Mop Type Track Cleaning Car ?

[GDorsett]

Alrighty, should have some of that handy. Thank you!

And for that I use the white cloth disk, right?

[cteno4]

Yeah if you want you can buff with that and the tank dribbles on the rectangle pad.

 

ill see if I can find my atlas version instructions in English. Helpful.

 

at home I use to do tanker to soak rails, then centerline roller to break up and scrub and then Tomix with buffer wheel. 

 

Jeff

[GDorsett]

Oh, you have a full train. I doubt my track get's that dirty. Stays in a box most of the time.

If I ever go DCC and run with an N-track club, I may do something fancy like that, but that's just a lot for my lightly used stuff.

[GDorsett]

Is it safe to run a full service cleaning train on busy tracks? Will having alcohol residue on the rails affect other locomotives on the tracks or should cleaning trains only be run on dormant layouts so it has a chance to evaporate?

And what is the tanker you use or does someone else have a modifiable recommendation? I'd like to be able to fit one into the body of a Tomix track cleaner so I have a matching set.

Edited February 18, 2019 by GDorsett

[chadbag]

To continue the questions.  Would 90% isopropyl be better or is it too strong?

 

And if anyone has English or German language instructions for the Tomix cleaning car?  I have the vacuum part figured out 🙂

 

My question is probably what the little cylinder thing is for with the loose weight in it inside the car and how the liquid cleaning part works. 

[GDorsett]

The liquid cleaning part works using the white cloth disk. That gets wetted manually and then it spins. Kind of like buffing.

And which little cylinder thing?

[chadbag]

1 hour ago, GDorsett said:

The liquid cleaning part works using the white cloth disk. That gets wetted manually and then it spins. Kind of like buffing.

And which little cylinder thing?

 

I assumed the white cloth was for the liquid cleaning.  The question is how to use it.

 

Various online videos (showing how to convert to DCC) say that this cylinder thing is a liquid reservoir.  Not sure how it works.  See images below for what I am talking about.   Manually wetting the white things would be useless IMHO as you would need to stop every short distance.   (Taking the opportunity to convert my second car to DCC using an add-on board I bought in order to take these pics 🙂  )

 

[GDorsett]

Oh, really? Than that would explain how they could do the mop-type thingy without stopping ever decimetre or so. Maybe it sits in the top of the disk and gravity holds it down? I'll break mine out and see if I can figure it out. May not need a tanker, although if I join an N-Trak club, I'll need more than that little bit.

Edited February 18, 2019 by GDorsett

[Sheffie]

That little brass thumb wheel device looks exactly like something we got with our mister fan the other year. If it is the same thing, it has a tiny nozzle in the center that acts as an atomizer, so any liquid on the inside could be pushed out in a fine spray (assuming there’s a pressure source). 

 

Of of course I might be barking up the wrong tree here

[GDorsett]

@Sheffieto continue the conversation that I mistakenly started in the delivery thread...

What if we used the above mop car after the train to clean the excess? Would it pick up enough to negate the issue, do you think?

[GDorsett]

I would like to build a full-service cleaning train at some point. Have two locos pull a set of four cleaning cars. The first car with sanders, followed by a vacuum, followed by either an alcohol and then buffer or an all-in-one, followed by the mop car to clean the worse of the alcohol up.

Maybe I should do an entirely separate thread...

Edited February 18, 2019 by GDorsett

[Martijn Meerts]

As far as I know, the little reservoir for cleaning liquid in the cleaning cars is for keeping the little sponge/foam insert wet, which in turn wets the rail heads, and then the white discs buff the track.

 

If you look at the image at  https://www.trovestar.com/images/Collections/4/gallery/ts_100614_39.jpg, on the left is the white disc and the insert, the middle one is the grinding disk without insert (you can also see a tiny hole here where the insert normally goes, this hole goes to the cleaning liquid reservoir), and on the right the vacuum (the hole is more visible here)

 

For a full cleaning train, you probably need 3 cars, first the grinding disc, then the vacuum, and then the buffing/polishing disc. It would make quite a racket though, especially the grinding disc is loud.

[cteno4]

Yep the resivior is built in and dribbles onto the rectangular sponge there you fit into the slot.

 

i have an old heki tank car that is just a resivior for cleaner and a nice square pad in the center to just distribute fluid and do a little cleaning. I don’t think it’s been made for like 20 years or more. Aztec has some brass combo ones that use the pad for cleaner and cleaning but very pricy. They are meant as an all in one cleaner with spring loaded pad and brass for weight. You could probably make your own pretty easily out of a tank car.

 

i never use the grinding disc or any abrasives in general. The discs are pretty rough grit and folks have reported it being really uneven and doing a lot of scratching on the rail head. Last thing you want is large scratches in the rail head as it’s a haven for muck. Even when using finer abrasives in general for cleaning that only leave micro scratches in the rail head there is a big debate if that causes a lot more ability for gunk to get and stay stuck to the track. Unless you have corrosion you shouldn’t need abrasives, simple leaning with isopropanol should do it. Also grinding creates a nasty mix of gunk and metal bits that can get flung all around your tracks with the grinding wheel. Bad stuff to have around and cleanup as well. I do like the buffing wheel, it polishes off the track and rubs off the last bits and helps dry stuff.

 

ive never lost a traction tire on any of the locos I’ve used for cleaning with isopropanol. Most usually evaporated by the time you come back around. On of the members even uses the citrus cleaners that I think might be worse on traction tires and he's not lost any AFAIK and that stuff evaporates much slower than isopropanol.

 

i have 2 Tomix cars but it is a lot of current for engine(s) and two cars. I went to doing vacuuming first and then the tanker, wheel, and Tomix buffer train.

 

usually if you keep the track clean it doesn’t take much to clean it, it’s when it gets really mucked that it can really take time to get it clean. I think when really mucky a lot ends up on the inside edge of the rail and then keeps getting up onto the rail head and causing issues. But if you get it when light most all comes up easily and does not collect around the rail.

 

jeff

[GDorsett]

Power draw isn't something I'd be too worried about, as this fancy train would only be running on a DCC-powered layout that belongs to a club that I'm not part of right now, but three is about what I was thinking.

Figured, two medium sized locomotives (or one VERY large one), followed by three Tomix cleaners and the mop. First car would be set for grinding with a pad at the front. Pad would act like a plow and get the worse stuff off. Grinder does exactly as stated. Second car would be a vacuum with a brush. Vacuum to suck up the grinder mess and debris and the brush behind it to catch the remnants. Third car would be pad for wet and then the buffer. Then a mop-car to put tail lights in and to clean up the alcohol mess.

 

cteno, how does one modify a tanker? Can you put cleaning alcohol into a plastic tanker?

[cteno4]

Grinder is a bad idea, do some internet searches to see what it can do to track. Nothing getting rails dirty other than corrosion (really rare) needs abrasives like this.

 

Most of the cleaning action is getting the muck wet with your solvent/cleaner and then some good rubbing action with something soft to wipe it all off and get as much as you can in the inside of the rails as well — hence why your index finger on a cotton cloth really is the ultimate cleaning tool! 

 

The tomix buffing wheel polishes the top well. The best all around car cleaners are the rollers as they move around a lot and get inside the rails some. 

 

Vacuum works best on dry and non sticky stuff. Dust, puzz and some heavier detritus like loose ballast. Doesn’t work as well on metal bits, but magnet will get some of these. The odd bits of metal on cleaning magnets I’ve found have surprised me the most.

 

As long as the tanker is sealed up it’ll hold isopropanol well. Just dump it out to store and keep open for any residual to evaporate. 70% isopropanol won’t attack styrene unless you soak it a long, long time.

 

jeff

[Hayashi]

I can reply to the Centerline product regarding quality of the company's products. Dick Webster invented the product. We used to work at the same high-tech engineering company, so he has/had a good background in product. I see the company is now 2nd generation and based in California. It was originally in Illinois. I haven't spoken to him in years and don't know if he is still around. I spotted two obituaries with his name in the same general locale, but hope he wasn't one of them.

 

I used the G-gauge Centerline product with GooGone in an outdoor layout and it worked great. No attacks on the plastic sleepers and it did a phenomenal job cleaning track. The G-gauge unit used a short paint roller filled with pennies (or another weight of choice). More importantly and relevant to n-scale, it was a well-built, high quality product and nicely packaged in a plastic box with foam inserts. It looks like the n-scale versions are similar except for the roller style.