Bachmann Coal Hopper - turned into track cleaner car

[Rayman4449]

One thing I did early on was to make one car per train consist a track cleaner. Even though I was using Stainless Steel rail I felt it was a good idea to have at least some sort of cleaning action to keep any sort of buildup off the top of the rail to keep engine and rolling stock wheels as clean as possible.

My goals were to use an existing car and to keep the visual impact to a minimum.

I started with one Bachmann coal hopper and made plans to fabricate a bridge on one truck to attach the track cleaner pads:

I chose to use a corrugated strip of metal to attach the cleaner pads to:

I ground out areas so the flanges would not touch the metal mount and wrapped it with electrical tape.

I then used 3M outdoor adhesive along with cut to size finishing pads to the truck and hotglued lead weights in the car to weigh it down:

End result is a very effective track cleaning car for almost no cost. I periodically have to replace the pads and a layer of adhesive tape but that's it. The rails stay nice and polished but don't experience any appreciable abrasion or wear.

More photos on this writeup: http://www.rayman444...per_cleaner.htm

Raymond

[Ed Headington]

That is a pretty neat solution, Raymond!!!!

Ed

[Rayman4449]

Thanks Ed

Raymond

[Cliff]

I am glad you posted this on here, Ray. I think I will do this to the caboose for my R.E.K. train. I found that the Drivers on the Annie were pretty dirty and was causing pick-up problems on my indoor layout. It will also help with it running at Gladfest. I will also pick a car from my other consists and do it to one of them

 

 

Thanks Ray