Bachmann Track Cleaning Car...wet?

[CNE Runner]

I don't know if I mentioned, in one of my previous posts, that I have tried to clean the rails of the Monks' Island Railway with a CMX Track Cleaning Car. This is a well built, brass car that holds a cleaning solution and dispenses it on a piece of corduroy cloth (which rubs on the railheads). My problem is that the CMX car is just too heavy for my little GE 45 Ton locomotive to pull (the car weighs almost a pound).

I have been noticing the Bachmann Track Cleaning car and realize that it is a reincarnation of the old track cleaning cars we used in the 1960s (box car + piece of Masonite suspended beneath with two nails). This was a simple concept that worked well for continuously running trains. This type of car is not efficient for switching layouts such as mine.

My question is: Has anyone used the Bachmann car with a dampened piece of cloth? In other words...can the car be used with a 'wet process'? I realize any piece of cloth would have to be re-wet from time to time...this isn't a problem on my layout.

Thanks,
Ray

[jward]

if you want an inexpensive wet car you can buy a roller from centerline, cut a hole in the floor of a boxcar or gondola for the roller to ride in. the centerline rollers are knurled brass, so you'll need to it them in a handi wipe and secure it with thread. when wet, you'll be able to back this car into all your sidings and spurs. a second wrapped roller can also be run dry to pick up any residue off the track.

[ACY]

An even more inexpensive one is an IHC track cleaning caboose, which came with track cleaning fluid and extra pads to boot. If you can find one it would be a good, economic choice, I think I got mine for $6 back in the 1990's.

[jettrainfan]

CNE runner, if you really want a good pulling team for a CMX tanker, go for a Bachmann GP9, mine is stronger than my 4-8-4, and was helping it up the helix with it. The 4-8-4 is big, and litterly slips a lot, doing about 30-40 scale miles per hour at best. The GP9 is not even twice the size of my GE70-ton, which im guessing is around the same size of a GE45 ton, so 1 might be a good add on for you, and it might add on to your monk's island railway if you want to add on a transfer or another layout project. 

[jward]

jet,

given that his layout is extremely small, ray would not be able to use a gp9. it's twice the size of the 44/45 tonners, which are even smaller than a 70 tonner. think of a docksider 0-4-0 tank engine, that's about the size of a 45 tonner. and no room to add weight for extra pulling power. even the real 44/45 tonners were so underpowered that  they could only pull a couple of cars. perfect for ray's layout, not much use on anything larger.

the cmx track cleaner he has is a big brass tank car intended for larger layouts. the centerline track cleaners would work well on a small layout but are almost as expensive as the cmx car.

[CNE Runner]

Thanks for the advice guys. Jward nailed it on the head: my layout is too small to run anything much larger than the GE 45 tonner (which is capable of pulling a few more cars than the prototype...the reason why there were a heck of a lot more GE 44 Ton locomotives built than 45 Ton models). The CMX car works well; but is just too heavy for little 'critters'. The expense of these cars also comes into play as 'J' also mentioned...eliminating the Centerline product.

The suggestion of 'making' a Centerline-type car is interesting...and one that I may attempt in the future. ACY's suggestion of the IHC cleaning car is also of interest...I will keep my eyes open for one at the shows. I vaguely remember these cars and the fact that they were produced for a number of years. Good suggestion.

I guess, in the short term, I will go back to a piece of T-shirt material - dampened with ACT-6006 (pushed/pulled by my trusty 0-5-0).

Thanks guys,
Ray

[ACY]

Here is what they look like, you can see some fluid is included, all you do is put some fluid into the tank and then turn it to release fluid as it goes, or you can manually dampen it

Here is a link to one on ebay for $18 (over double what I paid for mine)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/IHC-HO-CSX-Track-Cleaning-Car-/190571746421?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item2c5ef61475

[jward]

just a quick question re: ihc track cleaning caboose. does this one have body mounted couplers  and rp25 wheels? or is it some old AHM piece of crap in a new box? remember, on ray's layout this car will spend as much time being backed into sidings as moving forward.

[CNE Runner]

I decided to check out both the IHC and Life-Like track cleaning cars on the Internet. Apparently the Life-Like car has been out of production for some time as it was somewhat more rare than the IHC unit. I did find one Life-Like car on eBay; but the seller couldn't verify if the car worked or not. Better luck was had with the IHC cars and, yes ACY, I saw the ad you thoughtfully posted. Additionally there were 3 or 4 other IHC cars offered for sale or bid.

Even though I enlarged the images to near pixel separation, I could not tell whether the couplers were body, or truck, mounted. All that clearly shows is that they are of the 'antique' X2F flavor. Undoubtedly the wheels are plastic - as I have yet to see an IHC car without plastic wheelsets. Sooo, I just might go ahead and purchase one of these cars, update the couplers and wheels, and see how it performs. (I do like the 'work car' look of the Life Like machine...hmmm.)

Given the excellent quality our good friends at Bachmann produce, I sure wish their car could be used as a 'wet process' machine. Oh well...

Regards,
Ray

PS: In my searching I have found that IHC is still in business. I would assume these are new owners. With magnetic couplers and RP25 wheels their 'Old Time' cars fit the turn-of-the-century bill. Unfortunately they are not producing the track cleaning car as of yet.

[jward]

from my experience, it is much more important that the wheels have rp25 flanges than that they be metal. plastic rp25 wheels work just as well as the metal ones, they just tend to run dirtier. i'd only change the wheels if they were the older deep flange "pizza cutters."

i had one of the old lifelike track cleaners as a kid. if i remember, this was done up as a work train car, with a caboose body and tank mounted on a flat car, and a felt pad under the car floor. it, as did most of the lifelike cars from the 1970s, had body mounted couplers. it would be relatively easy to convert this car to knuckle couplers, just pry off the coupler box lid and change the coupler. later, lifelike cheapened their line so they may have changed their track cleaner as well.

[ACY]

Ray,
I have the IHC car, it comes with talgo trucks (truck mounted X2F couplers) and plastic wheels. What I did to convert mine was I used some extra trucks I had lying around and added metal wheels and then installed Kadee coupler boxes on the bottom and Kadee #148 couplers. It is not too hard of a conversion, you just need to get the couplers heights right, using your gauge if you have one.

[CNE Runner]

I completely agree with you, Jward, regarding the value of RP25 wheels...as all the rolling stock on my layout have RP25/metal wheels. Thanks for checking on the trucks...talgo as I suspected (it looks like the 'new' IHC line has magnetic couplers; but one has to wonder if they are body mounted or not).

ACY - I find myself 'attracted' to the Life-Like car because of the rotating pad method of cleaning. The IHC model has a static pad. Do you find your IHC successful at track cleaning? The CMX car I have also utilizes a static pad 'wiper' and seemes to do a good job of cleaning rail (one would assume the IHC unit to do likewise).

Neither of these cars would be considered expensive (I could purchase one of each and still spend barely a third of the CMX car's cost). I would imagine, with a little upgrading, either one would be better than my current 't-shirt method'. In any case, I will be procurring one of these gems and selling the CMX car to an individual that has larger motive power.

Hmmm, maybe I will purchase one of each and do a comparison. If so, I'll post the results here.

Thanks guys,
Ray

[jward]

that is another pet peeve about ihc. they often use "magic mate" couplers, which were designed to work with both horn hooks and knuckle couplers. the problem is, due to their design they only hold together pulling forward. back them up, or have a a slack run in  and your trains comes uncoupled. in trying to find an alternative to horn hooks they managed to come up with something that was way worse.

[ACY]

My track cleaning method currently is the following: 2 IHC Track Cleaning Cars (1 wet & 1 dry) followed by 5 Walthers Track Cleaning cars (dry). I put track cleaning fluid in the lead caboose. Occasionally I will use a Brite-Boy type eraser if I haven't run anything in a while, but only for the easily accessible areas that are within my (unaided) reach and then go back over with a non-fibrous cloth dampened with track cleaning fluid. My layout is DCC and I have mostly insulfrog turnouts and can run all my trains at really low speeds without issue. All of my locos can pull the IHC track cleaning car without issue, I once borrowed an MDC critter from the local club and it could also pull either the Walther's or IHC cars.

[jward]

5 walthers track cleaning cars? you must not have any grades. what do you use to pull them? that's alot of friction.