Do The Track Cleaning Cars Really Work?

[hobo9941]

I have a lot of track to clean. I am wondering if any of the track cleaning cars work, and do they snag on turnouts and switch points?

Thanks in advance.

[MisterBeasley]

I have subways.  Most of the trackage is accessible throught liftoffs, but some are a pain to remove because of lighting on the surface.  Some spots are dang near impossible.

I use a CMX track cleaning car from Tony's Trains.  Yes, it's a Cadillac model of a track cleaner, maybe even a Ferrari.  I use lacquer thinner, the recommend "more aggressive" cleaning fluid.  The car has a nice needle valve mechanism that lets me limit the amount of solvent, so I don't end up with leaked fluid or even much of an odor, although I do always run it on nice days with the windows open.

It's a great investment.  It doesn't snag on anything.

[cacole]

At our HO scale club, we have tried about every type of track cleaning car made.  The best has been the CMX Clean Machine filled with lacquer thinner followed by a Centerline roller running dry to mop up any residue.

Our biggest disappointment is the Atlas track cleaning car which is made by a company in England.  The cleaning pad is so tiny and it hold so little cleaning fluid that it is next to worthless.  Only the vacuum cleaner part of it is worth using.

 

[cudaken]

  I use the cheap Train Line cleaning box cars, about $15.00 each. I have 3 of them and they sure cut down on engine wheel cleaning. If I am going to run a section I have not ran in some time, I use 2 in front of the engine and 1 on the rear. For normal train running, each train will have one.

  Buy one and give it a try, if you like them like I do you can all wise add a few more.

                Cuda Ken                     

[RedLeader]

CMX is the way to go.

Don't get lured by the looks of the Atlas cleaning machine (made by Dopol).  It is really a disappointment.  First of, it is motorized and you'll need to spend extra on a decoder if running on dcc, which by-the-way, doesn't have any functions other converting AC to DC and letting the mototr spin.  It has a terrible design flaw: The cleaning fluid container is just to little!  Who designed that!!  With a capacity of just a few drops of fluid, you'll have to recharge every 3 feet!!!  Another design flaw is that the whole thing is made out of plastic!  Any aggressive fluids like laquer thinners or any disolvent will attack the integrity of the car.  The car is painted, eventually some fluid will spill (because of the ridiculous size of the fluid container!!!) and will stain and remove the paint. The vaccum cleaner performs ok.  All other accesories are just a waste of money.

[cacole]

The dry "skidder" types of cars soon gum up with gunk from the track and just spread it around.  The only thing that works well is a liquid cleaner, and the best is lacquer thinner.  That's why the CMX Clean Machine is so good -- it's all brass so there are no plastic parts to dissolve if the lacquer thinner gets spilled during filling.

 

[richg1998]

 Only if you use them

Rich

[wedudler]

 I have my TrackCleaningTransferCaboose.This works like the Centerline Cars. It works, you can see the dirt at the roll. This car is always in service.

 

Sometimes I use my CMX tank car with fluid. 

Wolfgang

 

[fredswain]

I can definitely attest to the "dry skidder" style being a disappointment. I know a couple of people that use them exclusively and we are still always having continuity problems. You can run your finger down the rails and your finger tip will have a black line down it. Even after those cleaner cars go by. This gunk in turn gets on your wheels and messes everything up. You definitely need one that applies a cleaner to the rail as well as something that wipes it up. While it may not be perfect compared to hard labor through hand cleaning the rails, it is definitely going to be a big improvement. The dry skid type just seem to sand the rails down and leave the dust and dirt behind.

[G Paine]

At Boothbay Railway Village model railroad exhibit, we have been using two Centerline cleaners, one wet with 90% rubbing alchol and the other dry. Using a dry pickup is important with liquid cleaners because if you do not pick up the solvent, the residue will remove the gunk from the cars wheels, deposit it back on the tracks and spread it everywhere.

When the museum is open, we are running trains 6 or 7 hours a day, 7 days a week.

[shayfan84325]

I have a Centerline car and I like it.  I had to figure out a way to keep the cloth from unrolling when it backs up,  I'd say it gets the track about 85% clean.  Good enough for reliable operation.

To me, the greater challenge is keeping locomotive wheels clean.  It seems that one side is usually dirtier than the other side of the loco, so I suspect that the electrical pick-up causes some dirt attraction/accumulation.

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

 Years a go when I had my UP  layout which was quite large my friend who helped me build it showed me how to make the John Allen cleaner car using a piece of Masonite. I will agree that if you don't clean or swap out the pd regularly it will gum up, I haven't had occasion to use them yet on this layout but we used to run one on every train and didn't have any issues. I know guys who feel that if you run a lot of trains regularly you don't need to clean the track as much. I can't argue that point one way or another but while visiting Ken McCorry's Conrail layout I spotted what I felt was a piece of model railroading genius for it's simplicity and effectiveness. You'll see where Ken cut a slit on either side of the tracks which he ran a small piece of paper towel through one slit and down the other. The paper towel is held in place by three pins you see just pushed into the roadbed. The train just rolls over the towels wiping the wheels clean, when the towel need to be replace he removes the pins pulls it through until it's clean and replaces the pins and Bobs you uncle! With the amount of trains Ken runs on his layout during operations and the sheer size of his layout 5000sq.ft.you know he has to have a system that works. I will say I would like to at least try that cleaning car from Tony's but to be truthful I would have a hard time spending the money when this system works so well.

 

 

 

[cudaken]

fredswain

I can definitely attest to the "dry skidder" style being a disappointment. I know a couple of people that use them exclusively and we are still always having continuity problems. You can run your finger down the rails and your finger tip will have a black line down it.

 

 Yes, I still can see black if I run my finger on the rail head. But, my engines don't seem to care and that is all that is important to me. I can have my engines creep around the layout with no stalling.

  I am in no way saying my way is better, but I did not want to spend $150 plus on a track cleaning car. What pushed me to buy them is my LHS layout. K-10 has all the fancy brass ones sitting on the work bench. Only one I have seen ran are the Train Line ones, so I bought a few. They have served me well.

           Cuda Ken 

[pastorbob]

I will have to go with Tony's track cleaning machine.  I have a dedicated work train which has a pair of diesels, a gondola carrying little supplies I might use like spikes, then a CMX running wet, another gondola weighted, then a second CMX running dry and a waycar.  It runs before each operating session and we don't have pick up problems, period.

Bob

[YoHo1975]

Personally, I would recommend Gleeming (or burnishing to use the real word) or No-Ox first. You may find you need a track cleaning car much less.

[da_kraut]

 Hi,

here is a post that has some more track cleaner type cars: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/152048/1681834.aspx#1681834 .  I myself own a Atlas track cleaner, a CMX clean machine and three home made versions of the "dry skidder" type.  From all of these I prefer the CMX clean machine.  The Atlas track cleaner gets used to suck up any loose particles, but that is all.  The dry skidders see service once in a while but the CMX does a fantastic job.  After I had the main track installed and wired I wanted to see a locomotive run over the track.  So got out my BB SD40-2.  I could see arcs coming from the wheels due to lack of conductivity.  Got out my CMX track cleaner, put it ahead of the locomotive and after 3 trips over the layout the diesel ran great even at low speeds.

Hope it helps

Frank

[pastorbob]

YoHo1975

Personally, I would recommend Gleeming (or burnishing to use the real word) or No-Ox first. You may find you need a track cleaning car much less.

I have way too much hidden track/staging areas that make Gleeming unpracticable and downright dangerous.  Will stay with my CMX's.

Bob

 

[twhite]

Aw, what the heck, I'll be a lone voice in the wilderness praising the Atlas track cleaning car.  But before I get royally jumped on, let me explain something:

My layout is in an uninsulated California garage here in the Central Valley, and the problem is not dust, but pollen.  Lots of pollen during the spring and summer (when I spend a lot of time on the layout, BTW), so 'wet' cleaning is simply out of the question, a liquid track cleaner just leaves very interesting and frustrating 'mud' on the tracks after it passes over.  Pollen+liquid track cleaner=Gunk, no matter what you hope for.   

I have to clean my tracks 'dry', and the Atlas is just the little triple-threat to do it, with the mildly abrasive rail cleaner, soft rail polisher and vacuum attachments.  If things have gotten a little 'pollen-ish' on the tracks, I run it with the vacuum attachment.  Voila, it's all gone.  To keep the rails polished, I use the soft-cloth polisher attachment.  In fact, I went out and bought another Atlas so that I can run the vacuum and rail polisher in tandem. 

I run straight DC, so retrofitting the Atlas has not been a problem, and the cars take so little voltage that I can push them with double-headed steamers if I so wish.  Only one thing, and it's a minor point--I have to stop every 12 feet or so and check the vacuum to see that it's not getting clogged.  But that little baby sure works for me.  Before Atlas, I was cleaning my track a LOT!  After Atlas, not nearly as much. 

Now that doesn't mean I universally reccommend the Atlas, but if you've got a situation similar to mine, where 'wet' cleaning only messes up the track further, you might want to look into one.  Mine have sure worked for me.

Tom    

[hobo9941]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. Lots of good information here.

[YoHo1975]

pastorbob

YoHo1975

Personally, I would recommend Gleeming (or burnishing to use the real word) or No-Ox first. You may find you need a track cleaning car much less.

I have way too much hidden track/staging areas that make Gleeming unpracticable and downright dangerous.  Will stay with my CMX's.

Bob

 

No-Ox would work for you. You put a dollup on the rail and run an engine through it until its all worked int. Do that over sections until all track covered.

[yankee flyer]

 

 Hi 

I have one of those skider type box cars and run it aroud the track a few times. Then I snap a piece of cloth on the skid pad with a little alcohol on it, run this a few times,   good to go.  Granted I use two F unit s to pull the car with the cloth over the skid block.  (Poor people have poor ways).    The way I do this is cut a piece of cloth just a little wider than the track and a little longer than the skid pad, punch a hole in each end so there is a little stretch and snap the cloth over the spring posts that hold the skid pad. I use a cloth that is kind of thick and will stretch.  I'm not to thrilled about  buying a cleaning car that costs almost as much as an engine.

Just my 

Lee

 

[mobilman44]

Hi!

Lots of thoughts on this age old MR problem!  As my current layout is still under construction, I'm using the tried and true 0-5-0 switcher with a soft rag and alcohol.  When the layout's further along, I'll hook up the Centerline cleaner car, which like most of the methods works "ok" - but not great.

The one thing to keep in mind is to do what you can to avoid dirt in the first place.  Stuff like sealing the room (esp. concrete floors and unfinished walls/ceilings), and isolating the train room from the rest of the basement/garage/attic, whatever.

Also, cleaning your track is an exercise in futility if your cars/locos have dirty wheels.  Two years ago I changed out all my wheelsets to Intermountain, and they appear to make a difference.  Ha, at least they don't pick up dirt (must leave it on the rail heads, I guess). 

In short, you can do a lot of stuff to minimize the problem, but it is and will be a constant battle.

ENJOY,

Mobilman44