Hi Guys,
I hope you’re enjoying your long holiday weekend!
Today, I was running my “CMX Clean Machine” that I bought from Tony’s Train Xchange around the layout to clean my track and the cloth pad underneath caught on one of the guard rails on a number 6 turnout and pulled it out. I was able to glue the guard rail back in place with CA and hopefully it will hold okay.
I know some of you folks will want to chime in with the fact that I should forget the track cleaning machine and just poli***he rail, but understand that I like the way the machine works and have a lot of hidden track where polishing the rail would be impossible. So please, don’t try to convince me to dump a tool that cost me over $90.00 and works just fine. Actually, I have polished my exposed and easily-reached rail with MAAS polish as has been suggested in other posts.
Of course, now I have this new problem with the clean machine…where the cloth pad can catch on guard rails. My question is whether or not I should go around the layout mainline and file the corners of the guard rails so the clean machine pad won’t catch on the sharp edges? I just wonder if filing both ends of a guard rail will affect their ability to keep the wheels on the rail.
I’m currently having a guard rail problem of my own. My operating practice involves shoving 10-17 (full length) psgr cars through facing point (Peco) switches. Suprise, suprise! They have a tendency to pick the frogs. My solution is to shim the guard rails to where they’re .010 or .020 higher than the stock rail. To avoid the problem you’re having I grind down that part of the guard rail that’s at an angle to the stock rail so as to guide my track cleaner (I use Centerline rollers) onto the guard rail. I also bend that portion and make it long enough so that I can put a spike on both sides of the rail. This provides lateral support against any tendency to snag. All you have to do is make sure that the spike that goes between guard rail and the stock rail is far enough from the stock rail to preclude any “high spike” problems.
Mondo–is that the over-sized boxcar with the twin revolving cleaning pads on the bottom? If so, I’ve got one, and have had no trouble with guard rails on my turnouts–the little devil just whizzes right over them. Assuming we’ve got the same machine, you might want to adjust the springs on your cleaning pads so that the pads ride with a little more ‘give’. But don’t get rid of it, it works like a dream, at least for me. If worse comes to worse, just turn it off when you come to your turnouts and use a brite-boy, then save the machine for the rest of your layout.
Tom[:D]
Hi Tom,
I don’t have the same machine you have. Tony’s “Clean Machine” is a tank car made of brass which stores cleaning solvent and has a spring-loaded pad underneath which slides along the track. I have so many turnouts that it would be impractical to stop and start again, as you suggested.
I was hoping someone might be able to tell me whether filing the ends of the guard rails would harm their effectiveness. In the meantime, I did file the ends of the guard rail that I glued back in place…I’ll see if engines and cars run through it okay and if so, I’ll consider filing all the other guard rails on the mainline. If not, then I’ll replace the one turnout with the glued and filed guard rail, which I probably would have had to do anyway.
are on turnout’s is to prevent picking the frog. Spacing, depth, and width is critical. Prefab turnout’s sometimes have overly-generous tolerances of depth and width to accomodate European wheels or out of guage wheelset’s…
Even good manufacturer’s ge tired of complaint’s from newbies aquiring their first EBay Rivarossi engine with oversized flanges, or rolling stock with out of guage RP-22 wheels that derail on their turnout’s.
There is also a reason people go to (more expensive) Shinohara product’s or ‘lay their own’.
Been there. Done that.
CURRENT WISDOM on general purpose guardrails is to use code 40 or 50 which has lower profile than track rail. That might offer some improvement on ‘snagging’.
REMEMBER, it takes TWO to ‘tangle’.