any one made their own cleaning car? I need one and was wondering if there was a way to make your own If you have an idea or have made one I would like to know all about it Thank you JDB
Use an inexpensive boxcar, drill two holes in bottom for two roofing nails to ride up and down in. Epoxy nail heads to masonite pad. Add a little lead weight to top of pad and maybe inside car. you may need to take detail off bottom of car to allow clearance for weight and pad to ride on rails. 6 months ago I used No-ox on my track. The masonite pad car is all the cleaning I have done since.
Hi Jack! I have here a suggestion from a dutch modeler for you. Unfortunately the page is just in dutch or german language but I think the pictures are self-explanatory: Reinigungswaggon, Marke Eigenbau - Das NProject. Bastel-Tipps und Tricks rund um das Thema Modelleisenbahn. Since I use those tiny clips for the axles called "cleaning dwarfs" by NOCH no 60158 I have cut down the thorough track cleaning requirement to twice a year. Regards Mathi
Jack, head over to Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine's website, go to the back-issues section, download the third quarter 2009 issue and go to page 56 (it's a FREE magazine, by the way!). There's a full write-up with instructions and photos in there.
Here's a picture of a couple of slider cars I made many years ago with 1/8" masonite pads. I epoxied roofing nails to the smooth side and be sure to bevel the edges so they don't snag on anything while running. I have several cars and run one in each train. Running more than one in a train may make too much drag. If you go to a lumber yard or cabinet makers shop you may be able to get some scraps for free. I use masonite I found on an old picture frame that had a picture of my sister in law in it. Dumped the picture, kept the frame. It had enough 1/8" masonite to make twenty pads. I also use the masonite from the bottoms of the boxes that the little Clementine oranges come in. I made a few in HO also with 1/4" masonite scraps that I got for free at a lumber yard.
Thank You all!!! great ideas Especially the Mag. I went their great thing I will build a cleaning car Thanks again JDB
I am thinkng of afixing bolts to the masonite. Once they run up thru the holes in the floor...you could thread a number of nuts on each bolt...for weight. The nails just dont seem like they would have enough weight...I could be wrong. My thought is that the pad needs weight to work right...not the whole car weighted. JMO .
Not really. The concept is that the car with the masonite pad runs all the time, knocking a tiny bit of dust off with each loop. This is a different philosophy from the mega-cleaners made of brass, with magnets and vacuum suckers. Remember that the masonite will need to be replaced every so often when it wears out, and cleaned with 91% alcohol when the bottom gets dark (no reason to spread dirt around!) Be on the lookout for people tossing old stereo equipment cabinets. The back is masonite! Vacuum your ballast! :tb-biggrin: Sounds odd, but the dirt on a layout sticks in all those little crevices and blows around as the trains pass...
It'd be fun to make this car a DOD or Area 51 theme by, say, putting a "tarp" over the load and putting a railroad police caboose after it or a coach full of G-men or something like that.
The masonite pads should not be cleaned with any liquid. The masonite pads are porous and will soak up the liquid and delaminate and warp. Masonite is basically pressed cardboard. Masonite is rough on one side, and that side is the one that rubs on the rail to scour off the grime. The nails are glued to the smooth side. I use a 200 or 250 grit sand paper to clean the pads lightly between runnings with several pads available for each car I have made. I have yet to have to remake any pads but i'm getting close with a couple.
