Another happy CMX fan. I use lacquer thinner as my solvent.
This is a heavy, heavy car. Unlike typical cleaning cars, you don't pull a CMX car all the time, just a couple of passes on cleaning day, and it's a good idea to give your trainroom a bit of ventilation. I would advise using two locomotives for pulling this thing. For stub-end yards, I just push it back and forth by hand.
CMX is the only way.
Thank you!
Happy Holidays!