Track Cleaning Car

[Doneldon]

Jerry-

Thanks for the answers.

By "sliders" I meant the whatevers which slide along on the rails. I didn't know enough about them to call them pads so I used a more general term.

My question about whether to run them all of the time had to do with whether they would work best in general, continuous maintenance or as needed. Each has an advantage, ongoing because (in theory, at least) you never have to worry about track cleaning, and as needed because you don't waste time moving a car from industry to siding to yard just to get all of the tracks covered.
                                                                                                             -- D

[jbrock27]

It's good to know the Bachmann track cleaning car gets some positive endorsements and costs about half a C-note   Something to definitely consider.  Is the pad on it different than pads found on other track cleaning cars?

[jward]

I have one question about the Bachmann track cleaners: can they be backed without derailing. a lot of the other track cleaning cars only work going forward, and derail when you try to back them.

[Bob_B]

My experience with the track cleaning car.
It has non-abrasive pads and you can buy replacements (2 pieces Item No 16949).
I've only used mine for about an hour of cleaning in total and no signs of wear.
The pad support in itself is weighted and floats so car weight is irrelevant but if you wanted to you can easily add weight to the car (and similar cars sold by Bachmann) by removing the tanker lid and add fishing sinkers. This works very well to help stop derailments and gives more realistic movement.
The way the pad is designed means it will clean in either direction. Great for sidings where you can run up and down a couple of times to clean dead end track.
The only minus in the design IMHO is the pads wear two grooves which means most of the (square) pad area is wasted when it comes time to replace them. A pad that could be rotated would be more cost effective.
BTW I bought my track cleaner at considerably less than RRP. Shop around as always.

[jbrock27]

Thank you.
It is good the pad can be cleaned thru the dishwasher.  So far, my searching does not indicate other manufactures' cleaning cars' pads are resusable.  If anyone can confirm the B'man is unique in this way, that would be great.
And yes Bob , I agree, always wise to comparison shop.

[jward]

the cars I am currently using, which do the job pretty well even if I can't back them, are the centerline cars with the rollers wrapped in handi wipes. when the handi wipes get dirty, I just unroll them from the rollers and replace them.

the problem with backing is that the rollers tend to lift the car off the track in reverse.

I will probably get one of the Bachmann cars for use in cleaning yard tracks and sidings.

[RAM]

I have no problem backing up the centerline track cleaner.  However I made a body for it and I may have mounted the couplers on the body.

[CNE Runner]

JBrock - I am sorry I missed your two questions to my earlier post (I don't regularly follow the Forum anymore...and less so when we are on the road). OK, why clean the inside of the rail heads? A considerable portion of the electrical 'pick up' is through the wheel flanges - which tend to ride against the inside of the rail head. Is this absolutely necessary? No, but since you are cleaning the rails anyway, why not do a 100% job? Frequent running of your trains makes this job less important - due to friction between the wheel flange and the rail.

I use either my Bright Boy cleaning pad or an artist's eraser (white kind) for the cleaning of the inside rail heads. Please keep in mind that I am referring to the inside of the rail head...not the inside of the entire rail. In any event, frequent running of your trains and good environmental conditions will lengthen the interval between major cleanings. Don't forget those sidings; which don't get much traffic as a rule.

Regards,
Ray

[jbrock27]

Thank you Ray I appreciate your taking the time to get back to me.  No apologies necessary.  Thanks for the tip, I never would have thought to do that.

[wb2002]

Dear All,
We have a track cleaning car that works very well:
http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=258_324_337_342&products_id=2221
Have fun!
the Bach-man

Is this link the only track maintenance vehicle available at Bachmann? I cannot locate any other reference to any other track cleaning vehicles by Bachmann (on the Bachmann site) other than those listed on eBay and other places.

Kind regards,
W Brown

[Bob_B]

Dear All,
We have a track cleaning car that works very well:
http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=258_324_337_342&products_id=2221
Have fun!
the Bach-man

Is this link the only track maintenance vehicle available at Bachmann? .......

AFAIK that's it. I'm sure if there were others 'the bach-man' would have listed them.

[ebtbob]

Jward,

       I have five of the Bachmann cleaning cars and have zero problems backing them up. 

[rogertra]

Jward,

      I have five of the Bachmann cleaning cars and have zero problems backing them up.  

Bob, why would need five? 

Is your track that dirty?  

[Jerrys HO]

Bob, why would need five? 

Why not, they are nice looking and work. I've seen a video of Bob's layout and one would take forever to clean. If Bob uses them like I do with one wet clean and one dry clean following behind I would say your a car short Bob.
Glad to see your still there Bob haven't heard a peep out of you lately.
I am going to try and post an email I receive regularly that has a homemade track cleaning car that is pretty cool  and I think it would probably work well with the Masonite pads richg was talking about. Here goes....

http://modelrailwaylayoutsplans.com/kims-track-cleaner/

Jerry

[jbrock27]

Did John Allen change his name to "Kim" or "Al"    
Not sure if this was what Rich was talking about when he mentioned John Allen's Masonite car after I had mentioned building one, but he would be the one to ask what website he was referring to.

Here is the website I was referencing when I mentioned plans to build one of these cars.  This looks a lot more straightforward than building Kim's track cleaning car.

http://www.willegal.net/railroad/rr-tc.htm

I suggest this be saved to Favorites.