I came across a review in RMC of the Centerline Track Cleaning Car, but it was written way back in 1993(!) Apparently it has been out of production for quite awhile; Walthers doesn’t even list it, and I didn’t find any on eBay.
Apparently there have been some imitators of the Centerline car on the market, but I don’t know where to find them. All I seem to find are toy-like boxcars, hopper cars, MOW’s and cabeese with an abrasive pad underneath. I need something with a brass roller mechanism on it, that’s what supposedly enabled the Centerline car to do what the cheap abrasive-pad cars can’t do.
I bought mine on eBay for around $60. It seemed easy to find - I was unsuccessful on about a half dozen auctions before I finally won, but there was always one or two of them for sale. I did a quick search for you. Here you go:
before blowing that kind of money on a centerline car, why not try this. i drag a masonite pad under a couple of cars (one wet and one dry} and that keeps the track in good shape. I use WD-40 and NEVER use anything abrasive. i know this is not supposed to be a market place but if you can’t find a centerline car, i have one that i never use anymore since i started with the masonite pads. by the way, forget goo-gone. it is like trying to clean a mirror with honey.
Phil - I checked out that eBay link, I see the price hasn’t started shooting up yet. Might have to be ready to snipe it.
max - great link! I’ve got it bookmarked; I called the number and a human voice eventually answered, announcing that “as of December 1st” every one of the cleaning car models would be ready to ship. As long as the greeting isn’t leftover from last year, I think I’ll be in good shape.
Wolfgang - great job on the scratchbuilt cleaning car! Much as I’d love to build one of my own, I don’t have any friends with a lathe to make my own brass roller.
I don’t think it is nesessary to have a lathe available to make one. There are several ways to get a roller. Your local hardware store (not HD /Lowes) will have several materials in stock to make one from. first thing that comes to mind is round bar stock. A piece 1" long can’t cost very much and I know that my local hardware store has several sizes that would work. If that is not an option a piece of 3/8" od 1/2" ID pipe filled with lead would also work. In place of lead you could fill it with a mix of shotgun shot and epoxy.
The essential fact of all track-cleaning cars is either dry rubbing, abrasive rubbing, or solvent wiping, and everthing else is just the tool holder.
Here are my homemade cleaning cars, built for under $5 from trainshow boxcars and scraps, that do a great job when I’m not causing accidents by unattended running:
Lifelike trainset 40’ boxcars are utterly perfect for this use, simply because they have two hollow bosses cast in, just where you need to drill holes. [:)] My pads are mounted to roofing-nail posts. Weight is provided by a pair of large acorn nuts, placed over the nail points.
I use three different sliding pads:
1 - a masonite pad for rubbing off light dirt and polishing rails, used most frequently. It can pick up a lot of scunge before you need to sand it clean.
2 - a wood pad with crocus cloth attached, which is more experimental than anything.
3 - a wood pad with sticky-backed felt on it. I drop some alcohol on this and use it for wet cleaning. The felt does tend to fuzz after long use; I’m thinking of attaching a disposable dishcloth, which would give me something exactly like the Centerline car.
Snagging has not been a problem, even with a worn felt pad. The pads are beveled.
My ‘John Allen’ track cleaning car uses a 1/4 Masonite block with ‘drywall screen’ glued to the bottom of it. The drywall screen is a plastic mesh material and does seem to ‘scratch up’ the track. I really cuts the crud, and can be cleaned with a stiff tooth brush and water. I run it in a track cleaning train that has a CMX & Centerline car on either side of the ‘John Allen’ car. I used an old 40’ Tru-Scale/TM/Walthers MOW car and drilled a pair of holes in it for the two drill rod shafts to run up through, I have a couple of sprints and a large weight to keep the pressure on the rails. The entire project took about an hour and other than the old car, the drill rod and drywall screen(Menards/Home Depot) was the only cost.
I’ve heard of people using these screens, especially on garden railroads, but I haven’t tried it myself. They seem like a really coarse grit, 120-150 or so, and I’d be afraid of leaving scratches that can trap dust. Have you had any problems with this?
We’ve tried nearly 10 different track cleaning cars on our HO scale club layout, and the only one that really cleans the track is the CMX Clean Machine from Tony’s Train Exchange filled with lacquer thinner.
The Centerline tends to just spread the dirt because the material they provide to cover the roller, which is a strip of Handi-Wipe, doesn’t really soak up the dirt and grime. We use the Centerline car running dry behind the CMX to mop up any residue that the CMX doesn’t get, but there’s little left for it to do.
Centerline is not out of business. I received an on-line advertisement from Factory Direct Trains today offering a Centerline track cleaning car for $47.
