If only we could conceal the cleaning pads...

then one could build a fleet of these cars and insert them in all; the trains that traverse the railroad.  Then when trains run during an Op Session, they clean the track, reducing the number of times needed to clean the track with a "special" train.

Ken L.

I see a cleaner and I want to paint it black

I was looking at mine, and thinking that they'd nearly disappear if I painted them flat black.  That, and putting them under something that hands low (like a streamline passenger car with skirts, for example) would make them virtually invisible.  Certainly close enough for average use, and you could always remove the pads for those times when you really want to impress.

There's a down side to running them in an ops session, though.  I've found that I have to run double the weight in the gons, compared to what I'd normally use.  Otherwise, they're a little more prone to derail by jumping over turnouts, frogs, etc.  Also, they have a fair bit of drag.  I'm not sure how well they would work if you tried to run them as part of a regular train.  A special train has the advantage of being able to run at a speed and route that will best clean the track.

John Allen track cleaner

I found that idea many years ago in a MRR magazine. Our club has been using two of those, one I made, another purchased, for some years.

I believe there was a discussion of those some time ago here.

Rich

In the modular club we try to run a track cleaning car on every

train.  If you are running diesel, it isn't a problem, you just add a unit if the drag is too great for the power you are running.  With steam it is a little bit more complicated unless you want to double head your train.  I've found a masonite slider car puts a little more drag on the train than a free rolling car without the slider, but not as much drag as 2 cars.

There is also an article on building a slider car in issue #July/Sept. 2009 of MRH.

Hide it under the fuel

Here is my use for old Athearns:  I remove the motor and the gears, and add a masonite pad under the fuel tank.  It's hidden well enough, especially when I use a black marks-alot on the visible surfaces.  This one is due to get lights when I run out of other projects.

The other car is a Varney plastic kit. It's from about 1960, and is the third oldest piece of rolling stock I own, but represents the newest, with a built date of 5-1959.  A very identifiable track cleaner, with the big SF logo.

For more ideas ...

Try MRH Issue 3, page 56 - "Deluxe Track-Cleaning Slider Car" (MRH 2009 Q3V2.pdf)

Track sliders in op sessions

John Allen did indeed use these slider cars during op sessions and they were counted as two cars for train weight purposes.  His rolling stock was not 'tuned' to be as free-rolling as many are today and he calculated train weight and drag into operating the railroad just as the prototypes do when considering tonnage and how well a loco will do, or how many engines you'll need on a particular train over a certain route, etc.

I wonder if you'd need these, or if they'd be beneficial, if you were also using the No-Ox grease?

Galen

Greased masonite?

I would think so.  They might even be beneficial, by spreading the grease in a uniformly thin layer.  I'm not convinced of the benefits of greasing my track, though I don't want to start another discussion on the topic.  In any case, I would think that anything which gently scrubs the heads of the rails would be a good thing.

I seldom use anything besides

I seldom use anything besides my masonite slider car to clean track for an op session. I'll use a bright boy to clean it right after painting the rails but not often otherwise. I have a TTX clean machine but have come to the conclusion that while it's great at loosening rail grime, it mostly just spreads it around the rail heads in a nice even layer. I think it would work better if consisted with a coupler of the absorbent pad roller cars (like centerline) -- the clean machine loosens the grime and the centerlines pick up the mess. But that experiment was a bit too spendy for me and the masonite seems to work pretty well. Of course my train room is completely drywalled and painted and the concrete floor is sealed so there's not much dust accumulation between sessions. And it's hard to beat the price of a masonite slider car.

Cheers,

Charlie

who will clean the cleaner?

I recently acquired a couple of these masonite cleaner cars from a swap meet. Trouble is, they are very dirty looking already and I'm a bit scared to put them on my track. Does anybody know how to clean them once they get dirty?

- Ken Goudsward

Don't clean it, sand it!

Sand the surface enough to remove the majority of the grime.  Eventually, the Masonite pads have been sanded so many times that they must be replaced, but on a home layout that takes many years, if not many lifetimes.

Cleaner car

Now I know what I'm going to do with that truck-less gon I got sitting around. Stick a pair of trucks on it and add a Masonite pad under it.

BTW I noticed SOU gon 53902 is derailed. Should I bring the motorized crane over to re-rail it?

Bernd

Added weight

I built several out of some outside braced cars that didn't fit my era.  The only thing I did differently was to add weight to the pad.  Now if I could only find the others...

Terry

Making it simple

Please, feel free, but I'm afraid that the D&W cannot afford much in the way of demurrage or other per diem charges.  Besides, being a cash-strapped southern short line, the train crews are pretty experienced at re-railing equipment using rather primitive means.

I thought about it (and even advised a friend to use bolts instead of nails, so that he could easily add nuts for weight), but I've found that the pads work well without extra weight.  From what I've read on line, others have found the same.

Cleaning the Cleaner

Ken, try using your short bristle brass wire brush that you use to clean up with after soldering your feeders to your track.  The nice thing with the brass wire brush is it removes the dirt collected by the masonite pad and roughens the surface and prepares the pad for an extremely long life of service.  The other thing you want to do is to ensure that you pads on all types of cars so they can get into each of your siding during their normal travel around the layout as they can get into all the sidings on the layout.

As earlier posted

I posted a comment on this thread a while ago. I thought I would call attention to the article I referenced, because it also discusses a technique for replacing the Masonite pad, if it is too dirty to clean and/or roughen. The article written by Mike Ruby is in the MRH Issue 3, page 56 - "Deluxe Track-Cleaning Slider Car" (MRH 2009 Q3V2.pdf). Here is an illustration from that article on provision in the design for pad replacement:

cleaning

Ken - Sanding! Duh, why didn't I think of that!? Thanks!

Tom - wire brush is a good idea too, I think I'll sand a bit first, then use the brush. My layout is pretty small so I should be ok with just my one boxcar cleaner. Btw, whoever built this unit solved the "ugly factor" by using a boxcar so the nails are hidden inside.

Cheers,
Ken Goudsward