If you have one, what do you think? Is it as good as Tony says it is? It looks like a good deal, and I would think it would work well with carburetor cleaner in it. The only other thing I might do would be run a dry roller pad car or a flat pad car to be extra-sure the track was clean and dry.
I’ve had great success using the clean machine. I use acetone and semi-annual use keeps my 1700 square foot railroad clean as a whistle
So how often do you have to run this car to keep the layout clean?
And do you run it into every siding and industrial spur?
I have found a track cleaning item that only costs $4.00 that will clean all of your track for years (not days or weeks) at a time – Metal Polish!
While it does not have the flash of spending $100.00 and you can show it to your friends and they can (ooh and aha) over it I can think of many more places to spend my money – such as one of the new MP15DC sound units from Atlas!
I tried all of the cleaning cars and they are now in the dumpster as the metal polish eliminated ALL cleaning from my 2700 feet of track for the last 2 years. PERIOD!
If the only reason you can find to run your layout is to use the track cleaning car then go for it, it works and you can get to do it next week and then next week and, and, and!
Do you see a reoccurring theme here! I, on the other hand would much rather operate my layout doing switching and not have to spend hours cleaning the track as I had to way back in 2003. Yes that is when I last put the metal polish on my rails and it stopped the sound dropouts ever since!
The choice is yours, keep cleaning the track weekly for hours and then only run the trains or just go turn on the layout and begin operations. For me it will be the latter!
BOB H – Clarion, PA
We’ve tried over 10 different types of track cleaning cars on our 20x40 foot HO scale club layout, and the CMX is the only one that really works. We have several tunnels and other areas that are out of reach for applying metal polish, so the CMX Clean Machine is the only way. We fill it with lacquer thinner and it really does leave the track clean. We follow it with a Centerline roller-type track cleaning car running dry.
Bob,
Your metal polish will work fine - but it is a pain to do all the tracks, and any excess must be cleaned off with a clean rag. The stuff will get tracked all over. I have a friend who uses it and it does work fine once you make sure it is all cleaned up. My hat off to you with all of your trackage to clean!
I prefer a somewhat ‘dry’ approach. I use a combination of a CMX car with lacquer thinner and a abrasive pad car(a kitbash with a masonite pad with drywall screen). The lacquer thinner cuts through any ‘crud’ and dries clean with no residue. The abrasive car will scrub really heavy stuff off of the tops of the rails. The advantage is that there is no ‘goop’ left over on the sides of the rails to get ‘spread’ around the layout. I use a small soft brush vacumm later to clean up the trackage. After a through once a year cleaning of all the tracks, I can run the entire season with no problems.
Using something like metal polish or other conductive fluids will prepare your rail surface and keep it electrically clean. I have thought about something like Rail Zip or other contact cleaners run through my CMX after the cleaning cycle, but have never had to do it yet. BTW, that drywall screen car may put small ‘scratches’ in the rail, but once all the organic crud is cleaned off by the lacquer thinner in the CMX, nothing seems to grow there. The CMX is one of the few track cleaners that does not derail, can be backed up, and really meters out the lacquer thinner well. Even leaving it ‘parked’ will not cause a ‘puddle’ and melt ties. I never liked track cleaning cars until a friend bought a CMX and cleaned my layout with it - I bought one immediately!
I guess it really depends on how big your layout is and what kind of dust/dirt enviroment it resides in. I have a 25’ by 20’ layout in the basement with ‘average’ dust issues. About once a year I have to clean/dust off the tops of the trains and buildings, asd well as clean the trackage. This past spring I
jrbernier
Once you learn to put the polish on the rail heads the proper way (that is taking a little time and not slop the polish onto a rag) then that problem ceases to exist.
I use a piece of old HO cork roadbed and it goes very fast and produces no mess! And the tracking of the polish is really what you want as it will fill up the minute scratches in the rails (from the abrasive blocks) and keeps the dirt from sticking. It also coats the wheels as we had a number of the Walthers copper wheel engines that seemed to get better electrically over time once the polish was on the rails. Why? Don’t know for sure but if it worked we were happy.
It is a pain cleaning track no matter how one does it. What do you do with all of the cars and engines while you clean every inch of the sidings and industrial spurs? With over 800 cars and 50 engines it becomes downright time consuming. It took longer to move the cars than it did to poli***he track.
This is why I have been finding (as I ask everyone just how they really clean the track) that they only do the main line and maybe a few of the passing sidings. Now as the trains are run they track the dirt back onto the mains from the sidings. Now we are back to having to clean the rails again. I know personally this is what was done on one other layout we ran on years ago.
That is until he used the metal polish and now the trains run well all of the time. The owner only runs the layout once or twice a year but the layout seems to fire right up and operates smoothly with having set for 6 months at a time. Try that with the old cleaning car method.
I spent a lot of money for many, many different cleaning cars over the years and I wished I could have gotten my money back out of them but no one would buy them as they all went to the metal polish and selling them to some unsuspecting nube is not right. I am just glad I found the metal polish before I wasted my money on CMX and Centerline stuff. <
Bob,
I know somewhere you went into detail about how you used the cork for cleaning with polish. Could you repeat it here?
I use an old piece of HO cork roadbed material (Midwest brand) and put a little of the polish on the cork. I then rub the rails and usually do about 6 to 8 feet at a time. I then use a clean piece of cork to buff the rails to remove the haze that forms after the polish dries. And that is it! I just continue doing sections and buffing the rails.
I get very little if any polish on the sides of the rails unless I put too much on the cork.
Yes it takes a little time but once you get into the swing of it, it will go real fast.
But remember that the main benefit is not having to clean the rails again for years at a time!
Bob H – Clarion, PA
The polishing thing is the whole reason I want the clean machine. I have cleaned my rails with different kinds of metal polish, and it left the rails looking clean, and my rag didn’t pick u any more when I was done. But whenever I got the carburetor cleaner out, jsut to see how clean it really was, I cleaned a whole lot more off of it, in about half the time.
I’ve also been using the carb cleaner for the drivers on my locos, and it works well there too.
Greg
Now to address the black crud thing!
Yes it is there and NO it does not hurt anything. You can keep wiping the rails after using the polish until there is nothing left and the black will still be there, as I know! My operators keep telling me that the track is dirty as they check it by rubbing their fingers on the rail heads! I then ask are the trains still running? If they are then it must be OK!
With my layout now into its third year and not having had to clean the track I really don’t care what color the stuff on the rails is, as long as the trains keep on running and the sound engines do not have the sound drop outs!
If others want to continue cleaning their track week after week then keep on doing what you have done in the past. BUT I will not be doing anything but running my trains and THEY won’t have any dumb Masonite block dragging around under and car. We have moved into a new age and the old ways are being replaced better materials or better ways of doing things. I am just glad I finally saw the light and went with the metal polish as my layout probably would not be operated as much as it is now if I had to spend hours cleaning the track each week to get ready for Ops.
And probably after having spent that kind of money for a cleaning car I would probably have to continue using it to justify the cost!
Observations from my layout.
BOB H – Clarion, PA
You convinced me a long time ago. I have a fresh, unopened bottle of Black Magic on my shelf for the time when I realize that I have to do the job.
BTW, it will be my first. In nearly 8 months of running trains almost daily on my Code 100 EZ-Track (cough), I have yet to clean the track, and I have five sound-equipped locos made by four manufacturers that do not, to this day, miss a beat.
Bob, I thank you for taking the time to answer each of these posts over the past two weeks. I am hoping that someone comes on really soon to say that your method is as good as it sounds.
Maybe it will be me.
-Crandell
This seems to be one of those subjects where people are polarized – neither gives the other credit for any brains whatever. Proponents of polish claim you NEVER have to re-apply – but If you only have to do it once, why are there so many postings about how best to do it? And I love their claims that if you clean, you have to clean every week.
The proponents of cleaning complain about how difficult, messy, etc., the polish is.
Try the polish. If it works for you, great. If not, you can’t go wrong with the Clean Machine, especially since Tony’s has a money-back guarantee.
Oh, yes, I run all metal wheels (I suspect this is the single best thing you can do). Cleaned everything about two years ago with a Clean Machine and acetone (careful, it’s a great solvent but eats paint and lungs!) and haven’t had to clean since, except the spots where I’ve managed to get paint, plaster, etc., on the track.
Hey Bob,
Is there a particular brand of metal poli***hat you like best?
JC
jcopilot
I have used both Blue Magic and Mothers Mag Wheel Polish. They both can be found at Wal0mart.
Being in a club we have 4 layouts that get worked on so and have helped others convert from cleaning cars so this is why we have used several different brands!
BOB H - Clarion, PA