Inexpensive Track Cleaning Car

My track need cleaning so I'm going to try this design. It looks like it will work wonderfully.

Thanks for this post..

Rod

Dang< I'm just a BRAKEMAN,,,,,,,I was sure I was a TOP CAT....hohoho

Rod

Hmmmmmmm, that is pretty darn simple!  I like it!  I was toying around with building one myself but I finally just bought a working Lionel scrubber car on Ebay and cleaned it up and rebuilt it to work great.  I must say it does a great job, but the abrasiveness of this car would help getting off the built up gunk!  I might have to build this one too and have a two car consist.  This car of SCRUB the rails, and the Lionel car to clean and dry!  

Thanks for the Idea.  A simple project for my son to build.  I thought there was another S in that formula.

Tackindy,

I was using the Lionel track cleaning car modified to turn a scouring pad, put it is a power hog, it's noisy, it wreaks of ozone and it left something to be desired re cleaning the track.  The idea in my sketch works much better, it doesn't dim the lights with current draw, and the cost is very right. 

I wish the fellow who thought of this wonderful idea will join this post so I can thank him. Hmmm. Maybe it's a woman's idea?

Bobby,

  Thanks for sharing this idea.  I gave it a try this morning and it works great.  No problem with switches track gaps or crossovers.  Took my all of 5 minutes to put it together and get the right weight on the car.

Kevin

Now to explain to the boss where her scrubbing sponges went

Traction tires, smoke fluid and dust are the evil triumvirate of keeping track clean on my layout. All of these buildup a film on the track that causes loss of traction, poor electrical pickup, and degradation of traction tires. I also find that track cleaning fluids  leave behind a film and degrade traction tires.

I have been running the two track cleaning gondolas on my layout, and the track is cleaner than its ever been since new. There is no significant wear of the Scrub-It Scouring Pads, no snags on the track, and no derailments.

On the El lines, the Rail King LoV and BMT Q trains have no difficulty pulling a track cleaning gondola up 6% grades. The LoV train had a habit of stalling on the grades when the track got slippery, but no more.

Gone is the Goo Gone, the alcohol, the lighter fluid, the acetone, and other chemicals I used to clean the tracks.

I've added to a thread about the somewhat over priced Woodland Scenics system.  This is even better than my SWIFFER™ track cleaner.  Thanks Bobby Ogage.

Your design is much simpler than mine but I am surprised that it doesn't hang up on switches and track zone cuts etc.  Good job.  I have sent my design to 163 forum members.  My pads are thinner and spring loaded so they can ride up and down over switches, cuts, and uncoupling magnets.

.....

Dennis

I’m always intrigued by all the track cleaning discussions.

MTH subway car trucks are too heavy for grades. You’ll have better luck using two motor cars.

RK cars are oversized which also add to the weight issue.

Although you run Lo V’s which are smaller true O scale, the large trucks are the problem and a new design was considered awhile back.

Basically you are fighting a design oversite.

Bobby Ogauge and Kevin: a question for you. 

The only place that I found that carried "Scrub-IT"s is the Family Dollar store.  I bought the 6-pack.  I didn't see the number 1408 as shown in the pictures, nor are mine 1.25" thick (mine are .6" thick) - which I only paid attention to while typing this.  I think I bought the wrong stuff now that I look at it.

But my question: There are 2 different "bases" that the scratchy material is glued to.  Three of them have a sponge base and the other 3 have a foam base.  Which are you guys using?

Where did you find them?  I looked in grocery stores and they sell 4 packs (ScotchBrite only) for about $5 but still don't seem (as memory recalls) that they were 1.25" thick.  I don't recall seeing any that thick.  Do I need to just keep looking?

thanks - walt

Walt,

   I found them in Home Depot, I believe it was a 4 pack and the pads are glued to a sponge base and are the 1.25" thick.  I think I paid about $2.00.  I glued a piece of cardboard to the sponge side and am using a piece of "sticky-tack"( that's what my wife calls it, not sure its the real name) to hold it to the underside of the gondola that way I can easily pull it off when I want to just run the car.

Kevin 

thanks Kevin.  I'll be stopping there Sunday.

Yeah, I was a bit concerned about the adhesion of the 2-sided pads and the sponge.  Doesn't seem to have much of a grip to it.  But I figured if 2 guys said they made the car and it works, then I should accept that the adhesive capability lives up to the requirements.

- walt

the foam ones are better then the sponge because if you get the sponge wet when it dries out it will no longer work. 

the foam ones are available here; http://www.dollartree.com/clea...9c259p8054/index.pro

you just have to buy 4, 6 packs.  did not find them in any dollartree store around me.

thanks for the link to the image.  Now I know what to look for.  Ain't buying them on-line though.  Like you pointed out, min order is 4 packs.  Add shipping.  Nope, ain't going that route.

But having the image will help find them.

I have a Trackman 2000 but I was interested in trying this easy and inexpensive way to build a 2nd car.

thanks - walt

I like the inexpensive track cleaning car shown here and will probably build one to add to the herd.  It would be helpful to have a couple track cleaning cars in a row to get the job done quicker.

The track cleaning car shown below is an inexpensive homemade one too.  It is a copy of the expensive Centerline car, shown in ads in the train magazines.  I had the spare trucks and the only cost was the mini paint rollers I bought at HD and cut to size on a band saw.  I use a pipe coupling for weight and it is shown on the left of the car.  The roller' with the weight inside, are put into the aluminum colored center hopper to roll along to clean the track.

The body is made from 1/2" wood and scraps and is lined with some aluminum flashing epoxied in the well for water proofing and durability.  I use rubbing alcohol for a cleaning fluid and Goo and other cleaners can be used.  Several cut off paint rollers are used to apply fluid, and mop up the dirt, and to dry the track.

This car appears to take more effort to build than the one talked about here but it was a fun, rewarding project that does work well.  I am not trying to hi-jack this thread, just show another inexpensive track cleaning car option.

Charlie

PS:  Did you notice the realist rust on the track under the car?

Well Kevin, I guess I proved something to myself today that I've always wondered about: I now know that NOT ALL Home Depots carry the same products

- walt

I do much the same sort of thing with a Lionel 027 observation car.  No modifications to the car were necessary -- I just carefully trimmed the scrubber pad to be a friction fit underneath the car.  It works great.

I knew there was a reason a 2 rail guy reads the 3 rail forum   I bought two of these at a hobby shop close out and they have been sitting in their boxes ever since. This morning I 2 railed them and will get some of those sponges. Great idea!

and will get some of those sponges.

I hope you have better luck than me!!!  

This is going to sound sorta nuts, but I didn't drive out of my way at all to stop at these stores.  NONE have any thicker than 0.9".  I measured the indent on my 8 gons and they are all a hair over 1" (from floor bottom to bottom of a wheel).  I'm guessing that for the sponge to clean well it has to have some tension against the rails, so I'm guessing that the sponge should be more than merely resting on the rails.

I tried:

4 grocery stores.

Dollar General

Dollar Tree

Home Depot

Lowe's

Target

Wal-Mart

K-Mart

Sears

3 Drug Store Chains (Walgreen's, Rite-Aid, CVS)

Big Lots

I like the idea but apparently I won't be doing this project

- walt

Walt, at Home Depot, in the plaster/sheetrock utensil aisle, they have a very thick sponge for smoothing out joint compound. It is 8"x4.25"x1.5" with one abrasive side. Not sure if this would be useful.

Thanks Don, I did not look there.  I'll be driving by it in a bit heading to the gym so I will check it out.

Thanks - walt

I've used this type of car for years. It's very effective on my 027 track. Here's an old photo before I painted and covered the wood blocks with 'tarps'

Walt,

Just buy the sponges you can find and use them. The only reason what you found will not work is that if it is mounted to the car, it will not reach the tracks.

Solve that problem. Attach a shim (wood, plastic almost anything) to the underside of the car w/ double sided tape, attach the shim to that tape. Then put double sided tape on the shim's down side, and attach your sponges that you can buy.

Should be problem solved. You are only off a small distance, fill the gap.

Just a thought on another way to attack the problem. Greg

Walt,  You are looking for 1.25" thick scrub sponges and the ones you bought are only 0.6" thick.  Glue two of them together and, viola, you have 1.2" thickness.

Earl

Just built mine with a culvert car. Cut the sponge to size, place a piece of card board on the sponge side using the sticky squares and then then use the sticky squares attached to the card board and attach sponge. Works like a charm. If the sponge side is damp, dry in microwave for 30 seconds. A great idea and cheap.

Found the six pack at Lowe's. Being two rail I needed a few spacers on the trucks to get them the right height.  Don't need tape as these stay put.

cngw and Earl: since I've given up trying to find 1.25", I was planning on buying the 6-pack at the Dollar Store and doing what Earl suggested.  I'm not sure that I can glue sponge to sponge but for a buck I'll give it a go.

cngw: I considered that but was a bit concerned about the 2-sided adhesive blocks being strong enough to hold up the weight, especially since I'm guessing there's some drag where it contacts the track.  That's why I though Earl's idea was worth a shot.

The other advantage of glueing 2 sponges is that I don't think I'll have to cut any off to attain the correct height.

Like I said earlier, I have a trackman 2000 but wanted to do this because it was so easy and sounded kinda fun.

thanks for all of your suggestions and helpfulness, especially Bobby Ogauge.

- Walt

LUCK!!

I went to Dollar Store this AM to buy the "too small" packet. There weren't any!  They were replaced with 6-packs of the 1.25" ones!!!

- walt

I was going to say if your pads are just 0.6", glue the sponge sides of two pads together. Then you would have two Brillo-type scrubbing pads on opposite sides of the glued pad. When one side gets worn just turn it over!  Now I don't have to say that!  I also would have suggested contact cement to glue sponges together, but I don't have to say that either!

Glad glad you found pads with the 1.2" height.

Bill

Would this work with a Weaver 2 bay coal hopper?

Its a good design, simple, even elegant in its approach. 

I run the track-cleaning train shown below every so often (it'son the layout now cleaning one loop up): one store bought and two home-made cars, pulled this week by the Lionel Atlantic.  In front, P&Ps excellent cleaning pad car - same idea as yours but adjustable.  Secret to its success, I think, is that it is very, very heavy, and thus it is very effective.  Next up, a simple cleaning car I made that uses a Brightboy eraser to keep track clean: I often run it in an otherwise normal train for a while just for track maintenance and few people notice.  It just a wooden weighted lever action I installed in a boxcar with its bottom center cut out.  And cleaning up the rear, literally: the vacuum cleaner car to pick up any litter and/or flakes of cleaning pad or eraser dust the cleaners leave behind.  On downside of my homemade Brightboy cleaning car, it goes through a Brighboy eraser in only about a half hour of running, digging three big grooves in it and getting them grimy dirty.  I have to remove it and turn it over to a new clean/sharper edge: and I get for edges and then its shot.  Still, it does a superb job of keeping the track shiny and polished, although it does not clean up a really dirty track as well as the P&P car.

Interesting group of innovations gentlemen, thanks.

Trainman9, it works well under freight cars with a relatively flat bottom like gondolas, box cars, flat cars, and the like. I have not tried the design with a hopper.

I tried those sponges and all they did was leave pieces of the sponge all over the track.  I'm sticking to the chamois type pad.

.I made a similar car out of sheet brass but offset the roller 1/4" so I can turn the roller 180 degrees when dirty and have a new clean surface.

Lee- sounds like there's too much weight applied...try backing off the weight alittle and see how long it lasts then. I'd make one like that with a long threaded rod thru it so I could raise or lower the weight to adjust pressure. Screw a nut up or down on the rod to adjust.  BTW- beautiful looking car!

Bob- I'm going to have to try that one....might even try the mr clean foam pads for mine...

...this is one of the many reasons I hang here- for the knowledge base!

Dennis,

 I built your car over the weekend. Found the scrub pads at the dollar store.  Also found $1 plastic cutting board in lieu of wood for the bottom plate.  Thought it might be easier to remove double face tape.  For the springs, I found two toilet paper rollers for $1.  Cut small sections out.  I can't wait for the Eagle Scout project to be finished so I can test it.  Thanks for the plans!!