Track cleaning cars.

[e-paw]

I just " HATE " Cleaning my track work. Luckily the layout is in a finished basement with a dehumidifier running so it tends to stay pretty clean. I still wanted to make the job as easy as possible, so I used an old trick that is even available in a few commercial forms. I converted two of my basic cabooses into track cleaning cars that can be run with my regular trains. I did this in HO scale but it could be done in any scale.

I choose two nondescript, plain Jane cabooses from my fleet and a Bright Boy and went to work. The first step was to cut the Bright Boy into two pieces and drill a few holes into them large enough for some 2-56 screws.
I drilled out the holes so that the screw heads could be recessed into the Bright Boys as not to interfere with any track work,the pads were secured with 2-56 hard ware. I removed the weights from the frames and drilled corresponding holes slightly larger then the screws through them. The assembly looks like this.

A one ounce weight was drilled out and also secured to the screws with a set of 2-56 nuts. this allows the cleaning pad to float independently from the car. A celling fan weight of about 1/2 ounce was secured over each truck. This brings the total car weight up to about 3 ounces. The leading edges of the pad were beveled to avoid snags and the edges of the pad were also painted black to help hide them. On to the track they went and a test train was put together. Both cars ran fine and cleaned the track in just a pass or two. I really wasn't keeping track of time but I think that the 2 cars took about an hour to complete from start to finish. One plus is that the Bright Boy pads are double sided, so when they wear out I can just flip them over.

[shaygetz]

[P5se Camelback]

That's got to be the "Tip-O'-The-Week!"

[Chuck]

Great idea! I'll bet they clean a lot better than the masonite pads John Allen used. I think I am going to have to make one of those. Thanks for the idea.

Chuck

[Gary S]

Very nice, e-paw. At some point, with 400+ feet of track, I'll need an entire work train of track cleaning cars!

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I was watching a video of the LORAM rail grinder, and even i think it might pay to make a large track cleaning train. Not just a few CMX cars, like at my club, but something that REALLY grinds and polishes the rails.

[nachoman]

I was watching a video of the LORAM rail grinder, and even i think it might pay to make a large track cleaning train. Not just a few CMX cars, like at my club, but something that REALLY grinds and polishes the rails.

I thought about doing that once. I'd have a vacuum car, followed by a car that has some kind of rotating track cleaner that uses a chemical cleaner such as alcohol. The idea is to make a train that vacuums the right of way and cleans the rails in one pass.