Greg Elmassian said:
First I’m not playing with you on the track cleaning loco, or your $25 estimate to clean the track, clearly you were referring to the track cleaning loco, and using $25 worth of it’s consumables. You were using it wrong, or had track with the surface of sandpaper (which appears possible now)
Yes I watered my track, and how do you have ANY concept of what I do? So in 15 years you watered your track 750 times… which is 500 times in 10 years… well for your information for the last 10 years, it has been watered EVERY day 3 separate times for 10 minutes… that calculates to 93653 which is WAY more than you have. (9,855 times)
No, I did not do something foolish like use ferrous ballast, pour concrete on it, nor do I let my track get overgrown… are you bragging about this? I’d be embarrassed to make such mistakes.
Your vehemence for attacking me is so strong you expose all your poor plans, techniques and behavior? It’s almost unbelievable.
And I do believe I could do this all to my stainless track and still use a swiffer, but it won’t matter to you, unfortunately.
So, to the point of the thread, all your hammering on how bad the LGB loco is, is based on you trying to use it on your messed up track, and only now revealing to others how bad your track is… and you are impuning the poor LGB loco. This is supposed to be a forum to help and share information… how about the poor people who have “normal” track and wanted an opinion?
I hate fighting you this way, but I’d rather get in a fight than have skewed information presented as the “norm” to the rest of the community and especially newcomers.
Greg
Todd Brody said:
“Wheel” being a pair. And Steve is correct in that there is a difference between $25 to clean the track and $35 for a PAIR of wheels.
Also, I contend Greg, that you never had to endure the foibles of a TRUE garden railroad and what happens to the track over time.
First off Greg, did you water your 15 year old track 750 times for ~10 minutes at a time, making sure that some of it sits under the water for at least half an hour each time, and that the water has a very high mineral content, before you tried to clean it for your first open house of the season?
Next, did you bury your track in a combination of ferrous ballast (that rusts) and alkali soil up to the railhead?
Did you ensure that some of your track sits in wet soil/ballast up to the railhead in the shade 24/7/365?
Also, did you place alkali “Holy River Rock” adjacent to the track so it can leach alkali over your tracks on a continual basis? (Does a HELLofaNUMBER on brass.)
Did your vegetation grow out and intertwine with and cover the rails up until you are ready to clean them?
Once you done all of these things for 600 feet of brass, try to run an LGB track cleaner and get by with less than a set of wheels and report back.
And to be honest, I’m betting that if you do this to your stainless track, you won’t just pass a Swiffer around on a pole and have your trains run as if the track were in new, clean condition.
It’s $25 in consumables, (i.e., disks), not counting anything else.
As an Engineer, I would think you could do simple math. I said that I water the track 3 times a day, so 750 times is 250 days, or the span from my last open house of the prior year, until the first of the next year. In all, its been watered well over 18,500 times. That’s why I said to water it 750 times then run a track cleaner engine.
Not bragging about anything. Just stating that this happens and that this type ballast is the most prevalent in this area. What did you use? Pass a magnet though it and see if any particles stick to determine if its ferrous.
As for concrete? Anyone who’s done lots of work next to track has probably gotten some on the track to some extent at one time or another. And many people concrete along side their track and it still leaches. And how timely, my Garden Railways magazine just arrived and specifically talks of concrete and concrete block leaching alkali.
Holy River Rock? A favorite of Jack Verducci and highly touted for use on garden railways.
Foliage along the railway? What a concept and another common practice. But probably not of concern to you.
And again you missed the point. I specifically said that for cleaning the LGB is the best thing out there. Did you miss that???
It’s just too damn expensive to operate for what it does and goes though disks too quickly whereas you inferred that its perfect for every situation and if it is not, it must be that the person using it has it adjusted incorrectly.
