I don’t know if I saw right but is it possible that some cleaning cars are equiped with a pad of “masonite” to clean the tracks or is it another material that looks like it?
Thank you
Serge
Yes your are correct, way back John Allen was using them.
Here is a link to possibly one of many sites telling you how to make the John Allen track cleaning car. I run several of these cars on my layout and have zero problems when it comes to track cleaning. Cheap and very effective. I have also heard where some people use ATF Automatic Transmission Fluid to clean track. It does have a very hihg detergent quality to it but can’t say for sure how it works as I haven’t yet given it a try.
One thing about the Masonite track cleaning car is you need to find Masonite that IS NOT! smooth on both sides, it’s the textured surface that does the actual cleaning.
Our club has been using that idea in a boxcar since the 1980s. Works quite well.
Rich
Thank you for the infos, and link !!!
Serge
They’re the only thing I have used on my layouts. There great as you can just put them in a train and keep pulling them around and switching them out in the industries. All the while you are cleaning your tracks and most people don’t even notice it’s under the car.
Here is a couple of pictures of one of my cars set up for it. I have two of them that I pull around. I paint the top of the masonite flat black and in the shadow of the car you don’t even notice it. This car I actually have two different pads made up. One of them has a weight on top of it. I use this one if I havn’t ran the layout in a while or it seems like the track is getting extremely dirty for some reason. When the pads get dirty just take a little sand paper and sand it down a little.
This car only I also add weight to the inside.
as others have already stated the masonite pads work quite well but i want to give you a little hint.
where your track is within reach a cheap leather palm/fingered work glove will do the trick. try to find a pair with the suede looking fingers. just wipe the track now and then and use a wire brush to clean the crud off the leather.
i do this about once every couple of months and i have never needed any other method of track cleaning since i started using the glove.
once you try this, you will never waste your money on a track cleaning car unless you have a bunch of track that you can not reach.
grizlump
Thanks for the nice pics QuadK,
I have a question for you: How much weight do you put inside the boxcar and on the 2nd pad?
Thanks
Serge
wow ,I was going give a go at making one of these today ,and blamo heres all the info…this site is good !
The weight inside the car is out of an old atlas engine so it’s quite heavy. The weight on the pad is maybe an ounce or two, just for a little added weight.
Hi All: I have a Walthers Track Cleaner box car, with an abrasive pad under it, and I also have a Centerline car with a cloth covered roller. Both work good but sometimes I need to wipe the track a little harder, until I tried one of those Glad “Magic Eraser” sponges and it really did a fast job on a spot that the pad or the roller wouldn’t touch. However it is a little rough on the sponge.
Sam
John Allen’s track slider cars were weighted normally like his other cars, and the sliders themselves had no extra weight or springs. All it takes is the weight of the slider itself to keep the pad in contact with the track. Other than that, the most important requirement is that the vertical guides (nails, screws, or whatever) have to slide freely in the holes in the bottom of the car.
John ran several slider cars on his layout, and at the beginning of each operating session we helped him clean them by lifting the cars off the track and rubbing the sliders on sandpaper until the black streaks were gone. The track slider cars moved around the layout normally in trains, and when figuring “tonnage” for assigning engines we counted the slider cars a two each to allow for the extra drag.
This is one of those simple ideas that doesn’t get any better if you make it more complicated.
So long,
Andy
No this idea doesn’t get any better if you make it more complicated, I agree. With that being said…I guess one thing that I had forgot to mention and probably should have is that my track is not level at all. I cut my rail every scale 39’ and twist and bend it to give it that rolling motion like you see on less maintained, branch lines or non welded rail. I had a problem keeping the track cleaning car on the track even with the pad moving freely up and down. The extra drag I’m assuming kept derailing the car. So that is why I added the extra weight to the car. Since I’ve done this I have not had any problems with the car derailing. This is also the same reason I added the little extra weight to the pad is to try and keep it a little flatter on the track. I don’t usually use this weighted pad on normal running, just when it seems the track seems to be getting a little dirtier than usual.
For a side note though…I have found that this type of track cleaning car does work better on 40’ cars than on the larger ones. I do have one on a 50’ car and for the most part works good especially with larger radius curves. Every once in a while though it will get snagged on the smaller radius curves that I have which are under about 20". Just my thought’s!