Tom,
“Filler” and “Boilerplate” are technical terms 
. Unlike some others I prefer to keep it “technical”, I also drink “Feeling calm” tea — ingredients: Camomile flowers, Spearmint leaves, Passion flowers, Orange peel, Lemon balm leaves, Linden flowers, Orange flowers, Natural flavours and Lavender flowers … a wonderful brew — and leave the ballistic state to others. My blood pressure is perfectly normal and I like it that way.
Hans
Try putting some of that herbal mixture on your track , it might clean it .
Or dissolve it .
Mike
Gee…
I am still glad I went with stainless track. A quick wipe with a damp rag is all I usually need. For the tougher stuff I use the sanding screen. One spring we had a light rain, more like a mist, and the next day I took my new Heisler out and ran her, without even bothering to clean the winter crud off the track. The rain had done it for me.
As for brass, sanding the oxide off the track works, and that’s what the cleaning locomotive does. Or a good brass cleaner would clean the oxide off too. I have used vinegar with a little salt in it to clean brass and copper items quite effectively. But it would be kind of a pain to get down on your hands and knees to polish track outside.
David, I want you to try a Swiffer with wet pads, it’s like wiping the rails with 409 or Fantastik… most stuff on your rails is organic and this seems to get pretty much everything, and it’s so easy to run the swiffer around the rails, fits them perfectly… be sure to try the wet pads…
I don’t have baked on tree sap though, which might not come off if it has been there for a while.
Greg
David,
With dinky engines like that - not much weight - first you make sure that the sliders move freely, second you replace the standard springs with weaker ones, third you reshape the slider to have less contact surface and polish it to a perfect finish. That should solve the problem and still give you the extra contacts.
dupe
This might apply to where this topic has gone.
October 31, 2014 5:01:22 AM PDT
In the last several weeks, there have been a giant number of off-topic posts in various threads, usually derailing them completely. Lets try and keep that to a minimum, shall we?
Bob, your Site Host and Benevolent Dictator.
Mark you don’t need one of those fancy expensive LGB track cleaning rigs. They are really neat but save your money. I have about 550’ of brass track and don’t have too many problems except for a few weeks in the Spring when the trees are dropping pollen and sap. I also have a 15’ long tunnel with 2 hatches and that is seldom a problem except now. Squirrels have taken ot getting in and storing acorns.
The rest of the year I use a scotchbrite pad on a pole sander and make a overall pass maybe once a month or after a storm. I also do touch ups here and there if the engine acts spotty on a section.
I find the greater problem is the junk that collects on the wheels of the loco. Having clean pickup wheels is just as important as clean track.
Any time of the year the first run of the day is with the wedge plow or blower car to clear any leaves, twigs etc… and a Aristo track cleaner caboose. Don’t forget to clean the block under the caboose.
I use rubbing alcohol.
This Summer I started changing out plastic wheels on my rolling stock to metal ones and I have noticed an improvement in less track cleaning. The plastic wheels leave a slight residue that can build up over time.
Save your money on that track cleaner loco.
Happy RRing
Todd Haskins said:
Mark you don’t need one of those fancy expensive LGB track cleaning rigs. They are really neat but save your money. I have about 550’ of brass track and don’t have too many problems except for a few weeks in the Spring when the trees are dropping pollen and sap. I also have a 15’ long tunnel with 2 hatches and that is seldom a problem except now. Squirrels have taken ot getting in and storing acorns.
The rest of the year I use a scotchbrite pad on a pole sander and make a overall pass maybe once a month or after a storm. I also do touch ups here and there if the engine acts spotty on a section.
I find the greater problem is the junk that collects on the wheels of the loco. Having clean pickup wheels is just as important as clean track.Any time of the year the first run of the day is with the wedge plow or blower car to clear any leaves, twigs etc… and a Aristo track cleaner caboose. Don’t forget to clean the block under the caboose. Y
I use rubbing alcohol.
This Summer I started changing out plastic wheels on my rolling stock to metal ones and I have noticed an improvement in less track cleaning. The plastic wheels leave a slight residue that can build up over time.
Save your money on that track cleaner loco.
Happy RRing
Todd, have you considered putting doors on the entrances to the tunnel to keep the critters out?
Yep I agree, the drywall sander is quick, the lgb loco is fun. i was able to get mine for song and a dance from ambrosebauer auctions
Just a note, the OP asked the difference between the DCC and non-DCC versions of the loco. Clearly that question was answered.
Now it seems to be the best way to clean track, although I submit there is “cleaning” like dirt, twigs, tree sap, etc" and there is “removing oxide” from brass rail when used for track power.
Some of the techniques can do a fair job on both, I use a sweeper car for cleaning/clearing, and a swiffer for removing oxide (really no oxide, removing the black greasy stuff).
The interesting point of “needing the LGB loco vs. using something else” needs to also take into account if the priorities are less personal effort, cost is or not is an issue, etc.
In my brief round with brass, I can say that the cost of the LGB loco was preferable to the manual labor of running around sanding the track.
BUT, everyone has different personal priorities, and sometimes it’s hard not to put YOUR priorities on everyone else.
Greg
Mark Demyan said:
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Mark Demyan said:
Can anyone explain the difference in operation between the LGB 20670 and 21670. I know the difference in price is 2x.
I have seen a 20670 in operation and thought it did a great job.
21670 Orange is DCC decoder equipped and can be run on DCC or DC,
20670 Yellow used to come without a decoder
http://www.gbdb.info/categories.php?cat_id=299&sessionid=899761feeee281922fa838586042d499&l=english
As far as operation is concerned: same cleaning function.
Price differences between dealers are substantial.
Thanks Hans, that makes sense to me and completely answers my question.
I have a little over 200’ of ground laid track with 8’ of it in a tunnel. At the moment I am using a drywall sanding pole I bought at Home Depot and it works fine. I am concerned in the future when I am not running it every week and the build up on the track is such that it takes 2 or 3 times longer to clean the track and I can’t reach most of the center section of the tunnel with the pole.
I am running DCC but since I would be running this by it’s self to clean the track before putting any of the trains on I can make a switch that will transfer track power from the DCC Controller directly to the power supply to operate the cleaning engine. The ~$400 for the basic unit is already a lot so I don’t see why I need to pay an additional ~$400 on top of the base unit for something I don’t really need.
Looking ahead as I age I will want things to be simpler including cleaning the track. Knowing that eventually I will be buying one of these track cleaning engines I decided why go for several years the hard way to only end up one so just buy it now and use it. I looked through several websites and auctions to get a good understanding of where the prices are for both models. I found a 21670 that was just over the pricing of a 20670 and bought it. I really would have been fine with a 20670 but the price difference made it a no-brainer.
I do have doors on the entrances to the tunnel to keep the critters out when the train is not in operation.
STRANGE that there is not a Monitor or access for the thread owner to remove irreverent posts. I would think this would eliminate these threads from derailing as this one did.
Mark, the forum owner just posted on EXACTLY this and it’s a sticky, take a look.
There is also a new post on the website forum too.
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
David, I want you to try a Swiffer with wet pads, it’s like wiping the rails with 409 or Fantastik… most stuff on your rails is organic and this seems to get pretty much everything, and it’s so easy to run the swiffer around the rails, fits them perfectly… be sure to try the wet pads…
I don’t have baked on tree sap though, which might not come off if it has been there for a while.
Greg
Greg, I will keep that in mind, for when my supply of free towels runs out. My last job supplied me with them to clean copiers, and being a pack-rat, I laid in a good supply. when I was laid off, I kept that supply. I am cheap person, so I will use what’s free until its gone.
As for cleaning brass track, I don’t have any recent experience with that. But isn’t it true that a really good cleaning, like with the lGB locomotive, only needs to be done periodically? Shouldn’t normal (daily or weekly) cleaning be more gentle then using abrasive pads?
I am just asking, since I don’t know. But I would think that all that aggressive, abrasive cleaning would eventually wear down the rails, or at least change their profiles.
The Nov/Dec GR has a comment from a reader about these locomotives being used on nickel plated brass track, and possibly causing the plating to wear. Anyone have experience in regards to this? Wondering if this is true, or merely speculation on the part of the manufacturer/distributor of Nickel plated brass.
Craig Townsend said:
The Nov/Dec GR has a comment from a reader about these locomotives being used on nickel plated brass track, and possibly causing the plating to wear. Anyone have experience in regards to this? Wondering if this is true, or merely speculation on the part of the manufacturer/distributor of Nickel plated brass.
Craig,
It depends on whose nickel plating it is (comment based on many, many posts in EU fora).
John M. brought his and ran it on my layout before the open house.
Those tracks hadn’t had a good cleaning in 10 years and it did a great job.
And it was great fun with the flashing lights.
I have BOTH battery and track power but I was good and didn’t chase it with the Shay.
Even though I only have 10 amps on a big layout it had plenty of power. Since it runs very slow I doubt it draws very many amps.
It actually draws a goodly number of amps, it’s just that the loco runs slow, and more slowly “fighting” the spinning motor.
Voltage and current work together to get watts. If you can put a higher voltage on the tracks, then it won’t draw too much current.
The key is to get enough voltage so the front end does not grab and then slip, the bouncing helps create the “zebra stripes”, as well as a poorly maintained unit, where the cleaning disks have gotten out of round. Also, many that I have “fixed” had one or more of the “flanges” gone, which allowed the cleaning wheels to not line up properly with the rails.
Properly maintained, they work over a fair range of voltages, the range gets narrower when not maintained.
Clearly, you ran one in good condition… tell me, did it use $25 worth of cleaning disks for that single run? Was the owner upset about this?
I’ll have to ask John if he looked!
No, we did not use $25 dollars worth of cleaning wheels! The track cleaning locomotive is very entertaining.
Once I learned how to adjust the speed control it works like a champ.