I have conducted multiple searches on the forum and on google and I was not able to find the right information on how to build a John Allen masonite track cleaning car. Can anyone help me?
sfb
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Basically, all you do is cut a piece of masonite, and cut it a little wider than the track gauge.
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Select a suitable car.
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Cut the masonite so that it fits between the car’s trucks. Bevel the edges of the piece of masonite. (Rough side will touch the rails.)
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Attach nails to the smooth side of the masonite.
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Drill holes in floor of car so that the nails that you glued onto the masonite pad fit loosely.
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To use the cleaner, insert the pad into the holes in the car floor, place car on track, and have engine push or pull car to clean track.
Hope this helps.
here is a link to a deluxe version
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/download/mrh_issue3
download and build
I read that you should put springs on the nails to get the pad to clean better, and somewhere else said to weight the nails to do the same thing. I was thinking of substituting bolts for the nails and putting nuts on them for weight. Would this work? I also read that you should put brass tubing in the holes where the nails (or bolts) go to prevent them from eating the plastic. Is this nessesary?
thanks
sfb
This is truly one of the times when “Keep It Simple Stupid” is true. Any more “refinement” other than a bare Masonite pad running on the pressure of only the pad and nails yields minimal improvement for the trouble involved. These cars work on the principle of a little bit of cleaning all the time rather than brute force on occasion. Just run the car in regular service (or several cars like it) and your track will stay shiny. Clean the pads off with coarse sandpaper once in a while. Also, when you make the pad, make it wider than the track by a fair amount, but not wider than the car carrying it. The extra width helps keep the pad from dropping down between the rails when the car goes around your minimum radius curves. Bevel the outer edges a little as well. If you find the pad’s too wide you can always trim it down to size a bit at a time.
Lou
I have used this very simple design for years and it works just fine.
Mark
I would avoid springing. I think it is unnecessary, it would cause excessive drag, and might make the car prone to derailment.
I don’t think weighting would be much improvement, and even if I encountered a situation where weight might help, I’d probably add not much more than a washer or two to the masonite pad.
I could see using bolts if that was all I had on hand, and if there was enough space under the car to accommodate the bolt heads. (I made mine in N scale, and there would not be space for both the masonite pad and the bolt head, even if I countersunk the bolt heads in the masonite. And that was more work than I wanted to do on this anyway.) OTOH, nails are cheaper than bolts, and are usually more abundant.
As for the brass tubing, again, I think it unnecessary. I never noticed even any wear from the nails. The holes are a bit larger than the nails, and this allows the pad to “float” along the top of the rails.
This track cleaning car is sort of a “quick and dirty” approach. There’s no need to over-engineer it or gold plate it. It’s meant to be made from workshop scraps.
Again, I hope this helps.
Lou, Mark, and Dan have the right idea. I learned about these track cleaners from the source, and helped keep them clean on the Gorre & Daphetid. (John wanted each operator to clean any track cleaners found in his yard or train at the beginning of each operating session. We cleaned them by rubbing the Masonite on sandpaper until the black streaks went away.)
I’ve used them myself on other layouts for over 30 years (gulp!). Any “improvements” that add complexity tend to screw up a basically simple and effective device.
Happy New Year,
Andy
I took a cheap Model Power box car, drilled a hole in the bottom the size of the bolt I was going to use, expoxied the bolt to a Bright Boy and run as needed. Works pretty good and it was quick, simple and cheap.