I have a track cleaning car, it does fairly well, but…
Manual track cleaning by hand is necessary still.
On my running board, 31 inches deep, the back track is hard to clean
by hand, leaning over it, leaning on the board. My eventual design
has a 7 foot section that is about 36 inches deep at one end, 48 at the other end, and I’m wondering how I’m going to be able to clean the rear track by hand with the back section against the wall.
It looks like I’m going to have to build my scene with a removeable farm field and orange grove section, make the entire thing messy, but the room is too small to space it away from the wall or cut the two sections into 1 foot at the front, 1 at the back.
I see a lot of really deep scenes in MRR, I just go How do they clean THAT?
I see Track Cleaning stick, dowel cut T with handle, must be handmade, but seems like the dowel handle has to be fairly large not to flex/bend too much.
Seems like a felt eraser would make a good cleaner, covered with Handi-wipe, or maybe one cut up to fit N scale rails on bridges.
In my humble opinion, track that cannot be reached is a design flaw, even if a guy in MR did it. Your option to make removable sencery may be your best option. Remember, if a car comes off back there you have to reach it. You have to reach it to build your scenery. You have to be able to reach it to clean your scenery. You may have an unforseen emergency like a kid throwing a wadded up paper onto the track. Better to be able to reach it easily.
My track-cleaning car has a bright boy. It works so well I never have to do a manual cleaning except on sidings. Even so, you still need access. One idea would be to put the bench work on casters, if practical. Then you can move it away from the wall temporarily and get access from the rear. I agree with Mr. Mouse that any design you cannot reach is going to be a real problem in the future. You need, in addition to cleaning the track to be able to vacuum up dust from the scenery also. Derailments occur in the worst places. Track and switches need occasional tweaking.
The usual recommended maximum reach is 30 inches. I’ve got a walkaround table layout 5 feet wide, so the centerline is exactly 30 inches from the edge. I can work at that depth, but it is awkward, particularly for something like track cleaning where I have to exert some amount of force.
On the other hand, I have a subway which is “underground” most of the way. For that, I really need liftoffs for maintenance. The rule I’ve worked to is that the only permanent scenery above the tunnels will be the narrow strips where the tracks above cross over the subways below. My scenery above is still in the rough stage, but I’m already thinking of ways to disguise the liftoffs so the cracks don’t show.
There have been many treads about track cleaning (just put track cleaning in the search bar above). I have a small piece of leather attached to the bottom of one my cars with a 1/4 oz. weight on the upper smooth side. I bought it off ebay. I am sure they still sell them (around $5.00). I was so impressed with it, that I bought 2 more for spares.
ennout
If your field and/or grove are removeable, make it in a sort of slab so you can lift the whole thing up, and have a removeable access panel so you can stand up underneath it and clean track. Kind of like a manhole, but that wouldn’t be very prototypical…
I simply had to have a wide table for the vista that I wanted. No regrets, but I did have the foresight to cut out a manhole in the middle of my lake…actually looks okay, but was more work when sealing the “plug” edges for my water pour. Anyway, I still have to reach in from my operating edge to do some things, including cleaning track.
The simplest solution, if you are nimble enough and well-enough toned, is to clamber up on a short stool, and place a piece of plywood where you can put one hand on it for support. The plywood should spread the load. Then, perched with that three-way contact (both feet and one hand), take your implement, whatever it is, and rub away at your track. Just remember that you are on a stool, not the floor.
I have a layout that is ‘walk-around’ and most of it is 24" - 30" wide. The track is anywhere from 48" - 54" off the floor. I use a ‘toolbox/stepstool’ to reach some of the tracks for cleaning and working on the layout. I have a 6’ wide ‘lobe’ that has a wye, and it is next to impossible to work on that wye - just beyond my finger tipes without the step stool - Never Again!
I put my 4X8 layout on casters. Best thing I ever did. I made the benchwork stiff enough to ride out an uneven floor. It’s really nice to be so close to the back sections.
BB
Any track cleaning car is better than none. After you go thru the necessary acrobatics to get the track clean KEEP IT CLEAN the more you run the less cleaning you will have to do. Keep some kind of cleaning car active at all times