Finally found the ideal track cleaning car?

I may have seen those at York, they had a booth with motorized track cleaning cars.  Pretty spendy, but I'm sure they do a good job.

 

Uh, can you show us the car instead of the box?

.....

Dennis

http://www.weavermodels.com/page31.html

 

The company is working with Weaver on these cars. I bought a car from MNP and works great. 

Picky...picky...  

 

I was thinking the same thing.

Holy cow, I just saw the price of the Weaver car ($184.95).  I'll stick to my home made car which cost me zero.

.....

Dennis

I have seen them at a booth in the front of the Orange Hall at York. very interesting, and appear to be well made.

Yep....I have my own story about this car....

 

Alan

 

Yes, agreeably pricey! I would think at that already high pricepoint they'd consider raising the price just slightly more and custom imprint a line's name and/or herald of the buyer's chosing. With that, they might entice a few more potential customers to purchase such a high priced cleaning car.

There are a couple of reason I chose to show the box instead of the actual car. The main one being that it will be a gift from my wife when she chooses to give it to me. The second being that the box gives a description of the features whereas an actual photo will show a 53' ribbed wood side boxcar with two spinning discs underneath. I agree it is a bit pricey. I wasn't actually going to buy it but my wife insisted that she wanted it as a gift for me. You married guys know not to ever argue with "she who must be obeyed".  My LHS techies had previously told me many times (his opinion) that cleaning cars are worthless. We will see if he is right. Anyway, thanks for the responses guys.

I still used the old Lionel pull along.  

......and the story is?

Alan is being discreet I suspect.

 

My wife bought it for me last October at the I hobby show. I haven't had the chance to use it yet. Any reviews of it would be appreciated.

I guess the car really doesn't exist - just the box.   Because no one can post really good detailed pictures of it but lots of people say that have seen or know about it.. 

 

This very same situation is what caused me to eventually give up hope that the Nessie (the Loch Ness monster) was real . . . 

Well, I have seen it at York, but since in previous visits you couldn't take pictures, I didn't have any pictures.  Since they're allowing pictures in the vendor halls now, I'll take a picture of it this trip for you Lee.

 

 

I liked it till I saw the price.Yikes!!!

Check out the track cleaner at railtycoon.com 

You need these cars for hard to reach places, but really you should not have any hard to reach places on your layout.

 

I have several different "perfect best-in-the-world track cleaning" cars myself.  They work until the pads get dirty then they equally deposit the dirt back on the track. 

 

None of these cars are designed to actually suck up the track filth while maintaining the pad, they just spread the dirt around. Rotating pads can damage a lot of uneven track or the switch frogs and spurs. So I tend to like the static cleaners that dont grind down the track.

 

 

Just ask Dennis for his plans. He's great at giving out his home made plans for his track cleaning car. I picked up 2 steel gondola cars from their used parts bins for $10 each from Despatch Junction before their fire that destroyed the store. I have Dennis's track cleaning plans saved on my computer to make once I ever get the layout done. Thanks again for them Dennis!

Very nice gift from your wife Michael. She is a gem.

Yes, I agree your wife is a gem!  The car is a definite keepsake to you from her no matter what.  It is a very interesting looking piece of equipment and sure to be a conversation piece!  My wife does not support my train hobby, so I really like to hear these kinds of stories!

 

Stack

 

 

Dennis, I would be interested in your plans for the track cleaning car, if you would be so kind as to send them to me.    I found several and they are a bit pricey.

Thank you.

Bill,

Send me your request by email please.

.....

Dennis

Here's a save of a thread in PDF form of a track cleaning car, and also another simple plan for the another design of a home made car.

 

I believe the PDF file is a version of the one Dennis designed.  The thread vanished when they updated the board software, so I present it here.

 

 

John, that is similar, but mine are spring loaded so the car has a better chance of staying on the track over switches and such without snagging.

.....

Dennis

My friend Bill Halley offers a rail cleaning car that seems to work well. I own one.

You can reach him at Casey's Caboose. whalley1126@comcast.net.  Phone is

603-964-5726. 

I love Dale's Train Station. I thought it was in Virginia Beach though. He's got a huge selection of product. Narrow isles packed full from the floor to up to 7' high. I've never walked away empty handed and have gotten great personal service there. Plus there's a large back room with a great selection of vintage toys covering all eras from clockwork tinplate on. I stop in there with my 7 year old Grand Nephew when ever I visit. He loves the place.

That's a pretty neat track cleaning car. From a local Manufacturer in Newport News.

I made the one gunrunnerjohn posted above,works great,just be sure and add a little weight in the gondola,and its DIRT CHEAP also. 

I saw your name mentioned in the thread, I thought that might be your design.  Any chance of attaching a PDF of your model to this thread?

I'll add a plug for Dennis' cars. I run 2 of them and they work great.

Cost for mine was the price of a Scotchbrite pad.

I run that on one and then follow with a folded paper towel taped to the second one.

It takes 2 or 3 passes to get the track really clean. Refold or replace the paper towel after every pass.

When the towel comes back clean you are done.

My friend Bill Halley would like to contact Mr. Saworsky who responded to this thread.

Please send him your E mail again.  Thanks.  Lew Schneider

We have had this old track cleaning car we got it in a pile of things traded in at the shop.

it dose a great job. 

I've been asking people to email me if they want the plans so that I could have communication with them if they had any questions, and they would have the drawing, photos, and instructions in their files to work from.  Also I have seen some awful copies of my design which don't work as well and then read comments that there train couldn't pull it, it snagged, etc.   Also, mine is ugly. It was designed to do the work not run in a consist or make a nice looking accessory.

 

But since I have been asked again, here goes:

 

Track Cleaning Car Instructions

 

If you choose to use a gondola as I have, be sure you choose one at least 9½ inches long.  The shorter ones that are 8 inches long do not work well for this project.

 

The car needs to be heavy so that the wheels will stay on the track while the springs push the cleaning pad down on the rails.  Don’t overdue it though.  This original car weighs 1.02 lbs which is quite sufficient.  I have since made the car more attractive with a load of scrap metal, but I like this photo because it does not hide the detail of the top view.  I now have a fleet of three of these cars and the other two have a load of ballast in them which makes them heavy enough.

 

The pads I originally used, and they work well, are Scotch Bright by 3M.  Some folks have had trouble finding this exact kind but these came in a 3-pack, are green, and do not have any foam on one side like some do.  I have since switched to Trackman 2000 pads which I found at York.  The Trackman 2000 factory had a fire and I am not sure they are in business any more.  The pads are similar but the Trackman pads are slightly thinner.  Either pad can be cut to fit with scissors.  Use two sided tape to hold the pad on the plywood holder.  It holds the pad on well during use but it is easy to remove for washing or replacing.

 

With the cars that I used, I had to take the trucks off and mount them back on with screws allowing a little more room between the rails and the car bottom.

 

These cars are designed to be run dry.  I do not believe in using wet track cleaning cars because it is too hard to control the amount of “wetness” produced and many solvents ruin traction tires.  Track in my storage yard gets an occasional hand cleaning by using an old tee shirt dampened with denatured alcohol.  No wet residue is produced at all that way.

 

Dennis Bracey

11/29/12

 

 

Dennis, here it is in a convenient to download PDF file.

 

 

Oh well.

 

Perhaps you can send it to me.