How good of a cleaning job does this CMX car do? Does it also clean the sides of the rails or only the tops? Besides lacquer thinner, what other solvents can it take without compromising or damaging the car’s interior?
And does its use reduce the number of times tracks need a cleaning by other means, such as hand cleaning with an old T-shirt, etc.
The high cost is a bit of a shock, though the car’s design is interesting. I’ve also seen a video of it in operation.
CMX does excellent job! I use what it recommends. Cleans top of rails. Converted all rolling stock to Intermountain steel wheels. Plastic wheels attract dirt, etc and dispense around layout. Yes it is expensive but we’ll worth the money…
I heard that ATF fluid will help keep the track in good shape so this car could also help apply that! (Check May 2011 MR for more info.)
On the subject of track cleaning my club is having a ton of track maintenance trouble because of lack of climate control in the building now. Besides this CMX unit could one mount an eraser style track cleaner on a car weight it and clean it that way? To save money further would rubber erasers clean track too?
I bought my CMX about 8 years ago and it has always worked extremely well. I tried several fluids to clean the rails and ACT 6006 works the best for me. Besides cleaning the rails it improves conduction. Before I tried ACT 6006 I had to run my CMX about once a week. Now using ACT 6006 I only have to run it a couple of times per year. We have occasional dust storm here and I run my CMX after a storm whether it needs it or not.
As background, I have have “gleamed” my track and also put metal wheelsets on my freight cars. Then, I run a John Allen masonite pad car is most of my freight trains. Given that, I still get occasional sound hiccups when a little dirt might build up so I run the CMX with denatured alcohol (not because it’s better but I have not tried the lacquer thinner yet) at roughly 3-4 month intervals.
Mel, the ACT 6006 is interesting. Do you just run the CMX with it and let it stay or do you then wipe the residual wetness off as one reviewer at this site does?
The cleaning portion of the ACT 6006 evaporates fairly quickly. The conductive portion stays if I don’t use a mop up car. Running my CMX does a supper good job cleaning the rails, I never have any sound problems.
Even with the drip valve adjusted for more than normal fluid to the rails my locomotive wheels don’t slip on my 3½% grades pushing the CMX, the fluid doesn’t leave a slick surface on the rails.
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There are all kinds of threads recently on gleaming, ATF, CRC, deoxit and other stuff to put in a CMX car. I do not have one. If I did, I would not use laquer thinner ever, unless it was an garden railroad.
Don’t forget to periodically clean or replace the pad on the CMX car and the Handi-Wipe on the roller cars. Otherwise you will be redistributing the grunge that was wiped up.
A CMX cleaner is very good at keeping the rails clean.
My track cleaning train is a CMX, a dry centerline car, and a slide car. I throw in a couple of MOW ballast hoppers, and a caboose. (Shoving platform.)
I run it (most of the time) as the caboose (shoving platform) leads, then slider car, ballast hoppers, CMX, dry Centerline, loco’s. (Rare occasions sees loco’s, CMX, centerline, slider.)
On smaller dead-end tracks, it is loco’s and CMX car only.
And yes, cleaning and/or changing the pads on all of them is a good idea as all the dirt gets on said pads.
I’ve not seen the Aztec car mentioned in these discussions. I found them on a discussion in another forum, I have no first hand experience.
They have a couple different mechanisms, a wet car (not as nice as the CMX at least in the pics) and cars with roller cleaners that can be run wet or dry, depending on the material of the roller. They also have scales other than HO.
I’ve had my CMX car for years, and its performance is excellent. My layout is (was) in a climate-controlled room, far from the kitchen and any other dirt/smoke sources. I found I only needed to run it about twice a year. Yes, I’ve replaced my plastic wheels with metal ones.
I have subways on my layout, so the car is a godsend. I could never clean the tracks manually. I have to MU together two subway motors to pull it around, as it’s rather heavy.
I’ve tried both alcohol and lacquer thinner, and find the thinner to be far superior. It just does a better job of cleaning the track. It’s nasty stuff, though, and you should make sure your train room is well ventilated while cleaning track with it. The lacquer thinner is a better lubricant as well, which makes it easier to pull the CMX car around the layout.
When I clean my stub-end yards, I use the 0-5-0 and just push the car back and forth on the sidings. Cleaning those tracks under power just takes too long with all the back and forth motion.