Cleaning track with alcohol

[sp org div]

What method do you use to apply alcohol to the rails for track cleaning, other than with a track cleaning car?  A cotton tip swab is not what I want to hear...  as I need to clean 500' of track. 
I am trying to use a cut up T-shirt square, wrapped tightly around a bright boy, but it is quick to unravel and gets caught on switches (or dragging into line-side details). 
Any cool tips or tricks would be appreciated...


Jeff
All forms of track cleaning = 

[peteski]

My friend runs a cleaning train. It consists of the car with an abrasive roller (don't recall the brand), a Centerline tank with alcohol pad, then an Aztec car with a dry roller.

[Cajonpassfan]

1x2 block of wood, 3" long, wrapped in an old white cotton T shirt patches ... Works like a charm
Oto K.

[Chris333]

I put alcohol in my Atlas track cleaning car. Usually this is after I  clean the track with very fine sandpaper.

[mmagliaro]

I have had great success with the Atlas track cleaning car and alcohol.  Before that, I would just use a paper towel or Q tips dipped in alcohol. 

[MVW]

Cut a circular strip from the top of an old tube sock. Wrap around a wooden shim. Dampen the end with alcohol. Scrub away. When the end gets dirty, rotate the sock strip a bit. Quick and easy.

Jim

[bman]

I've an small dollar store towel (thin and not fluffy) I rap around a used up disposable shaving razor.  Working gingerly around turnouts. Then afterwards I run a piece of cork roadbed around the rails like you would a bright boy to remove any stubborn spots. 

[jereising]

Aztec Predator with alcohol soaked cloth roller - that was before I switched to all metal wheels.  I have a five Predator cleaning train I used to use.  But now the track is clean all the time.  Some of the wheels are pretty dirty though...

[Kisatchie]

Hmm... I just rip up my
dirty track and lay new
track...

[JMaurer1]

Second the Aztec Predator track cleaner. I have one of those and two of the Eliminators that get pulled in a track cleaning train. It works...

[mmagliaro]

I have a question for all the folks who use track cleaning cars, or whole strings of cleaning cars in a "cleaning train."

What do you do about sidings?   Getting the mains and passing sidings clean is not too bad.  I can push the track cleaner car ahead of an engine, so that the track is cleaned before the engine rolls over it.  If I pull the cleaner car, the pulling engine's wheels will load up with dirt on the first pass around the track before the cleaner has gone over it and then I have to clean the wheels.

But the sidings?   Do you painstakingly push the cleaner in and out of every siding, say, in a yard?  I don't really see any other way to do it.  And of course, yards are usually loaded with strings of cars that all have to be ferried out by hand before you can clean.  Is there some better technique I'm missing?

[ns737]

I use coffee filters. I bye from the dollar store. you do not get lint from them. I clean engine wheels,car wheels and the track.

[rodsup9000]

I have a question for all the folks who use track cleaning cars, or whole strings of cleaning cars in a "cleaning train."

What do you do about sidings?   Getting the mains and passing sidings clean is not too bad.  I can push the track cleaner car ahead of an engine, so that the track is cleaned before the engine rolls over it.  If I pull the cleaner car, the pulling engine's wheels will load up with dirt on the first pass around the track before the cleaner has gone over it and then I have to clean the wheels.

But the sidings?   Do you painstakingly push the cleaner in and out of every siding, say, in a yard?  I don't really see any other way to do it.  And of course, yards are usually loaded with strings of cars that all have to be ferried out by hand before you can clean.  Is there some better technique I'm missing?

 Max,
 I have 5 Roco track cleaning cars (ones with a pad on them) being pulled by a ABBA set of lifelike FA's that the locomotives are all wired together and never had to clean the wheels on them.
For sidings, I just pull the cars off the siding a make pass with the cleaning cars. So, no you are not missing anything.

[chuck geiger]

Small block of balsa followed with a drop of Wahl's clipper oil.

[sundowner]

I used two Aztec cars and two centerline cars on my track cleaning train, plus a few boxcar as protect cars. I used the Aztec Eliminator with a Cratex roller on the front of the loco and the second one at the end of the train with the wet centerline car behind the loco and the dry centerline after the wet one.

I used this stuff on a the wet centerline car roller http://achlubes.com/shop/track-cleaner-conditioner-8oz/