It’s time to wash the exterior of our local tourist train. We have about a dozen stainless coaches. Does anyone have any tips as what is the best product to use. Are there any products that would damage the stainless steel? Is there any equipment that would be recomended? So far all we have are some ladders and some sponges Thanks RL.
Sponges?!? Dear Lord man! You must be a glutton for punishment. It would take you half a day just to wash one car, let alone a whole train!
Get two or three of these! http://www.properautocare.com/adflwabr.html
Recomend the TRUCK-O-MAT at Hubbard[:-,]
Locally each summer the high school cheerleaders run fund raising car washes and it is hard to say if the customers really want their cars washed or just want to watch the cheerleaders. Why not hire the local cheerleaders to wash your train and then charge the big bucks to the public to watch them. This could make more money than bringing in Thomas the Tank Engine!
OT but years ago while railfanning at the old depot on San Antonio Texas (neat old structure but what … interesting locals seemed to be wandering around), they had a portable train washing device. I wish I’d thought to take a picture of it. Basically it looked like a motorized forklift type vehicle and mounted on one side was an enormous bottle brush, of the sort you drive through in a car wash. It looked like they could raise and lower this brush. I cannot recall if it had a water tank built in or whether it would run attached to a long hose, but what I assume is that the brush would revolve, the water would squirt I assume under high pressure, and this vehicle would drive along the train on the depot platform and wash the sides of the Amtrak passenger cars. Then presumably it would go to the other side.
Dave Nelson
That flow thru brush looks like a good idea. That’s kind of what I envisioned when I ‘volunteered’ Thanks
Back when railroads still washed their equipment, they sent them thru a washer that was sort of like a tunnel portal built over the tracks, with jets of water spraying on the cars top and sides. I guess Amtrak still uses something similar…
http://www.interclean.com/InterClean/List/locomotive/pictures/180-train_washing_4.jpg
Even regular vehicle washing brushes on long handles beat sponges - you just want lots of big buckets and people to keep them in fresh soapy solution - and someone to “quality control” the job for those spots you’ll invariably miss but which won’t turn up until it’s rinsed (or dried).
I’m afraid I can’t recommend a cleaner, although I’m sure there are some out there for stainless. If you’re just cleaning plain old road dirt, then anything that won’t etch the stainless will be fine.
I’ve washed our train - a necessity if your ALCO is sending lots of **** out the stack and coating the cars. Lots of elbow grease is the key, and the more you have working on it, the better. I seem to recall that I used a pine cleaner. It cut the oily crud pretty well and smelled nice, too. Our cars are smooth side and painted.
Of course, even washing the outsides of the windows (window mop and squeegie) can be a job, too. In fact, when washing the cars it wouldn’t hurt to squeegie the windows after you rinse, especially if you’re dealing with hard water.
Outside with lots of kerosene rags
Industrial truck fleet wash soap sprayed on and rinsed off with a professional pressure washer. Or hire a pro to do it.
AMTRAK use to have a wash-rack at Alberqureque
&nb
Be careful on your selection of cleaning agents, some materials, although they do not attack the stainless will leave it streaky, and they will also leave streaks on the windows that will be very hard to remove. You will notice when the trains are cleaned by the railroads they are not let to dry before they are rinsed. Basic truck wash will leave them looking worse than when you started. If you want some advice from a person in the industry let me know.
Simple Green. Best cleaner out there. I use it to clean all the junk off of my jeep when I was it.
Keep it simple.
Power washer with your generic soap will work just fine. How do I know? I’ve done it many times.
Have someone ready with a step ladder to clean the windows.
Any “streaked” portions, use the step ladder and polish them out.
You should be able to do the entire train in 8 hours tops.
Power washer and long brushes. You can get stainless cleaning products at truck stops. Just dont run the power washer too close to any lettering.
I do like the cheerleader idea. Heck even Hooter girls would be fun.But it would take the family element out of your line lol. SO I guess you can have a guys day. lol Let me know Ill be down to watch. You could even charge to cover the cost of supplies and to tip the hooters girls.
I use “Easy-Off” oven cleaner on my stainless steel DeLorean sports car, as well as my stainless steel sinks and oven. It would cost BIG $$$ to do a rail car. I think the “Hooters” girls are the best idea, especially if they get to playing with the hoses.
New York Central used to have a battery-powered car washer in Grand Central Terminal. It went up-and-down the platforms, washing the sides of laying-over cars. It did a great job, and the towermen directed the trains into different tracks, on alternate days. It could be used, even if it was below zero outside. A one-man operation!
The Central did care, even while they were losing mega-$$$!
Bill
We found out the hard way about not letting it dry before rinsing. We had to redo any section that dried before rinsing. We used CLR, Industrial strength Simple green, Zep and combinations of the 3. 6 guys, 1 steam cleaner, 1 power washer , 8 hours to do 12 cars including the roofs and vestabules. It came out pretty good. No damage, No injuries. We will better prepared next time. Thanks for all of the tips
Man - you want to be very careful about mixing cleaning agents. You were more or less outside, so that helps, but mixing together two otherwise benign solutions can lead to some less than desireable results.
The most famous is mixing chlorine bleach and toilet cleaner, but there are others…
As for stuff drying on - yep. Best to work as a team, with the rinsers coming in right after the scrubbers…
rkcartwright, to answer your questions about Albuquerque.
There wasn’t an actual wash rack at Albuquerque. But there was a modified forklift that was used for window washing. I bet that’s what you’re thinking of.
The Santa Fe railway used this forklift window washing machine at Albuquerque for many years. I think it was put into service a few years after the Hi-Levels arrived. A modified forklift worked well to clean the taller Hi-Level equipmet.
After Amtrak took over Santa Fe passenger operations, they continued using the same forklift window washer. I’d say maybe around 15 years ago the forklift cleaner was banned for pollution/water use issues.
Now that they can’t use the forklift anymore, Amtrak now uses long poles to clean the windows. I like the old way a lot better. It did a better job and it was a lot quicker.
Here is a picture showing the forklift cleaning the windows on the Southwest Limited (present day Southwest Chief). The forklift cleaner pictured below is probably similar to what Dave Nelson mentioned seeing in San Antonio, although I didn’t know these were used anywhere other then in Albuquerque.
This is how they clean the windows nowadays:
