Masonite Pad Track Cleaning Car for N-scale Mainlines...

[robert3985]

I know that lots of TRW members have problems with keeping their railheads clean enough for reliable running, so although this is a very simple way to keep mainline trackage clean pretty effortlessly and maybe a lot of you have already built this type of DIY track cleaner car, I thought it might be a useful solution to some TRW members who may not know about these.

I call this my "Masonite Track Cleaning Car" and I run it in trains at shows and at home where it rubs the railheads, burnishing off NS oxidation as well as removing dust, insect body parts, small bits of hair and whatever else might be on top of the rails to interrupt electrical contact.

Photo (1) - Assembled Masonite Track Cleaning Car on my layout at Echo:


(1) - I cut a piece of tempered Masonite, with at least one smooth side so that it fits between the innermost wheelsets of the car I'm using to make it, and is (at most) the same width as the truck sideframes.  I prefer at least a 50' boxcar for the extra mass the longer piece of Masonite will have over shorter cars. My Masonite pad is 3/16" thick, 0.680" wide X 2.200" long. THE SMOOTH SIDE WILL BE WHAT BEARS AGAINST THE RAILHEADS.

(2) - I mark the centerline of the metal chassis of the car I've disassembled using my digital calipers to lightly scribe a centerline as a guide for drilling clearance holes for the mounting pegs/weights the Masonite pad will be attached to.

(3) - I measure where the two clearance holes will equally be from the ends of the car, and measure the distance between where the two clearance holes will be drilled as accurately as I can.  I use my digital calipers to do this.

Photo (2) - Showing assembled interior of car with two brass mounting pegs/weights, scribed centerline on metal car chassis, and Masonite cleaning pad (smooth side down):


(4) - Now, I carefully center-punch a drill-starting dimple at those locations which will guide my drill bit.

(5) - On mine, I drill two 7/64" clearance holes, but that's not critical.  You could drill slightly larger clearance holes.  Drill these holes as perpendicular as you can to the metal car chassis.  I used my drill press to do this.

(6) - I take the measurement I got between the mounting peg holes centers and drill two smaller holes equidistantly on the centerline of the Masonite pad I've previously cut, and carefully center-punch starting dimples.

(7) - On the Masonite pad, I drill two 3/32" holes perpendicular to the surface of the pad using my drill press.

( 8 ) - Next, I visually check to see if the two holes I've just drilled into the Masonite pad will both center on the larger holes I've drilled through the metal car chassis.  If I'm not happy, then I'm make a new pad since it isn't exactly a difficult process.  It's essential that both holes in the Masonite pad are simultaneously centered on the larger clearance holes in the metal car chassis.

(9) - Now it's time to make the mounting pegs/weights.  I machined mine out of brass, but you could use a nail or metal rod of appropriate diameter.  Mine were made with a 5/32" brass rod with one end turned to 0.090" dia. for app. 0.340".  The larger 5/32" diameter extends for app. 0.600"  I slightly chamfer the edges of the smaller 0.090" dia. portion so that these brass mounting pegs will easily fit into matching holes in the Masonite pad.

(10) - I test fit the brass mounting pegs and Masonite pad to ensure they fit together.

(11) - I then test fit the brass mounting pegs, Masonite pad and the metal car chassis to make sure that the pad/mounting pegs don't bind on the metal car chassis and slide up and down easily.

(12) - I disassemble everything.

(13) - Using a countersink, I countersink the two mounting holes in the Masonite pad for 0.040" on the smooth side of the pad...which will be the bearing surface that's against the railheads.

(14) - I taper the Masonite pad both on the top outside edges and the bottom front and back edges to fit under the car body, and to glide over any slight track imperfections in my layout/module trackage.  I attempt to do the tapering neatly and smoothly for both appearance and functionality's sake, especially on the front and back edges that will guide the pad up & over uneven rails.

(15) - I clean my brass mounting pegs/weights with Bestine or Brakleen to totally de-grease them and insert them into the clearance holes in the metal car chassis.

(16) - After slipping on some Nitrile gloves, I mix up some good 5 min. Epoxy and apply to the brass mounting pegs and insert these into the mounting holes in the Masonite pad, inserting them an equal distance into the part, so that they're even with the tops of the counter-sunk holes.

(17) - Set aside for the Epoxy to cure.

Photo (3) - How my pad in relation to the metal car chassis and the brass mounting pegs/weights looks after epoxying together:


Photo (4) - View of the bottom of my Masonite cleaning pad (smooth side against railheads) showing how the brass mounting pegs are inserted into the counter-sunk mounting holes:


I also retain the original MTL pizza cutter wheelsets on my Masonite Track Cleaning Car to help it stay on the rails, which isn't a problem with my Rail Craft and ME mainline trackage nor with my hand-laid Code40 branchline.

I've considered adding a couple of lead automobile wheel weights to the inside of the car if there were problems, but in the years I've been running this car, I'm not having problems with it.  If you're running Atlas55 trackage, then you won't be able to use pizza-cutter wheelsets, so a couple of self-adhesive lead weights will help keep the car on your rails.

Okay, that's it.  I'll be making another car to run in the opposite direction on my double-tracked UP mainline layout, and I hope this assists some of you as an easy way to keep your mainline trackage clean.  It's worked very well for me over the years and I much prefer this method over any commercially made cleaning cars, or using solvents or oils.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Dwight in Toronto]

Bob - nicely composed and comprehensive tutorial, as always.  Thanks for taking the time to share.

To me, it’s interesting that you emphasize the importance of having the smooth side of the masonite in contact with the railhead.  Intuitively, I would have presumed that the more fibrous, rougher-textured back side of the masonite might have been the more effective cleaning/buffing surface.  Good to know, and thanks again!

[Nick Lorusso]

Robert,
I did the same thing from a kit that was purchased off of eBay a couple years back

[Maletrain]

The N scale layout at my club has been using those types of cleaning cars religiously for longer than I have been a member. 

Yesterday, I cleaned the 2 cleaning cars that get run around our layout first each day we operate.  It quickly became apparent that the usual cleaning of the pads themselves was just the beginning of the maintenance really needed.  Typically, the masonite pads were just lightly sanded to get the dark streaks off.  But, as I was doing that, I saw fuzz balls on the axles and some gunk on the wheels.  Inspection showed that the wheels had so much gunk built up that it was even getting into the axle cups.  Needless to say, the "cleaning train" was probably putting down as much black stuff as it was taking up.  And, of course I cleaned everything before returning it to the layout.

But, what this seemed to show me was that it was more corrosion than dirt that these cars actually move off the rails.

The ones my club has been using are a little more simple than what Robert posted.  The vertical rods are simply aluminum nails with the points cut off and the flat heads simply epoxied to the tops of the masonite pads.  There is no weight on the nails to hold down the pads to the tracks.  I am thinking of adding some small amounts of weight to the nail tops, mainly to keep the pads attached to the cars when they are lifted off the track.  I can usually lift them by their pads and keep them intact, but seem to be putting them back together regularly as other members keep telling me "Oops, the pad came off," when they five-finger a train consist in staging.

The rail material used at the club is mostly Atlas code 80 flex track and switches.  It tends to corrode badly in the not-so-often-climate-controlled space used by the club.  So, uncleaned sidings and spurs often need something like a bright boy or (my preference) an old ink eraser pencil point to take off visible oxidation in order to get them running smoothly.  But, the mainline where these cleaning cars run routinely does seem to work pretty well with just the use of the cars. 

In comparison, at home I have Kato sectional track in a continuously climate controlled room, and have almost no oxidation on the track.  If I don't run any trains at all, that track will not even leave a black residue when cleaned with solvent after months of sitting idle.  I tend to get dirty track at home by bringing rolling stock home from the club, either my stuff that ran there or club stuff I need to fix.

Someday, I need to go through all of the clubs' rolling stock and clean every wheel, then all of the track with solvent. But, visitors also bring dirty stuff to the club, so I suspect it will never stay clean for long.

[wm3798]

Mine's a bit more robust.  The key is to apply good pressure, which I've done using some springs between the underframe and pad, with a weight balanced over the two posts.

In order to keep that pressure from pulling the car off the rails, I added two old weights from Mehano junk drives to provide solid tracking for the car.
I usually soak the pad with contact cleaner then run it between two Lifelike Lead Sled diesels.  The effect is quite successful.


The wheels are the Atlas metal replacement wheels with smaller flanges, as I built this to work on my old C55 layout.  With the spring loaded pad and the extra weight, it still works fine.  The only concession is that it's not practical to run in a regular train, so it gets run with a handful of MOW cars, it looks and works the part just fine.  The only compromise is I have to create a space to store the MOW train, which presently is a cat food box under the layout!


The side steps help mask the view of the pad as well.

Lee

[eja]

Has anyone tried this with a piece of 600 grit sand paper attached to the masonite ?

[robert3985]

Has anyone tried this with a piece of 600 grit sand paper attached to the masonite ?

From my experience, just plain ol' Masonite works very well.

The trick is not to sand the top surface of your railheads, but to buff the railheads slightly so that what gets removed is accumulated oxidation, detritus, and dust.

The idea is to run these cars regularly, not every now and then, so they are constantly lightly buffing the railheads.

As you can see from my photo of the bottom of the pad, which has been sanded a few times to remove the accumulated NS oxidation and metal, the Masonite is definitely buffing the tops of the rails.

Only having very light pressure on the pad allows these to be run in regular freights, for me the longest of which would be right at 9' 7 1/2" long, or at between 28 and 30 cars, depending on the length of the cars.

Attaching sandpaper of any grit to the bottom of the pad would only add unneeded complexity to a simple, but effective mainline track cleaning method.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[eja]

Thanks, Bob

[Dwight in Toronto]

It appears that Lee is using the “rough” side of the masonite against the railhead, which would have been my intuitive approach as well.  However, in Bob’s tutorial, he emphasizes that the smooth side of the masonite should be doing the dirty work.

Reasons/pros/cons/rationale?

[jagged ben]

The general idea works no matter how exactly it's executed.  At the suggestion of a club colleague in another scale we are now using basswood or balsa wood.  It also works great and I don't think there's anything too special about masonite, although it would have a slight weight advantage.   The part about routinely cleaning and/or sanding down the pad is important.  We wipe off the pads with CRC Contact Cleaner and Protectant (This one, which is very low polarity, not to be confused with other CRC contact cleaners) every few scale miles and sand the pads down (and eventually replace them) every now and then.  It makes a big difference to clean the pads and thus actually remove the oxidation from the layout.

I've been buying old Roco cleaning cars on eBay and replacing the abrasive-impregnated-rubber pads with wooden ones, which I attach with a counter sunk flathead 00-90 screws after drilling and tapping the white metal pad holder.   Those cars also have a nice weight to both the pad holder and car body. Or use Bob's method, or Maletrain's method (but I endorse more weight on the pad).  But the core ideas are:
- use pads made of wood or masonite or another hard-but-softer-than-metal that won't abraid the rail, and is easy to replace.
- install so there's a decent amount of weight pressing the pad down onto the rail
- wipe, sand, or otherwise refresh the pad with some frequency so that you are actually removing the oxidation from the layout, not just spreading it around forever.   (And yes, most of what is coming off on the pads is nickel oxide.)

A final tip is the more is better. We'll run a cleaning train with four or five wooden pad cars.  They all pick up oxidation off the rails.  The ones in front pick up a bit more of course.   But running four cars around the layout once cleans as much as running one car around the layout four times, in a quarter of the time. 

[jagged ben]

It appears that Lee is using the “rough” side of the masonite against the railhead, which would have been my intuitive approach as well.  However, in Bob’s tutorial, he emphasizes that the smooth side of the masonite should be doing the dirty work.

Reasons/pros/cons/rationale?

I think the smoother side will make more consistent contact with the rail and thus pick up more oxidation.   Also the fibers on the rough side may more prone to getting torn off, getting left on the roadbed, which is not great.  Also, and this is a guess, the rough side may be more prone to getting grooved by the rail, which you don't want.  Ideally the pad has enough play in its position relatively to the car that the portion of the surface contacting the rail moves around a bit, allowing it to pick up more dirt before getting saturated.  (But of course, not so much play that it wanders outside of the roadbed to catch on trackside details or scenery.)

[wm3798]

I like the added friction of the not so smooth side.  I've used this car for over 15 years, and I have no complaints.  As I said, I usually saturate the pad with contact cleaner before I send it around, and I think the texture of the rough side provides a reservoir for the cleaning solution as it gets dragged around the layout.

No need to overthink it.  Do what works for you.

Lee

[nkalanaga]

I've often used balsa as a track cleaner, either dry or with some alcohol.  It will scrape dirt, oil, "crud" etc from the rails, and is soft enough not to scratch them.  When it gets too dirty, just throw it away and cut another piece.

[thomasjmdavis]

I advocate the 2 or more car approach, which gives the option of having rough side down on the first car, and smooth side down on the second, and getting the rough stuff off with the first, and 'polishing' with the second.  And maybe one of the many folks here more clever than I can figure out a way to lead with a car wiping on, or dispensing, contact cleaner.

Thanks for the post, Bob. On my project list are some new cleaning cars from MTL troop cars- which were commonly used as MoW cars after WWII, and well into the 1970s.

[robert3985]

...A final tip is the more is better. We'll run a cleaning train with four or five wooden pad cars.  They all pick up oxidation off the rails.  The ones in front pick up a bit more of course.   But running four cars around the layout once cleans as much as running one car around the layout four times, in a quarter of the time.

@jagged ben - THIS is a great idea! I'll have to do this later today!

Thanks!

Bob Gilmore