Track Maintenance Marker ??

[domino]

How does this thing work ??

 

 

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10126575

 

 

Brian

[cteno4]

Brian,

 

I think its just a porous tip and some cleaning solvent in it. Sort of like a paint pen.

 

Basically a fancy tool to replace piece of cloth soaked in isopropanol!

 

Jeff

[bill937ca]

It maybe intended for times when it is not convenient to lug a heavy  bottle of alcohol  around.

[kvp]

Yes and much safer around kids. If someone can get refillable felt tip pens and/or a tiny plastic eye drop bottle (which have to relabeled!!!), then the big bottle can be left at home. The pen is also good on layouts where there is painted stuff between the rails at rail height, like crossings or street running tram tracks, so a conventional track cleaning car wouldnt really work. If there were a felt pad based track cleaning car with felt padded front wheels that only clean on the top of the rails, that would solve these problems.

[cteno4]

Small stick (disposable square chopsticks work well), bits of an old tee shirt and a rubber band work well. Just double over a little chunk of Cotten cloth over the end of the stick and wrap with a small rubber band. Dunk into some isopropanol and you can get into all those tight places. As it gets dirty move the cloth on the end a bit till all dirty and tear off another bit of your tee shirt!

 

Use a wider piece of stick like 15 mm and you can get both rails at once under catenary poles etc. for tha vast easily accessible areas I've found the index finger with a bit of cloth and iso is the best, fastest and easiest!

 

The woodland scenics tool is ok but expensive and fiddly

 

Jeff

[domino]

Thanks

 

Brian

[nscalestation]

This looks like something I once purchased that was for cleaning electrical contacts.  It seemed to dry up before long.

 

When I was servicing laser printers years ago I used to carry a small squeeze bottle of alcohol in my tool bag.  This was used with industrial type Q-tips to clean some of the small parts inside the printers that were otherwise hard to get to.   Reading this thread reminded me of this and how that might be a good thing for carrying small amounts of alcohol in my tool box to train shows for cleaning track, wheels, etc.  I've got some empty eye drop bottles that I can try this out with.

 

 

[cteno4]

Yeah I always have 2 or 3 little bottles of isopropanol at shows along with qtips and swatches of old cotton tee shirts. I use those bottles that have the little fold out spouts, super easy to squirt some out fast and controllably and seals up well. You can usually get them for a buck in the travel/beauty section of the drugstore or dollar store (or cheaper from usplasics.com if you are ordering other stuff).

 

I know those industrial swabs they use to come in the LaserWriter toner kits. Nice microfiber non fraying tips. Probably cost a fortune to buy a few. I've found the dollar store qtips come as close as I have found around here as they usually have hard wound cotton ends, not soft balls and also plastic shanks so firmer than the cardboard ones. I just use them a short time on things like wheels and as soon as the head starts to unravel at all I toss them and start with a new one so as not to get puzz into things I'm cleaning with them like engine interiors or trucks.

 

One of the club members just picked up some of these, but I have yet to get my hands on one to play with them

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10279328

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10148272

 

Have not figured out how the wheel one should work, if the flanges go between the bumps or just one wheel and the flange and face go in the depression.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff