Who Makes A Good O Gauge Track Cleaning Car?

What I find works really well is to take an old gondola car and get a baby cleaning sponge from the store or hospital.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...4/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk

Rip the sponge off from the little plastic brush and you will find that it fits perfectly into the underside of the gondola. It is also the perfect width for O gauge track.  I actually stuck a shim between the sponge and the gondola to make the sponge stick out a little bit more and make more pressure on the track.  Then put something heavy in the gondola, spray or soak the sponge in your favorite cleaner and start driving. It works really well and is cheap.  Just reverse the sponge when dirty, and then clean it out when done.

Thanks for the reply.  I watched the YouTube video on that one and I might consider  it.

 

I think Patrick trains has one.  Do a search on this forum to find it.  It looked like a great piece.

Yeah, Pats Trains has an excellent one. I have several track-cleaning cars including Lionel and it is by far the best. 

Saw the Pat's Trains car and sure looks good but how well do these cars work in general? I have been using denatured alcohol with a cotton swab. Then the other night decided to really go at it with a rag and elbow grease. The rag is now black! Even a heavy car can't apply that kind of pressure.

I have great results with Centerline track cleaning cars.

 

...keep the rails polished...

 

 

this is a cleaning train at the club

 

 

this is a shamwow type cloth after one pass

 

 

 

 

this is the cloth after many passes. we send the train around changing the cloth until it is clean 

 

 

 

 

this is an aluminum block around one pound that holds the cloth

 

 

 

 

Looks like strips of Shamwow and good ol brute force. What's the preferred cleaning fluid?

the san diego 3-railers has been cleaning track with the above items for over ten years.  we have not had any track issues in the way of rotting ties or missed up switches. 

 

first we send the train around with goo-gone to loosen up the dirt.  then we start using denatured alcohol on the pads changing pads until the only thing you see is an indent on the pad of the rails.

 

the aluminum block was made by a company that has since gone out of business.

What a timely thread for me. Today I gave the layout a very thorough track cleaning. We use R+L Lines track cleaning cars. We have two, right behind each other with four rollers. The roller nearest the loco (You'll need a very good puller to do grades) is doused with denatured alcohol. The other three rollers are dry. The cars will NOT do switches well so you have to walk them around the layout. The rollers contribute to "picking" the switch points and the wheels take the other route entering the switch.

 

The cars do a nice cleaning job, but really should be followed with a scotch abrasive to get the tracks where you want them. Track cleaning is a chore. With Atlas O track the locos pick up any black residue not removed from the center rail. Dirt is spread arou d the track by traction tires, too. Track cleaning is not complicated but my duel approach works well.

Mine does put down that kind of pressure if I want.  To begin with, the thing weighs a lot: it has a big metal plate in it to add a lot of weigh and has adjustable springs for the amount of pressure you much want.   But I add additional weight - about 22 oz of lead shot and BBs covered with gorilla tape to keep them in - in the gondola to where  the car is so heavy that with the spring pressure dialed up, the friction  a noticeable burden for my Lionel SD70 to pull (only thing it pulls, that one car).  I then dab alcohol on the pad andin about a dozen or two dozen passes the thing cleans the track so subsequent passes by me with a rag bring up nothing but clean rag.  But this way, the Pats cleaning car eats up a cleaning pad in twenty minutes or less.

 

Frankly the condition of the rag you describe is much worse than I have ever seen.  The best strategy, I think, is to never let the track get really dirty.  Thus, I run the Pats car dry, with very little spring pressure, as part of normal trains when I run: with just a trace of pressure it is easy for a loco to pull and this keeps the track spic and span and the pad hardly wears at all.

Cleaning the track is only half the battle. If you return locomotives and rolling stock with dirty wheels to the clean track, very soon you will again have dirty track. If your rag or cleaning pad comes off the track with three black lines, you can bet the rolling stock wheels will do the same. I run a dry paper towel over the traction tires and that often comes off black too.

 

Twice a year, I clean all of the wheels (it takes a few hours, some folks use a dremel, but that doesn't appeal to me unless it is a really deep layer of crud),  then I clean the tracks thoroughly. I just use a rag and 91% isopropyl alcohol and make as many passes as it takes until the rag comes up clean.

 

A track cleaning car might reduce my time, so I'll look into that.

 

As Scrapiron said, "Track cleaning is a chore".

 

 

Thanks for the feedback Lee. That's all I needed to know. The really bothersome part is that the track LOOKED clean before I went at it with the rag. What made me grab the rag was arcing from a couple of my diesels . I like fireworks but not on my track.

I like the one that Eric's Trains shows on his video blogs.  It's quite expensive but very effective.  Cost is upwards of $225!!!!

I bought a used Trackman 2000 off eBay, I use purple ScotchBrite pads on it, cleans like a champ.  It's very similar in concept to Pat's Trains cleaning cars.

 

 

Like Scrapiron, we have the RL Lines for both the O and Standard Gauge. With the O version I also use a homemade Centerline style just to mop it up. I mainly use Goo Gone and pull it with a NON rubber tire loco. They work very well and I have not found any issue with the switches as Scrapiron mentioned. Switches were Lionel tubular O72 and have been changed to Rossplate O72.

To the original question: You really can not go wrong with any track cleaning car.  I have one of most models out there (except the one Gunrunner John has).  I will post a longer response with pics tomorrow.  Honestly, I like them all.  The cheapest route is a rag and denatured alcohol.  But given one can't reach in some places (too far, under a mountain, etc.). any of the cars I will describe will do it.  Not all require liquid (my preference is the denatured alcohol) - some clean dry.  Some clean with both wet and dry.  And some clean dry only.

 

I just don't have the pics together, thus the reason I will defer on a more full response.  BTW, I spent anywhere from $50 to $190 on these. 

 

Stay tuned!

Another vote for the Trackman 2000, if you can find one.

For me, that would defeat the whole purpose of using a track cleaning car

I came across this track cleaner on the bay, and I really like it's straight forward design.

 

It's really not much more than a frame with wheels & non-operating couplers, guiding a floating block wrapped in scotchbrite with deadweight resting on top of it.

 

It seemed like a very intuitive design for scrubbing the tracks, and works very well.

 

The folks on the bay show how to camouflage it with an inexpensive PW caboose body for aesthetics.  I plan on bashing a caboose or similar body into a MOW car to cover mine.

 

The folks on the bay have it listed for a decent price, but it's imported by Bridge-Masters out of California.  I bought one direct from them for considerably less.

Robert

Not to take anything away from the Trackman 2000 and some of the others here, which are very good cleaning cars, but they look like track-cleaning cars.  

 

What I like about the Pat's training car I have (a converted Gondola car) is that it looks very much like a normal car, so much so that one does not notice the cleaning pad beneath it.  As I said above, I run it almost all the time, with the springs adjusted to apply only a bit of pressure, putting it in trains I run, just to keep the track from getting dirty.  Seems the best way, really.

 

Holy cats!  $99 on eBay, $59 direct from Bridge Masters. Don't know what s/h is though, but surely not $40.

  Dave your comment reminded me of what my brother calls the highfalutin Dallas Department store (known for years for their eclectic & expensive Christmas offerings) Neiman Marcus....he has always referred to as 'Needless Markup'  (of course he also calls Whole Foods, 'Whole Paycheck'.

 

Yeah, I think it was "Jeff" at Bridge Masters who I spoke with...a really nice guy, and I think they charged me about 5 or 6 bucks to ship.  I read about his G Scale car on some garden railway forums, and they gave it a good review.

Robert

Ok. An old white sock and alcohol. If your layout is hard to get to, then keep in mind that an old white sock can do what that track cleaning car did not do...if needed.

 

Thanks for the laugh today, Robert.

I see lots on track cleaning cars and methods.  I do see people post that cleaning the track is only truly helpful if you clean the wheels too.  But I don't see anything on how to clean the wheels.  Are there wheel cleaning devices?  Do I just have to put the rolling stock in my lap belly up and wipe the wheels with a rag?  If one has lots and lots of items, that they run often, how do you clean them?

I posted this in reply to a similar question on another thread this morning.  This works for me:

 

The comment about the wheels and rollers being a chicken or the egg thing is correct.  If they are dirty, they transfer part of their dirt to the track almost immediately upon the track having been cleaned.  I've tried various methods, but prefer this: a) get a big soft thick cloth and make a "cradle" for the loco so sit in upside down, b) turn it upside down put it in that, c) attach alligator clips from a transformer to a center pickup and one un-powered wheel, d) turn the transformer up to about 10 volts so the loco begins turning its wheels, e) hold cotton swabs saturated with 91% alcohol, or a Brightboy eraser against the turning powered wheels until they turn black (quickly at first) and change them out until a new, clean one doesn't get dirty again, then move on to the next wheel f) rotate un-powered wheels by hand and do the same, g) clean the center pickups with a Brightboy - you can use cotton swabs again but my experience is they don't clean center pickups well.  

All this takes longer than cleaning track, but I get a lot of dirt and grime off any loco I have run much. My experience is that anytime I have a "running problem" with a loco I clean the wheels first: frankly more problems like that are solved by cleaning the wheels than by cleaning the track: it is at least as important to clean wheels as track.

Yes, I know it is expensive.  But for me the CMX "O" Clean Machine from Tony's Train Exchange in Essex JCT VT is fantastic.  Brass construction.  Large reservoir for cleaning fluid ( I use 90% isopropyl aclohol).  Two cleaning pads made of a corduroy fabric that can be cleaned and reused many times.  Tow behind your favorite locomotive and it meters out the cleaning fluid at a rate you set.  I can't believe the amount of black gunk that comes off the track.  The tank car design allows you to paint and decorate it.  Comes with extra cleaning pads.  Works like a charm.

We need to clean our track on the G&O garden railroad before every operating session.  We have found that the track cleaning cars from North East Trains work the best on the G&O.  We use the basic car that costs about $50.  We have also found that a Williams engine pushing two North East cars around the display works best.   We use 91% isopropyl alcohol or track cleaning fluid on all the pads.  The only problem with these cars is that changing the cloth pads is tedious when you have to do it every before every operating session.  This probably will not be a factor on an indoor layout.

 

  We have tried the Bridge Master and Trackman cars.  We have had derailment problems with those two cars.

 

 

I use the Centerline track cleaning car and rollers with Goo Gone.  I use a moderately heavy engine that doesn't have tires.  I use a partial roll of pennies inside the roller for added weight.  Soak the roller with Goo Gone and put as many cars as I can get on the rail.  I run the long train as fast as possible.  The roller starts out with 3 black lines corresponding to the rails.  The operation is over when the entire roller is (usually) very dark gray and dry.  Not only does this clean the rails, it cleans every wheel in the consist.  Repeat if necessary according to size of layout and/or degree of dirt/oil/graphite.  A warning that Goo Gone is not recommended for folks with asthmatic difficulties.  Quite smelly stuff!  Been using this method for ten or more years, it does the job!

 

Stack 

I'm probably wrong, but I believe some of the thinking is that if you clean your tracks regularly, the wheels themselves should stay relatively clean for quite a long time. Just about every post I've read tends to only mention the track and locomotive wheels. My question has always been do the wheels get the track dirty or does the track get the wheels dirty?

I don't think its one or the other:  both get dirty together and both benefit from being clean together. 

Although there should be a better method out there I use denatured alcohol and a cotton swab to clean wheels and traction tires. Especially before I run anything that is "pre owned" and purchased on eBay. If it's used, it's used. Even if the description says "display model", "test run" or "run once" -- my personal favorite you can bet there's gonna be some major gunk on those wheels. Recently I got a PS2 Hudson that I love but had to remove the front wheel assy, soak it overnight in DNA and scrub it to finally get the wheels clean. Yuch.

Dirty wheels will make dirty track really quick.

Being new to all this, I can't disagree with that, but somehow I just can't envision cleaning 8 wheels on each car I'll eventually have in my inventory as often as I'll clean my track. Maybe the real value to using a cleaning car is that it also cleans the wheels on the cars. I don't have a cleaning car yet, but if I have to sit there and clean each wheel (and rollers) on every car manually when I clean the track or before I use a given car, I think a cleaning car will join my inventory sooner rather than later. Like Sinclair said, no one seems to mention wheels when cleaning comes up.  I just cleaned my track and engine, but I forgot about the cars and pickup rollers on them. Guess I've got more work to do today.

On traction tires: is it possible to actually get them clean, or will they always leave black streaks?

 

Aaron

Thanks Lee for the instructions.

 

Dave, sounds like we could get together and have a rolling stock cleaning party.  But they say necessity is the mother of invention, sounds like I should use my ME degree for my hobby and come up with a wheel cleaning setup to market and sell...

Aaron

I have found that the traction tires are of course black to begin with but can get very dirty. If they are and you use a cotton swab with denatured alcohol the swab will be black on the first pass. Third time around or so, the swab will be more or less clean. Since MTH lists it as the preferred cleaner for rollers, track and tires I swear by it. My guess is that clean tires will last longer and provide better traction.

S

Even today, though no longer being manufactured, the Trackman 2000 remains the Gold Standard for all others to emulate!!!

Gunrunnerjohn, where do you buy your purple ScotchBrite pads from?