Track Cleaning.

[CNE Runner]

Thanks for the comments Desertdweller and Rangerover...'much appreciated. [Always keep your words sweet as you may have to eat them.]

Rangerover: Using plastic wheels to remove the 'crud' from the rails...that is so crazy it must have merit. If I understand your post correctly, you mix in a couple of cars having plastic wheels to do the deed? Interesting.

Desertdweller: Ah, brass rail with fiber ties...that were stapled to each other. Atlas Snap turnouts (although we called them 'switches' in those days) that would trim your fingernails if you weren't careful. Long rows of Atlas Snap controllers to work all these 'switches' and the every popular Snap reverse controller. Oh, one more: Athearn Hi-F drive ((twin motor shafts (connected to the 'drive shafts' with a piece of rubber-like material that aged, grew stiff, and either broke or slipped) that were themselves connected to the axles via small rubber bands....that also slipped)). Those were the days my friend...

Ray

[jward]

i remember fibre tie track as well. don't try to ballast it, the glue would warp the ties and pull the rails out of guage.

interesting that, as bad as brass rail was, i don't remember having to clean it as much as i clean my track now. the biggest difference is that dcc has made clean track imperative. before, you could get away with alot of things because dc locomotives operate off a voltage, not a digital signal.

other things we no longer have to deal with: pancake motors, or any other motor geared directly to the wheels without reduction. 3 pole motors more appropriate for slot cars than trains. traction tires. truck mounted horn hook couplers.

but, even with the problems we had fun with our trains. and back then it was an inter generational thing. you ran trains with your dad and grandfather.....

[Desertdweller]

Oh yes.  Cardboard flex track and switches!  Yes, they will indeed warp if they get wet.  But, I can't recall ever reading a caution about mixing cardboard ties with bonded ballast.

And Athern rubber-band drive!  At least, the parts mentioned could be replaced without requiring use of specialized model railroad parts.  The flexible coupling could be replaced with auto windshield washer tubing.
The rubber bands themselves, as I recall, were actually a standard size commonly found around the house (look in the kitchen "junk drawer").

It had a few real advantages.  It was quiet (no gears equal no gear noise).  And it was smooth.  And, going downhill, your train could actually pick up speed even if you shut down the throttle.  And, it produced smooth starts and stops (power could be transmitted back through the drive train, as there was no worm).  And, it allowed the loco to run compatibly with any geared loco: no mismatched gear ratios fighting each other.

A few thing I don't miss:  powerpacks that got hot because they used rheostats.  Powerpacks that hummed and buzzed annoyingly.  Diesel locomotives that bounced from out-of-round traction tires.  Diesels that needed traction tires because they drove through only one truck.  Headlight bulbs that got hot enough to deform body shells.  Couplers that look like big hooks.  Passenger cars with no interiors.  Only a few building kits available, so everyone's model railroad has the same depot, water tank, lumber yard, etc.  Model paint that eats your model.  Shiny green grass that looks like someone dumped a can of green enamel into a barrel of sawdust (because that is what it is and how it was made).  Plaster scenery that weighs a ton.  Car forwarding systems that involve thumbtacks stuck in the roofs of freight cars (no kidding!).

Oh, those were the days! (Cue Edith and Archie Bunker at the piano.)

Les

[CNE Runner]

What a walk down memory lane. I used to use wet/dry sandpaper to clean that brass track...and you're right - I don't remember cleaning it all that often. For grassy areas (those that didn't get the green paint treatment) remember those 'grass mats' that looked like the early indoor/outdoor carpeting? How about the use of bird cage gravel as ballast?

Desertdweller - Oh my gosh...similar buildings on all layouts...yes, yes! I remember building Revell's Mainline Station ('still available on eBay). The kit came with gray people...yep, they stayed gray. Since I built "The HO Model Railroad That Grows" I wanted to copy the layout as exactly as I could (definite lack of originality). The layout featured the Black Bart Mine structure. My grandmother bought me the kit (there was no way an apple farmer's kid could afford such a luxury). The kit came and was brass. Luckily my dad had been a machinist and helped me assemble/solder the kit together...'wish I still had it. BTW: Those Hi-F drive equipped locomotives may have gone downhill well; but they sure didn't go up the hill very well.

Ray

PS: Boy, we have definitely 'hijacked' this thread...but it is great to reminisce.

[Desertdweller]

Ray,

Bird gravel for track ballast: I'd forgotten that trick!  Reminded me of a tip I had read when I was a little kid.
Dry out your used coffee grounds and use them for cinder ballast.

My folks let me try that one.  Dump your coffee grounds into a pan lined with newspaper and let them dry in the sun.  Then glue them to your roadbed using white glue.  I'm sure this would be a disaster on cardboard tie HO track, but it worked OK on my steel Lionel O-27 track.

Many years later, I read that this practice can attract bugs, but I had no problem like that.  And, it smelled good.

I remember cleaning that Lionel track, but it never occurred to me to clean the wheels, too.

Back then, people ballasted even cardboard tie track.  A lot of people used Tru-Scale milled wood roadbed.  This stuff was bare, sanded wood.  It had to be painted and ballasted.  You could ballast the stuff before you put the track on, but I don't recall that being done.  Might make it difficult to get smooth track that way.

Or you could mix powdered dry glue into the ballast, and apply water to the track after spreading the ballast.
Maybe if you used a bunch of track gauges as tie bars you could hold the track in gauge while the ties warped.

Or, you could glue the ballast and the track down at the same time, using a non-water based glue like rubber cement.  Better get it right the first time, and plan on making a mess.

The most creative solution I remember was to paper your roadbed with coarse sandpaper before nailing the track down.  That wound up looking like what it was.

Track cleaning cars have been around forever.  These, in my experience, are not very effective.  They are usually pretty expensive for what you get, and not particularly effective.  They also tend to hang up on switches, especially in hard-to-reach places.

Going back to the depot kits:  I recall only two that were widely available.  A Revell model of a C&NW station that had a pretty roof with a curved dormer, and an Atlas model with small peaked dormers.  The Atlas model had a separate passenger platform with roof that could either extend the platform on the station, or be used opposite the station.  It's a good thing they were so attractive, because everybody had them.

I enjoyed your comment on the brass mine kit.  Once I "inherited" (from a dissolving model railroad club) an unbuilt corrugated steel roundhouse kit.  Problem was, it was actually made out of corrugated steel sheets and stampings!

When I attempted to build this nightmare, I soon found why no one had done so before me.  I can do a fairly good job of soldering, I used to work soldering all day in an electronics factory.  But this stuff shed solder like wax paper sheds water!  It wound up in the trash can.  (Imagine an Erector Set that does not assemble with bolts and nuts.  You have to solder all the pieces together.)

Les

[jward]

tru scale was expensive, but i have never found a better base for handlaid track. i wish they still made it.

[Doneldon]

Dd-

The biggest risk with coffee grounds is that they could mold. I suppose that would be okay if the mold would confine itself to isolated colonies of penicillin (green clumps) but that's not the way it worked. I remember one fellow whose mainline looked like it was laid in a field of moss. Maybe a little Lysol mixed in would keep it from getting moldy.

Ah, Tru-Scale. You could buy it RTR, if you were rolling in dough, or as milled but otherwise bare wood. For those of you who have no idea what we're talking about, Tru-Scale roadbed was softwood milled to the contour of roadbed. You could lay your track directly on it, much like we use cork today. BUT, Tru-Scale also made a deluxe version which had ties milled into the top of the roadbed, too. These had simulated fishplates so it actually held rail in a pretty good approximation of gauge even without a rail gauge. (Only idiots, however, trusted only the roadbed for gauge.) The ties were stained with a thinned creosote material, just like 12":1' railroads and Tru-Scale sold a gray paint with course sand in it which was supposed to simulate ballast. You could stain the ties and paint the roadbed before installing the rail because the sand was small enough that it was below the tops of the ties so it didn't interfere with the rail. One problem was that you had to constantly stir the ballast paint because the sand would quickly settle to the bottom. I still have a small can of the ballast paint that I hope will be needed on some future project. It might work pretty well for a roof.

I took a piece of bare roadbed and ties Tru-Scale track to a train show last weekend and I could tell how long people had been model rails by whether they recognized it. Forty-five to 50 years seemed to be about the point where recognition happened, dating both me and some of the visitors to my booth. Thanks for an opportunity to saunter down memory lane.
                                                                           -- D

[CNE Runner]

I had forgotten about Tru-Scale. We had a neighbor, who was a model railroader (and the person that 'weaned' me away from tinplate and into HO), who used Tru-Scale roadbed exclusively on his layout. The problem was the extreme cost of the stuff (I was an apple farmer's kid and he was an I.B.M. engineer). The only drawback I remember was that it was basically 'set track' in that you had to use their curves.

On a related subject (since we have gotten seriously away from this thread's original topic...not that I'm complaining): I think I will 'plunk down' the $200 for that Model Railroader DVD of all past issues...what a walk down memory lane that would be!

Ray

[jward]

using tru scale's curves wasn't much of a problem. they made every even numbered radius from about 14" up to 48"

the biggest advantage was that unlike cork roadbed, it tended to strengthen your subroadbed, and minimize any imperfections. and for handlaid track, nothing holds spikes better than wood roadbed.

as mentioned previously, there were 3 basic types of tru scale. the most expensive had the track already on it. a second option had just the ties, milled into the wood. you supplied the rail. the third and cheapest option was plain roadbed, that could be used with any kind of track. this is what my dad and i used for many years.

it would be possible to make a similar base for track out of common moulding strips, but you'd have alot of cutting and shaping to do.

[CNE Runner]

It has just 'dawned' on me that Tru-Scale's top end track (i.e. rails + ties + roadbed) might be considered a forerunner of today's EZtrack (et. al.). I guess the major difference today is the cost of manufacture (plastic vs milled wood). "What goes around...comes around."

Ray

[Jerrys HO]

Back to the original post....

I was just in the hobby shop yesterday and noticed Woodland Scenics has a nice kit available for track cleaning and also a loco and rolling stock wheel cleaning track. Has any one tried the wheel cleaning track?
I never even asked the cost, should have, but I can bet it's pricey. Great if it works.

Jerry

[jward]

i saw that the other day as well. it was about $35 where i saw it. less than the price of a good track cleaning car.

[Selector]

First, about brake fluid:  beware that some varieties are hygroscopic.  They absorb water, including from the air around them.

Secondly, in the six years I ran my layout, it sat...a LOT!  I never had to clean it.  Ever.  Forced air furnace, carpets, pet, laundry in the same room with shaken towels and sheets, etc.  Ever.  I did have some touchy contacts at points, but a gentle wipe with 600 grit paper always seemed to clear the problem.  I have a Bright Boy, but why would I use it in view of my claims just now?

I was about the decommission my layout, so last fall I placed a few drops of Castrol Dextron III Mercon ATF here and there.  I actually was pretty liberal with the stuff, making sure there was enough for the train to distribute.   Result?  Didn't hurt.  Didn't seem to improve anything because............everything was doing fine anyway.

I think running metal wheels, cleanish ones, is about the best thing you can do for your track.  I dunno why I think that because.............I never had problems in the first place.  Rails sat for weeks at a time.  With laundry nearby.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Oh-boy-oh-boy-oh-boy!

Just had to say, guys, how much I've just enjoyed reading those reminiscing posts!

Ray! You actually built "The HO Model Railroad that Grows"?!?! Awesome! I have that book in my library. From time to time, it's fun to pull it off the shelf and look at the pictures to see what things were like 50 years ago--which was just the beginning of my time.

And to notice the Plasticville buildings that are still available! 

[CNE Runner]

Hey Jeff - Yep, my dad, and I, built the Great Northern Pacific (a.k.a. "The HO Model Railroad that Grows") in the late 1950s. We faithfully followed the book - although we didn't start at the beginning and then gradually work to the finished product...rather we started much later in the process. Before cars (and girls) entered the scene, we had built most of the folding yard as well.

The GNP was a wonderful layout to start - and dad and I had many hours of enjoyable operation (well, as enjoyable as it was with poorly running locomotives and less-than-perfect rolling stock). I would love to see Model Railroader's staff either: 1) remake the old original layout or 2) update the original layout with newer scenic techniques [such as a scenic divider etc.].

I can't tell you how many times I reread that book each year. It is a marvel that anyone could have followed the directions as they were written. [If you have a copy of this 'book' read Stage 7: A Good Control Panel and see if you can follow the directions.] Occasionally I will bring my copy of the "HO Model Railroad that Grows" to train shows and display it on our tables (with a "Not for Sale" sign). I am amazed at how many of us 'senior' model railroaders were either familiar with the layout; or had constructed at least a portion of the project.

Yes, virtually all the buildings are still available. The Black Bart Mine was a metal product of Suydam (now Alpine Models); and has been reissued as a matte board kit by the same company.

Ah...those were the days.

Ray