Do track cleaning cars really work? If so, can you suggest one that works for you. Thanks.
Jack
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CMX car, occasional, with denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner
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Routine running of “John Allen” masonite par in freight trains. A BB boxcar with weight and pad added. See related YouTube videos on making one. Two shown here:
IMG_7628 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
Besides that, I had “gleamed” my track when installed in 2012. Plus add metal wheelsets to most cars. The overall system works well for me.
I do not have a CMX car, but other than that, I do everything as Paul descibed.
I gleam my track, everything has metal wheels, and just use the home made “John Allen” Masonite car.
-Kevin
The CMX has worked great for me, I use Aero Car Hobby Lubricants ACT-6006 cleaning fluid in mine. I push it twice around my layout about once a month and in my yard after a dust storm. I have a long hidden siding and the first trip is the mainline the second gets the siding. One pass works very good.
I bought two 8 oz bottles of the ACT-6006 ten years ago and the first bottle is about almost gone.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
In using masonite, how to prevent the wood fibers from getting stuck on the track? This topic has reappeared a few times in various places. Intersting ways others make their own track cleaning cars.
There is not enough weight on the pad to cause it to have fibers come off.
There is a masonite track cleaning car running at Gulf Coast Model Railroading in Sarasota 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, and its pad still has no real visible wear.
On a layout that runs that much, I doubt the track cleaning car is needed.
-Kevin
I guess this shows just how new I am to model railroading, but what is “gleaming” your track? I have also searched You Tube, and so far, I have not found anything about a “John Allen” Masonite car. Does anybody have a specific site address for this. I have also found a CMX cleaning car on line. They are a little pricy!
Jack
My CMX works very good but you are correct about it being pricy. I bought mine about 10 or twelve years ago and the price back then wasn’t to bad. I think I gave about $40 for it back then.
I tried several cleaners in it and I got the best results using the Auto Car Hobby Lubricants ACT-6006 so I have stuck with it. They claim it has a non slip residual contact film to improve conductivity and it works very good for me.
Here is a link to the John Allen Site.
http://gdlines.org/GDLines/index.html
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Jack: A masonite track cleaning car is any, preferably not expensive, boxcar.
You drill two holes thru the weight and center sill of a diameter to let a nail slide easily in the holes. Then cut a piece of masonite of a size to fit between the wheels and rest on both rails. Epoxy the nails on the smooth side of the masonite, roungh side to the rails, so that when the car is moved, the pad rubs the rails ligthly. Then just use the car in regular service, so that it goes everywhere. Occasionally rub the masonite with something to remove dirt.
Larger layouts might need more than one car.
As also noted above, the more you operate trains, the less cleaning needed.
I also use a CMX car. I’ve tried both alcohol and lacquer thinner, but the lacquer thinner works much better.
I had subways, so hand cleaning just wasn’t practical. I had always planned on the CMX car, and finally got one. It’s a very good product.
It is designed to be pulled around by a locomotive, but for yards, especially with a lot of tracks, just pushing it back and forth by hand is quicker.
“Gleaming” is carefully polishing and shaping, then burnishing the railheads. We have had a couple of exhaustive review discussions, including a post by the ‘inventor’ describing where he got the idea, within the past several weeks – just look for threads with track cleaning in them!
I wonder if the Wahl clipper-oil faction has tried ACT-3753 formula, which I think has more ‘lubricant’ property.
The two things I regret not buying early on in my return to the hobby are a soldering station and my CMX track cleaner car. To me both were worth every penny. I think the investment in the CMX car can be measured by how much track one has to clean and how often. It was a good move for me.
For track gleaming, see the description by Jeffrey Wimberly about 4 posts down in this thread:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/212742.aspx
For building a masonite pad track cleaning car, here is one video. There are variations that can work; e.g., weighting the pad (from above the car floor) or spring loading it (below the floor).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VslvfBWkVBc
On the CMX car cost, yes, it is pricey but a very good product. If running DCC with sound, brief contact interruptions cause the sound to hiccup (if the loco lacks a keep alive type capacitor), even if the loco continues ahead, quite annoying. It was worth it for me as part of having a robust system.
Hello All,
I purchased a “motorized” DAPOL HO Track Cleaner (B808) Maintenance Of Way car.
This unit has a reservoir for cleaning fluid that drips onto a piece of foam that presses against the tracks.
It also has a “motorized” function.
The motor does not propel the car. What the motor does is turn a downward-facing spindle.
From the factory, the car comes equipped with the “vacuum” attachment. This is basically an impeller blade that vacuums the track.
The vacuum attachment can be removed and a spindle with a pad mount can be put in place. Two sets of pads are included with the car along with a tool for removing and attaching the vacuum fan and pad holder.
One set of pads is a coarse fabric and the other is a super-fine grit. These can be used dry or with the proprietary track cleaning fluid (not included). I have not used either of these pads, yet.
You can use this car as a drip-type track cleaner, only the vacuum/polishing function, or both simultaneously. There is an on/off button on the top of the car when running in DC.
An NMRA 8-pin plug is installed so a decoder can be used to control the motor.
One caveat is the maximum voltage for the motor is 9v DC- -as specified by the manufacturer. Overvoltage may result in overheating. Tabs from the wheel pickups to the motor are a “fuse” type that will “break” before any damage to the motor occurs.
Unfortunately, spares are not included and have to be ordered separately.
When running DCC the motor control of the decoder determines the voltage received by the car.
When running 128-speed steps, at speed-step 32- -by ear- -it sounds about right.
Yes, this is an expensive outlay compared to other options.
I can attest that the vacuum function does work. Our cat loves to sleep on the layout which leaves hair that gets caught up in the pickups of the motive power.
After running this car
Oddly enough I just received a short information video from another publication which claims that micro arcing between the wheels and the track are the cause of dirty track. The solution is to treat the track with something to prevent microarcing.
What you ask? Dunno, it was a teaser video. Either there is a product to buy or a video to reveal the secret.
Nothing ‘new’ about this so-called revelation; it’s been understood as one of the chief reasons for the ‘improved’ version of gleaming for a long time, as well as an explanation for where the black gunk comes from.
The best-wisdom answer is to polish the track to remove microabrasions and draw marks on the railhead, then burnish to close any remaining asperities and shape the railhead and fillet contact (and some of the flange face, with a post-burnish polishing, if a perfectionist). After which you can (1) run the Masonite boxcars regularly to keep any scurf off the metallurgy, or (2) periodically wet-clean eith something that evaporates readily, can address any ‘oxidation’ of either the nickel silver or any contamination, and causes no deposit itself, or (3) use a TOR treatment that spreads into as thin a dielectric layer as possible to exclude air from the rail metal and keep contaminants from actually bonding and causing contact interruption … which would be followed by microarcing, probably worse on the power-supply-rail-to-rail swing of DCC track power. This is what the Wahl oil, ATF, No-ox-id and other stuff sometimes referred to as “nonpolar” do; they don’t have that much effect on adhesion but the ‘wrong’ ones can have a poor effect on traction tires, if present, in a variety of ways. What I suspect the mystery presentation will try to do is say that their snake oil precludes microarcing without physical track prep – which is sometimes valid, as far as it goes, but a bit like applying WD40 to keep a bad bearing from squeaking for a while… [:O]
It’s fun to watch electrical guys talk about contact cleaner as if the phy
Got my CMX car off ebay for less than 2/3 retail. Set up a saved search and was notified anytme one came up on the site. Have seen one other go for about the same price. Yes, it’s used and tarnished (brass), but that doesn’t seem to effect it’s work.
Had a new modeler (Lionel type) stop in today. Hadn’t run a train for awhile. Didn’t put any cleaner on the pad, first time around a couple of stall spots, after that no problems. The car is heavy, so it takes some horse power to push or pull it around, other than that, works great.
Have a Bachmann tank car with pad, certainly helps, but only on the tracks were it runs regularly. As Mr B mentioned, the CMX is good on sidings and staging, with it’s weight push in, pull out and done.
Goof luck,
Richard
CMX car, really it is a TTX which owned the tooling before. The currant owners are great too, sent me new seals. I have tried a bunch of cars but the CMX is best.
Thanks to all who replied to my question. It looks like a CMX car is in my future.
When I got into models railroading, I told my wife it was a fairly inexpensive hobby and it would keep me home in retirement. No problem with the staying at home part because there is little left over after paying for this “inexpensive” hobby!! LOL
Jack