Espee Oregon Division Project Pages

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Track Cleaning Train

Been working on a train to do the work ahead of ops sessions since it has really been wearing on me lately.  Here is a shot of what I have going...


I'm using two Centerline track cleaning cars, and six modified MDC 50' boxcars with masonite pads following up the rear.  The first Centerline car gets alcohol, the second is dry, then the remaining cars will complete the cleaning.  Finally got all the pieces together and most of the prefabbing of materials is done.  I finished the first car today, so the rest will now go quickly.  Here's a shot of the materials:

I am using 1 ounce tungsten weights (thanks Ray!) for extra down force on the cleaning pad, then to keep the car tracking well (since I use low profile wheels), I upped the overall weight of the car itself to over 3 ounces.  So far it has tracked flawlessly over turnouts and around the layout a couple times... we'll see as I add the rest regarding performance.  If I have to add more weigh I don't anticipate any issues.  Here's a shot of the components assembled together.

...and the first completed car to hit the rails:

This set of cars will blend in well with the rest of the fleet during ops so that I don't have to remove all the cars every time.  They will hide on a back track in the yard during ops sessions so I can pull them out if we need a quick rebuff of the rails.  It is just the 2 Centerline cars that will get pulled after initial cleaning is done.  Looking forward to putting the brightboys in a box for the most part... but I'll still drag one out for spur tracks where the cleaning train can't roll through easily.   :)

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