Track Cleaning Car

Typically, you apply the fluid to the leading roller and let the trailing roller sop some of it up.  I know folks that run a trailing "wiper" car with a terrycloth pad dragging on the track to wipe up the remaining fluid.

Thanks John. This is very helpful.

I use the same R&L Lines cleaning car. Lowe's sells the correct fitting 2" foam paint rollers for replacement when the originals get dirty. I use denatured alcohol as the cleaning fluid which works very well. Used Life Like track cleaner many years ago and found it left a residue on the rails, as you did. The denatured alcohol evaporates quickly with no residue.

Anyone have a link for that cleaning car??

Tks, Kev.

I have published a YT video on this subject.

"How to Build a Track Cleaning Car" Take a look......

& Good Luck.

cleaning car. 

I also make my own track cleaning cars and can show you how.  If you would like photos, a drawing, and instructions, my email is in my profile.

.....

Dennis

One for sale now in forum

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...11#39722753445328411

Track Cleaning Car, Specs.

  Click artwork to enlarge.

I built a pair a few years ago using Dennis' design and it works great!

Paul

Thanks all,

  I have some of those $7.00 Menards Flat cars so I think before I spend $100.00+ on something I will do a home built one first. I do have 6 or 7 switches in the mail loop. Hope they will not be a issue.

We will see.

GB TRAIN SHOP sells the R&L Lines track scrubber

www.railtycoon.com

Good to know about GB train shop. I go past there a few time every year on my way to a friend's cabin. I will stop and look at one. Two years I got my Burlington Northern SD 90 Locomotive # 9587 from them. Nice guy and a nice shop.

I was lucky enough to find a Northeastern on ebay, I almost Stole the thing for 35.00 and it's the one with all the bells and whistles! 

I found a few pics of the ones I built....

Paul

I also built a track cleaning car same as Trainroom Gary, using a cheap 6462 gondola and Original Mr. Clean Magic Eraser pads. It works very well, too.

 Well I don’t have $100.00 + for a track cleaning car so after seeing what others had done,  I built my own.
A cheap but good track cleaning car.
Materials:
(1) Menards $7.00  Flat car
(1) 6”x1” piece of round metal bar stock
¼” plywood for bar support and pad support
(1) Krogers extra strength erasing pad
Hot glue
Locktite CA gel glue

Cut plywood to fit inside under car.
 Cut pad to fit plywood
  Drill holes in plywood to align with screw bosses on bottom of car.
   Secure plywood to car with screws. No glue on car bottom.
     Drill 1” hole in plywood for bar support then cut in half for bar supports.
      CA glue bar supports to top of flat car
        Hot glue pad to plywood base. Can be removed to replace pad with a new one.
Apply CRC electrical cleaner to pad set car behind a engine and place bar stock on car, pull car around track and,,,,done. Picture is after two laps around the layout.

Unfortunately alcohol does not cut grease it just smears it around. OIL & WATER no not mix. The only way to really clean rail heads is with an abrasive such as a scotch brite pad or chemical cleaners made to cut grease & oil. Fantastic, 409, Naphtha, etc..

Dave, LBR

I'll have to disagree that alcohol doesn't work for track cleaning.  I can run a 99% Isopropyl Alcohol rag around and get lots of stuff off the track, and it's shiny bright when I'm done.

Putting junk like Fantastic or 409 on my tracks ain't gonna' happen any time soon!  Ask Lee here about his experiment with Simple Green, it appears to clean just fine...

Let's examine your choices...

My track cleaning car is designed to be run dry. No goop to mop up or discolor your ballast and ties.  It is also spring loaded so a constant light pressure is applied to the rails.

.....

Dennis

What I noticed is that they are predominantly water.  Water and steel track don't mix, so if you have any steel based track, I'd look elsewhere.  Truthfully, kitchen cleaners have no place on track IMO.  Again, please look for Lee's Simple Green story, it might change your mind.

in my experience a track cleaning car just spreads the dirt unless you only have 20' of track. I have tried them all. once it gets dirty (after a few feet) it just spreads it around. if someone could design a car with a roll of pads that constantly moved to a clean spot it might work. until then the only method I find that works is elbow grease and a clean rag, and you have to keep using a clean rag.

For that reason I make my own track cleaner cars with a replaceable denim cloth pad which is changed out when it gets dirty. I run these "track wiper" cars in regular trains so that fluids and scrubber pads aren't necessary.

There are various easy ways to make track cleaner cars, but for me the main principle is to have a replaceable cloth pad, using denim cut from old pants.

JohnS

I suspect you wait too long between track cleaning sessions. Try cleaning more often. The cleaning car should not be that loaded after one pass, much less a few feet.

Admittedly, taking out track that has been stored, just wipe it down before assembly, it's gonna be dirty.

If you look closely at the R&L Lines car, you will see it has the rollers angled so they present a lot more area to the rails than you might expect.

Yes, they will get dirty but unless the track is filthy it will clean up before the pads are covered. And you can wash the pads and reuse them once dried.

They will break down eventually, thus the mention of paint roller refills.

I use a pair of the Cars Dennis designed and have no issues. Car 1 has a scotchbrite and car 2 has paper towels.

I would refold the paper towel after 2 laps on my 11' x 23' layout (now dismantled).

After a couple refolds it would come back clean.

So 6 laps of the MOW train a month and my layout stayed clean enough that I never had to clean wheels on anything except stuff I bought used.

The real trick is to clean all of the track thoroughly then use the "UGLY DUCKLING" track cleaning car to keep it clean. Run it around the layout about once a week or so.

Dave, LBR

Russell, we have the R&L car as well as every other car out there. there is a display shelf in the club office with at least 6 cleaning cars, from pads to rollers to a rotating pad under a boxcar. the only way we get the track clean is a crew of about 3 or 4 guys, non flammable electrical cleaner and lots of towels. after these guys are done you can give the track the white glove test and it will pass, track cleaning cars will not. in our unreachable subway tunnels we use a battery powered engine pulling these cleaning cars.  we run a lot of smoke also which adds to the problem.

Well, there is "squeaky clean" and "clean enough".  I've never bothered to give my track the white glove test.

.....

Dennis

The San Diego 3-Railers use denatured alcohol applied to a strip of man-made chamois.  We use two engines to pull two track cleaning cars each with its own pad and it works quite well.  The denatured alcohol removes the grease and oil.  I would not use an abrasive pad such as a Scotch Brite.  The pads will wear down the tin plate on the rails and the next thing you will have to deal with is rust.