Hey Everyone:
Has anyone had any experience with an EFFECTIVE N Scale track cleaning car? If so, can I get a recommendation? I have a rather large layout and am tired of constantly cleaning track to keep the DCC getting through.
Thanks
Jim
I have a CMX machine from www.tonystrains.com in HO scale. It works great.
They also make these in N scale. I don’t have any direct experience with the N scale version, but based on how well mine works, I would recommend it.
I’ve seen a couple devices,even the fancy(and costly) Atlas cleaning car,and none in my opinion does miracles.At least none beats the manual method.You say you have to do it often wich makes me think you may have to work on what causes dirty tracks.Cars with plastic wheels for instance are notorious for leaving a residue.Is the layout in a dusty area?Is humidity too high?Do you clean your loco wheels once in a while?I’ve been a member of the local club for a while and we rarely had to clean the tracks,the layout being in a controlled environment.However,a difference was noticable between summer and winter when heating was active.We had to do it more often in the summer.
long ago i made my own using a bright boy , and one using a pipe cleaner and liquid cleaner. I figured i would get one that did a better job. no luck. what i try to do is once i have cleaned it by hand, just run the bright boy around and around for a while about once a week, but when bad spots appear , its bright boy by hand
Boy, that’s a tough one. I own all of the cleaning cars put out by Aztech, which are high quality.
The problem is that there’s dirt/debris and then there is oxidation, which may or may not fall in the same “camp”.
I think many types of cleaning cars can get off the debris. And of course the Atlas/Tomix car cleaner can also vacuum, which is a key component. Myself, I just haul my hand-held Oreck around the room and vacuum the track off in no time.
As far as oxidation goes, I haven’t found any car that will take off the oxidation and keep it off. If you have a larger layout, you’ll blacken-up the roller on an Aztech car in no time… Or turn a Bright-Boy black to the point that it’s useless unless you sand off the edge.
And then you check the track the next day and what do you get?
Black from oxidation.
Now it’s said that this oxidation will conduct power, and it appears that it does. I mean my trains will run when the track is oxidized.
The problem is that once the wheels on the loco’s get covered in black from oxidation then the hesitation begins.
One thing that I’ve done is use Labelle Track Conditioner, which may be like Clipper Oil or No Ox.
You clean the track with this oil (and it does take off a lot of black) but don’t totally wipe off all the Track Conditioner. I think it was Joe Fugate who called this “wet track”.
I can tell you that after using the Labelle product, I do not have the issues with oxidation building up on the treads of the locomotives like it did before when I only cleaned the track using dry methods.
I have my layout in a garage which is not a controlled environment. Many people clean the track but not the engine wheels. The part of the wheels that touches the track is very small in HO and very, very small in N-scale.
Cleaning the wheels of the engines often is one of the best ways to get good electrical contact. The track gets dust on it, but the wheels pick up a layer of crud… Can’t get electric pickup it the wheels if they don’t touch the track. I use the paper towel with rubbing alcohol on it to run one truck over then reverse it and do the other truck until no more black streaks.
Although I don’t own one myself, I’ve heard good things about the Atlas track cleaning car.
I clean my tracks by hand using metal polish.
I’ve had an experience with an Atlas cleaning car (N scale) and yes it does a decent job.It’s downside is that you have to keep a good provision of these small sanding pads that don’t last long and end up costly.
Also,it has a major weakness in my opinion.I was pulling the club’s cleaning car behind a pair of SD90’s one night and the thing suddently smoked and turned off.No way to have it running again.Further inspection revealed that current is carried from the wheels to the vacuum cleaner through very very small springs and one of them had litterally disappeared.It had cooked off,litterally.OK,this is my own experience and maybe noone else has had it but I’m wondering.After all,these things aren’t cheap.