Cleaning your track

[Terry Toenges]

I was looking for a better way to clean my track than the masonite pad on the bottom of a car. I looked into Woodland Scenics Tidy Track and bought it because I had a different idea on how to use it. Tidy track can be used for N, HO, On30, and O. My way won't work with 3 rail O because the base has to angled to cover all three rails.
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This is how it's supposed to work or you can use without the long handle.

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I unscrewed the handle attachment piece. I took the base and cut a notch in it to accommodate a  coupler pocket.

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I put a coupler and pocket where I had cut out the notch. (It's temporary for now so I could see if it was going to work. That's why it's just taped.)

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This is the underside with the pads attached.

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I used a sheet of weight and cut it down to smaller pieces and stacked them on it.

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It works great. I was wondering if there would be any issues on my 15" radius curves but there was no problem at all. It comes with four different type of pads - rescue, cleaning, maintenance, and finishing.

[jward]

I use a pair of Centerline track cleaning cars.

https://www.centerline-products.com/product-page/ho-scale-nmra-specification

These use cloth covered rollers to clean the track. For my system, the first car's roller is soaked in a cleaning fluid like Goo GOne, the second car is run dry to pick up any residue the cleaning fluid left. It's not as cheap or simple as what Terry uses, but it can do the job inside tunnels where everything is hard to reach. I am considering converting a locomotive to Dead Rail (battery power) to pull these cars.

[Terry Toenges]

I had one of those cars with the fluid reservoir and it was pain in the butt for me. It was hard to get the right amount of drip without getting too much and I would always end up with a mess. That was why I quit using it.

[Terry Toenges]

Centerline's site just shows these blank cars with nothing on them. No pics of any rollers or cloth or a pic of the underside. It seems like they would have a little more detail about their products.

[Terry Toenges]

And what's a track cleaning car without a crew.... Casey rides up front to signal the crew in the loco. Seth keeps a look out to the rear for any oncoming trains that didn't get the word that it is track cleaning day.

[jward]

Centerline's site just shows these blank cars with nothing on them. No pics of any rollers or cloth or a pic of the underside. It seems like they would have a little more detail about their products.

I agree they should have photos of what the complete car looks like. The rollers are designed to fit in the slot in the car frame. The frame merely provides guidance for the roller, it rolls loose in the slot. There is no fluid reservoir to fill or drip rate to control. You simply wind the cloth around the roller, soak it with whatever track cleaning fluid you use, then drop it in the slot and away you go. as you clean your track, the rollers will get streaks of dirt on them where they contact the rails. The cloth itself is similar to HandiWipes that people use to clean dishes, and those can be cut to size and used as well. That gives you a steady supply of clean cloth to use with one package of HandiWipes lasting years.

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[Terry Toenges]

Here's a short video with my new track cleaner at work.
https://youtu.be/ADZurqqcBmE