I am thinking about buying a Centerline track cleaner (N-Scale) and am wondering if the brass version is worth th the extra money. An input is appreciated.
My HO club has one and it works quite well. The only thing we did is to change the talgo-mount couplers to body-mount (required our resident machinist to solder a piece on to mount the couplers to).
Asssuming the alternative material isn’t depleted uranium or something heavier like that, I assume brass is the weightiest option. Weight is good in a track cleaner like this. Helps keep it on the track if you push it, helps add pressure to the roller to scrub better, etc. I have brass N scale ones adapted to HOn3. The older one is wide and I’m not sure they make it any more. The more recent vintage one is narrow and needs that extra weight from brass IMO for it to work properly. I wouldn’t want it to weigh less…
Tha alternative is aluminum, a tad lighter than brass. I will go with the brass model.
Yeah, definitely go brass if aluminum is the alternate choice.
The car does nothing to aid in the cleaning of your track. The only thing that ‘heavy’ brass car does is hold the roller in place. You can purchase their brass knurled roller for $13.00 from them. Then take one of your beat up hopper cars and cut a bay open large enough to hold the roller and you have a track cleaning car. The cleaning materials used on the brass rolllers are hand-wipes that you can buy in any store and cut to size.
For those that don’t model and just do RTR railroading, go ahead and buy one of the complete cars. If you want a sense of accomplishment, bash one yourself for a lot less $.
Mike
Mike,
I won’t disagree that the DIY route with a roller from Centerline is an economical way to get a useful cleaner car. But the mass of the car does have to do with keeping it on the track.
I mentioned previously I have two N scale Centerlines converted to HOn3. I went to take another look at them this morning, since they don’t see much use (I am a dedicated CRC 2-26 user and the track only rarely needs cleaning.) The older wide bodied one is brass. The newer narrow one is painted black…and I suspect it’s one of the aluminum ones.
Why?
Because it has a big 1/4 ounce lead weight perched on each end.
Now, admittedly I am running these in HO and the loco power and mass is much higher than in N scale, so I probably shove them around a bit harder than a N scale user would. But weight is definitely part of the equation, if for no other reason than the mass of the heavy brass roller will tend to fight against the light carbody. I added the weights and it runs fine now, despite being regularly flung off the track without them.
So you could just go the ugly route and stick on some weights to the AL car. I suspect the brass car would look better.
BTW, the 2014 HOn3 Annual from White River Productions (formerly from Carstens) has an article on using one of the Centerline rollers to build a cleaner car from one of the Micro-Trains gons.
I suspect that bashing a car will be a bit iffier in N scale, although I’m pretty sure it’s doable. I modified my first one to HOn3 myself, but Centerline now has a kit that allows an easy conversion of the N scale car to HOn3.
I am one of those that doesn’t model (except for all of the structures, and scenery, and flex track, and…) so I will probably just end up buying the RTR cleaner.