How to build a simple track cleaning car – MR contributor Gerry Leone shares instructions for making your own rolling innovation for cleaning the rails of your model railroad! From Gerry’s workbench, you’ll see the tools, materials, and simple techniques needed to shape a railcar and a small patch of Masonite (hardboard) into an unrelenting device for scrubbing layout track clear of dirt and debris.
The thrill from building your own model never gets old! But if you want to get straight to the task the quickest way possible, you can acquire a wide variety of helpful trackwork/track maintenance tools and supplies directly from the kalmbachhobbystore.com
I had a friend come over and see my track cleaning car on a flat car and told me I did it all wrong, it has to be on a box car. I exlplained to him I only use it before anyone comes to look, so I’m the only one that sees it.
I may have to build others on box cars to please the people that might see it.
First thank John Allen, then Gerry Leone and Cody. Cody did one back during his Cody’s office series.
Great video Gerry. Although you didn’t specifically mentioned this during the video, the rough side of the Masonite pad goes down towards the rails, right? When you show the shot of the pad after sanding the edges, it looks like the rough side would be towards the rails, but you didn’t mention that part. Thanks for the great tip, I’m building one now.
Great tip, Gerry, one question though, use just plane Masonite no solvent or cleaner?
That’s right: no solvent or track cleaner. But if your track is really gunky, use that stuff on a rag to clean it off. Once your track is reasonably clean, the Masonite car will keep it that way.
Thank you, Gerry. Another helpful tip. I model in N scale. Would the same configuration work or is the weight of Masonite pad when reduced for N scale insufficient to get the friction needed to clean the rail heads?
Good question, John! I would almost think the full size Masonite pad would be too heavy for N scale. It would be interesting to try an experiment with corrugated cardboard on an N scale track cleaning car. Or maybe try splitting a piece of Masonite in half so that it’s half as thick and therefore half as heavy. You don’t really need a lot of friction; just the fact that it’s dragging along the track will do the trick. If you try something like these ideas, report back here. I’d love to hear the results!
Another great video as usual.
Was thinking that you could make a “jig” out of a scrap piece of wood/masonite with 2 holes to use when you drill the holes in the underside of the cars – that way all of the “nail hole” spacing will be the same on every car
Artie
Always a pleasure to watch your tips.