There’s a new track cleaner on the market – soon to be advertised in Garden Railways. I saw a pre-production announcement in GR and made inquiry as to its success with our outdoor layouts. I was asked if I was interested in testing it on my own garden layout. The company is in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the designer/owner is a mechanical engineer and train enthusiast Bob Leonowicz. I took Bob up on his offer and made clear any my intent was to share with readers of both Large Scale Central and My Large Scale sites any conclusions I reached. He agreed and I have made the following tests on our Southern California layout over a six week period:
PRODUCT:
A four pound, all aluminum “flat car” with Aristo-Craft trucks, supporting two under-carriage foam rollers mounted at an angle to generate friction on the rails and maximize rail contact. The “rollers” are easily available at any home supply as minature paint rollers. These rollers rotate on two adjustable axles – simply push then on as they are held by friction – mounted at parallel angles on the bottom of the one piece aluminum flatbed.
OPERATION:
Each of the rollers receives either applied liquid “Goo Gone” or denatured alcohol and the car is then pushed or drawn around the layout. The angle of rollers and the depth in which they ride over the rails is adjustable.
TEST:
The track was first made shiny by an LGB block attached to a dry-wall sanding pad. Three weeks then passed without any cleaning and no train operation. Then, an LGB 0-6-0 diesel switcher pulling four cars, was run over a section of two hundred feet of track. The loco hesitated in seven places. The track scrubber rollers were given three applications of “Goo Gone” on each roller. The loco then pulled the track scrubber car, hestitating in the same places – since the loco was again hitting the same dirty track spots. After one pass over this loop, the immediate repeated travel showed one hesitating section. After two passes, there were no sections of hesitation. The rollers clearly showed the dirt accumulated.
A purposeful week followed by not running trains lead to a series of two other applications a week a part – single runs with the same loco and the scrubber car after first seeing if there were any glitches. By the second week if no application, one was required. One run was only needed to remedy the two hesitations.
EVALUATON:
The intent of the track scrubber is clearly not to make the rails shiny just clean and it appears, with my Southern California layout to do just that. Granted, there were two instances during this six week period, of a need to again to use a pad to clean the track to a shiny state because of oxidation – which I presumed from the collection of sprinkler water.
I have found the product helpful as no longer do I automatically pole-sander walk the track before running or after seeing where the hesitations are – which seem to accumulate as the run time increases. Instead, once the hestiations, then the car is placed on the track with the other rolling stock and the entire layout is cleaned.
CAUTIONS:
1 - The car does not always pass through turnouts easily if pushed. The LGB motor on one 1600 turnout was enough to hold the curve-out position twice - other times the car wanted to push on through straight ahead with the back truck making the curve. Visually bizzare. Without the switch motor as friction, the turnout will yield to this phenomena.
REMEDY: Draw the car through your layout, the pulling loco. The loco will indicate the hesitations and after use of the scrubber car you can easily assess whether the dry-wall sander or LGB block is needed. If you choose to wait beyond the hesitation stage you will likely be dry-wall treating the track anyway. I simply see the hesitations and then place the scrubber car on the track for a couple of runs.
2 - Don’t use Isoprophyl alcohol a I am told it can soften the ties. If alcohol is your choice use denatured type.
OK, that’s the report.
The company is R&L Lines, Greenbay, Wisconsin
(920) 465-7913
Wendell
