Track cleaner cars

I can't make a comparison but I've had a centerline 0 gauge track cleaner car for many years and it performs well.

They work…..to a point. Still, “elbow grease” with a light abrasive like a Scotch Brite pad is works the best. However, the cleaner cars do work. They are great for “hard to reach” areas.

I have 3 kinds that I run in a train……

1. the roller car from Cemterline

2. two pad cars from NorthEast trains

3. a rotating disc abrasive car from MNP.

Peter

Here's short video of them on our Modular Group layout......

Have a great and safe weekend, everyone!

Peter

Are the mnp track cleaning cars any good? I was thinking of buying one.

The MNP cars work the only down side is the price of the pads and the slowness of the shipping. I had two North east trains cars and I sold both. The trick is to clean every cars wheels after manually cleaning your track. Traction tires can gum your track up worse then anything elseand the trailing cars pick that up

Gunny

Thanks for the reminder!

Melamine Pads with 99% alcohol.  There are three (3) 1lbs lead weights in the Gondola.  Ran through all switches from all directions.  I use an AB setup with both units powered .  Works for me... your results may differ.

Dennis, that’s proof in the pudding. Thanks for the info.

@GAN Railroad posted:

Are the mnp track cleaning cars any good? I was thinking of buying one.

They are outstanding.

Pat

@GAN Railroad posted:

Are the mnp track cleaning cars any good? I was thinking of buying one.

@irish rifle posted:

They are outstanding.

Pat

I guess they should be. They run almost $300.00 with shipping!

@gunny posted:

... Traction tires can gum your track up worse then anything else and the trailing cars pick that up

If this were correct, that ugly black crud would be on the two outer rails where the traction tires are and the center rail would be clean as a whistle. My experience is that ugly black crud appears on all three rails where sparking happens. If anything, that black crud is worse with older engines that do not have traction tires because they spark at least as much as newer engines. And, when you clean all three rails, you also must clean the wheels and the center pickup rollers.

Once you have the rails, wheels, and center pickup rollers clean, the question becomes, can you greatly reduce sparking and reduce the amount of cleaning? Hint: research NO-OX-ID "A SPECIAL".
I went from cleaning 2 or 3 times per week to cleaning once every 2 or 3 years.

I have a Northeast car with Goo-gone. Does a good job for routine cleaning. I plan to start using No-Ox-id. Sounds like the best solution.

@John in California posted:

If this were correct, that ugly black crud would be on the two outer rails where the traction tires are and the center rail would be clean as a whistle. My experience is that ugly black crud appears on all three rails where sparking happens. If anything, that black crud is worse with older engines that do not have traction tires because they spark at least as much as newer engines. And, when you clean all three rails, you also must clean the wheels and the center pickup rollers.

Once you have the rails, wheels, and center pickup rollers clean, the question becomes, can you greatly reduce sparking and reduce the amount of cleaning? Hint: research NO-OX-ID "A SPECIAL".
I went from cleaning 2 or 3 times per week to cleaning once every 2 or 3 years.

Good article - thanks for the reference. Sounds like the No-Ox-Id is certainly worth trying before any more is invested in track cleaner cars.

I see it described as a "Protective Coating".  What are the dialectic properties?

NO-OX-ID "A SPECIAL" leaves a thick, semi-transparent, non-drying film, retains its properties indefinitely. Metal wetting agents and selected rust inhibitors blended with a petrolatum base make NO-OX-ID "A SPECIAL" an economical effective, protective coating.

If its "non-drying" wouldn't dust and dirt stick to it or be absorbed/ground into it?

I'll keep running my home-made track cleaning car once or twice a year.

@breezinup posted:

I guess they should be. They run almost $300.00 with shipping!

Not if you buy them from Matt at the York Meet. Well worth the cost, in any event, IMHO, as they do an excellent job, cover hard or impossible areas to reach on layouts, as Peter pointed out, and save substantial time and manual labor. That's worth a lot when you consider the time value of money.

Pat  

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

NO-OX-ID "A SPECIAL" leaves a thick, semi-transparent, non-drying film, retains its properties indefinitely. Metal wetting agents and selected rust inhibitors blended with a petrolatum base make NO-OX-ID "A SPECIAL" an economical effective, protective coating.

I am not sure where you are quoting this from, but please keep in mind that this product is used for high wattage radio transmitting towers and this may very well be a description for that application. For model railroading a very light amount of this grease is left on the rails, wheels (caution not to let it touch any traction tires), and center rollers for a 24 hour period and then completely removed. For model railroading, NO-OX-ID "A SPECIAL" is not a metal coating, it is a metal treatment. It penetrates and chemically treats metals to convert the insulative, naturally occurring, oxide coatings to a surface that is a conductor.

John,

I run S Scale two rail I don't have wobbly noise makers on a third rail.

Gunny

@John in California posted:

For model railroading, NO-OX-ID "A SPECIAL" is not a metal coating, it is a metal treatment. It penetrates and chemically treats metals to convert the insulative, naturally occurring, oxide coatings to a surface that is a conductor.

I am correct that Di-electric grease is the exact opposite?? I see that called "tune-up grease" and I use it on spark plug boots.

https://northtowncompany.com/no-ox-id.html

Apparently, their resellers are engaging in false advertising.

@gunny posted:

John,

I run S Scale two rail I don't have wobbly noise makers on a third rail.

Gunny

Good point, Gunny! I did not realize that you had 2 rail S gauge. My argument to prove that the ugly black gunk was not coming from the traction tires was based completely on my false assumption that you had 3 rail equipment. So here is my 2 rail argument: if only half of the ugly black gunk (by volume) came from traction tires, there would be nothing left to the traction tires in just 3 months. But since the ugly black gunk comes from oxidation during sparking, and since there is plenty of oxygen in the air around us, there is practically no limit to the amount of ugly black gunk we can get on our track. And it sure seems like I have cleaned unlimited amounts of that ugly black gunk off my track.

John,

I run my engines a lot and my Flyonel engines tires will not last 3 months. My American Models and American Flyer engine do not have traction tires and the track they run on stays much cleaner much longer. I also do not notice any sparking on any  of the engines.

Gunny

I seem to get about as much black residue off the center rail as on the two outside rails, so it doesn't seem traction tires have much to do with it. If traction tires were a particular problem in making track dirty, it would be a big, recurring topic of discussion, but it's not.

@breezinup posted:

I seem to get about as much black residue off the center rail as on the two outside rails, so it doesn't seem traction tires have much to do with it. If traction tires were a particular problem in making track dirty, it would be a big, recurring topic of discussion, but it's not. The black stuff isn't rubber. If fact, it would seem that the wheels with traction tires would not be creating any sparking that would contribute to the black residue.

@breezinup posted:

I seem to get about as much black residue off the center rail as on the two outside rails, so it doesn't seem traction tires have much to do with it. If traction tires were a particular problem in making track dirty, it would be a big, recurring topic of discussion, but it's not.

That has been my observation as well.

All you want to know and more on NO OX is in the OGR forum topic linked below.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...rack-cleaning?page=1

The grease or petrolatum base referred to in the specification sheet is reported below:

NO OX ID spec A is called a grease is mostly a paraffin, like in wax (reported by some as 80%.

I have not cleaned my track since application Dec 2021.

Charlie

I also use this NO OX ID and had success in not cleaning, and trains run better with less sparks is another benefit. (these are tied together).