Track cleaning. Wagon

[joe123]

Hi all. Could anyone recommend what would the best cleaning wagon coach to buy for 00 gauge 1.76 scale peco tracks cheers 

[Noel]

1 hour ago, joe123 said:

Hi all. Could anyone recommend what would the best cleaning wagon coach to buy for 00 gauge 1.76 scale peco tracks cheers 

CMX track cleaning wagon. Expensive but it works phenomenally well and worth every cent. I put methylated spirits in ours and just two slow laps of each circuit behind a loco, and the track is spotless. On sidings I hand push it. There is an adjustment valve you can use to control the flow of cleaning solvent onto the pads. It is very heavy and best pushed by a large diesel loco (e.g. MM 071 class). They come with Kadee style couplings so you will have to either plug a kadee no 19 into your loco's NEM pocket, or convert it to a TLC, or just rig up a hook if your tow it. Can't recommend it highly enough.

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/cmx-track-cleaning-tank-car-solid-brass-hooo-scale/

https://www.dccsupplies.com/item-p-101071/cmx-clean-machine-ho-oo.htm

 

Edited October 26, 2018 by Noel

[joe123]

Thanks Noel  for the great information you give me there . It a bit expensive but as you said  if it works that well it would be worth to buy it cheers 

[Noel]

24 minutes ago, joe123 said:

Thanks Noel  for the great information you give me there . It a bit expensive but as you said  if it works that well it would be worth to buy it cheers 

Yes I too was initially shocked at the cost, but after trying other useless products including a DIY cleaning wagon took the plunge and glad I did. It saves so much labour, puts the track work and ballast bed under less physical stress than elbow grease. I only have to run it around the layout twice a year.

[jhb171achill]

Wow!! More expensive than a locomotive!

Probably viable for very large layouts only?

[Warbonnet]

1 hour ago, Noel said:

They come with Kadee style couplings so you will have to either plug a kadee no 19 into your loco's NEM pocket, or convert it to a TLC, or just rig up a hook if your tow it. 

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/cmx-track-cleaning-tank-car-solid-brass-hooo-scale/

https://www.dccsupplies.com/item-p-101071/cmx-clean-machine-ho-oo.htm

 

That’s one unpretty looking beast Noel. Are you chasing waterfalls of spirits out of the bottom or is it regulated? I guess if it’s good it means the track gets no scrubs by hand? Does the loco have to creep along with it?

[RobertRoche]

9 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

That’s one unpretty looking beast Noel. Are you chasing waterfalls of spirits out of the bottom or is it regulated? I guess if it’s good it means the track gets no scrubs by hand? Does the loco have to creep along with it?

There is a screw to regulate the flow. As it is so heavy it does a good job. I'd get the Dapol one just to repaint it into an Irish livery but I have heard that it only does a so-so job. 

[Broithe]

37 minutes ago, RobertRoche said:

There is a screw to regulate the flow. As it is so heavy it does a good job. I'd get the Dapol one just to repaint it into an Irish livery but I have heard that it only does a so-so job. 

The Dapol ones are probably OK, if you have a DCC layout, so that you can drive the cleaner flat out, whilst propelling it slowly around the circuit via a loco that is being driven slowly.

On a DC layout, in order to run the cleaner at a reasonable rate, you end up driving it too fast to have a good effect, without doing a good few circuits.

[Noel]

6 hours ago, Warbonnet said:

That’s one unpretty looking beast Noel. Are you chasing waterfalls of spirits out of the bottom or is it regulated? I guess if it’s good it means the track gets no scrubs by hand? Does the loco have to creep along with it?

Hi Fran.  Yes the CMX is functional looking, however it’s just a tool rather than a piece of rolling stick. No waterfalls, the pads are just kept damp by the regulator valve so no cleaning fluid gets on the sleepers or ballast. I drive mine at about a scale speed of 25-30mph twice around each of the loops seems to be enough. You can see how effective it’s being by the amount of dirt accumulated by the coarse pad material under neath. The wagon effectively drags the heavily weighted flat pad block along the rail tops with the wheels only being a guide rather than weight baring.  It comes with a good supply of replacement fabric pads but I’m still on the original one as I give it a clean now and then until it eventually wears out from friction. 

Ps. You would need a consist of co-co centre drive diesels to pull the CMX up a layout incline or helix, alternatively as on our layout we just haul it down the inclines. 

Edited October 27, 2018 by Noel

[Mayner]

56 minutes ago, Noel said:

Hi Fran.  Yes the CMX is functional looking, however it’s just a tool rather than a piece of rolling stick. No waterfalls, the pads are just kept damp by the regulator valve so no cleaning fluid gets on the sleepers or ballast. I drive mine at about a scale speed of 25-30mph twice around each of the loops seems to be enough. You can see how effective it’s being by the amount of dirt accumulated by the coarse pad material under neath. The wagon effectively drags the heavily weighted flat pad block along the rail tops with the wheels only being a guide rather than weight baring.  It comes with a good supply of replacement fabric pads but I’m still on the original one as I give it a clean now and then until it eventually wears out from friction. 

Ps. You would need a consist of co-co centre drive diesels to pull the CMX up a layout incline or helix, alternatively as on our layout we just haul it down the inclines. 

I have the N Gauge version of the CMX, I used to run it around the layout behind the locos in a freight than a special track cleaning train.

The most time consuming part was moving other trains about to make sure that all the visible and hidden yard trackage was cleaned. I used isopropyl alcohol as a solvent rather than meths as it did not leave a residue, though it could leave you a little lightheaded in the attic on a hot summer evening.

I found running the Clean Machine round the layout about once a month was adequate after a couple of weekly cleans, I have since re-gauged the Clean Machine to run on 12mm or TT track for my Irish narrow gauge layout, but has not been tested as dust is more of a problem than track grime as I seldom run the layout.

 

[DiveController]

Is it wide enough to do 21mm track if regauged and do you know if it can be easily regained easily?