I HAVE SECTIONS OF TRACK THAT I CAN NOT CLEAN BY HAND. WHAT TYPE OR BRAND TRACK CLEANING CAR WOULD BE BEST. THANKS FOR ANY ADVICE
NMRA rules mandate you dismantle the railroad and re-build it such that all track can be hand cleaned.
Seriously, CMX makes one of the best cleaning cars but is not inexpensive. At the other end of the money continuum is the Walthers Trainman box car for less than $20.
Keep in mind that you get what you pay for.
Where’s that animation of the man beating the dead horse? This question has come up so many times – at least every week.
On our large HO scale club layout we have tried about every track cleaning car made, both wet and dry. The absolute best in my opinion is the CMX Clean Machine filled with lacquer thinner. We used to clean track weekly, sometimes more often – now we clean track only twice a year.
I’ve heard wonderful things about the CMX track cleaning car. However, in my case, having a largely uninsulated garage layout, liquid cleaning is out of the question because of dust and pollen.
For ‘dry’ cleaning, I’ve found that the new Atlas track cleaning car is absolutely top-notch. It comes with three accessories–burnisher, buffer and vacuum attachment. It works very well for me, in fact I’ve had to clean my track FAR less frequently since I acquired it.
It can also be used ‘wet’ by filling the tank with cleaning fluid and using the ‘buffer’ attachment. It isn’t self-propelled, you need a locomotive to push it around the track, but it works extremely well for me. In fact, I’m thinking of getting a second one so that I can buff and vacuum at the same time and save a couple of trips around the layout.
Tom [:)]
I have a lot of underground track for my subways. A couple of passes with the CMX filled with lacquer thinner keeps it clean for about 4 months. 5 stars, 2 thumbs up, 2 toots, whatever.
I ‘gleamed’ my track at installation (Mother’s mag wheel polish plus a big steel washer) and haven’t seriously cleaned it since - up to three years in several places. At most, I’ve run my fingers (or a paper towel) along the rails, more to check for dust than to displace it.
When additional construction makes parts of the netherworld truly inaccessible, I expect to install a Masonite slider under one or more of my eight wheel cars to get the places where my fingers won’t be able to reach.
I run analog DC, so my locomotive controls aren’t hostage to individual dust motes.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I won’t say it is the best, but for $14.00 the Walther’s Train Line cleaning car works pretty good. I have around 300 foot of rails and seldom have a problem with dirty track.
Cuda Ken
Does anyone have a web address for the CMX track cleaning car? Do they make it in N scale?
Bob
Just search Google or Yahoo for it. You will get a bunch of hits. Yes, they make it in N scale.