Track cleaner

[bparrish]

In preparation for my regular operators to come back and get a HUGE amount of freight delivered that has been sitting on sidings for nearly a year.......... I had to start some serious track cleaning.

I have been a part of dozens of conversations about track cleaning and methods...... some work and some don't.  I have found that the humidity in your area has a significant part in how effective some ideas really are. 


The humidity here in downtown Idaho today is 34%........ and that is high for this time of year as we had a front of coastal air blow through yesterday that shoved it up.  It will be back down in the 20's by tomorrow and should stay there until about September.

We get a lot of statics here and I had to ground my DCC system with a specific method prescribed by the manufacturer in a direct phone call some years ago.

So with all of that............ I am scratching a motor driven track cleaner that will be shoved or pulled around as regular traffic on trains and just to sweeping up sorts of stuff.  A liquid can be added to this easily.

I am using a felt pad that is available from big box stores that is a stick on that is normally used on chair legs for wood floor protection.  After that............ Its a big motor running through a NWSL gear case.  I tried a direct drive can motor facing down but the friction was too high and would overload the motor in a short time.   I can run this as a separate DCC address and just kick start it and then switch away from it and it will keep running.

So here are some of the early photos of the invention.  I made a small frame to hold the gear case and a primitive floor to hold it all.  The trucks are some traction motor trucks that I had laying around and there are wipers to each wheel so that it tries to see all wheel pickup. It is not self driven..... the motor only drives the rotary scrubber.  A loco can push or pull it around hidden in a scheduled train somewhere as a M O W car.   I am starting on a box car cover for it.

[S&S RR]

Very interesting - looking forward to your report on how it works.

[deemery]

I have a Diesel loco (Atlas RS-1) on my 1890s era layout for 2 functions:  (1) testing track (and James Van Bokkelen made me actually run this around the layout last year), (2) to push a track cleaner car around.   :-) :-)


dave

[ACL1504]

Bob,

Wow, if that doesn't clean the track I 'm not sure what will.

Well done.

Tom 

[GPdemayo]

Neat.....

[bparrish]

John....

I had both the light colored pads and some dark brown pads.  I chose the light so I could see how much I was picking up.  I'll let you know.

For now I'm trying to sort out how fast it needs to turn.   If if it doesn't turn at all it is still scrubbing just by being pushed along.  The rotary idea is to show more pad to the rails and not carve a rut into the pad.

I'm also working out how heavy it needs to be based on my trackwork.

thanx all for looking in.

Bob

[tom.boyd.125]

Bob,
Looks like some paperwork is needed for a future patent pending car...
Maybe the Oak Park street department can use one of these too...
Tommy

[bparrish]

Tom.   


I'm not sure about a patent.   There are so many ways to do this better.  I used random stuff from the parts and junk drawers.


You mentioned Oak Park.  What do you know about that town.  I grew up next to it and lived at the south end in the early 50's.


Thanx for looking in.


Bob

[GPdemayo]

Oak Park, IL used to have a great place that made ice cream right there in the diner called Peterson's. They made the best pistachio ice cream in the U.S. 

[deemery]

"Best pistachio ice cream in the US"  - that's a high bar!

If any of you get to the DC area, check out Pitango Gelato.  Their pistachio is the equal of what we've had in Italy (including a place that came in 2nd in the world-wide gelato competition.)  There's one near the Navy Memorial on the other side of the Mall from the Smithsonian/National Gallery buildings. 

dave

[postalkarl]

Hey Bob:

That's pretty cool and I'll bet it works just great.

Karl

[ReadingBob]

Neat little invention Bob.  I bet it'll do a wonderful job cleaning your track. 

"Best pistachio ice cream in the US"  - that's a high bar!

If any of you get to the DC area, check out Pitango Gelato.  Their pistachio is the equal of what we've had in Italy (including a place that came in 2nd in the world-wide gelato competition.)  There's one near the Navy Memorial on the other side of the Mall from the Smithsonian/National Gallery buildings. 

dave

Instead of pistachio we'll be looking for some Teaberry Ice Cream up in PA this coming week.