Roco track cleaning wagon

[47137]

Someone gave this to me:

 

The cleaning pad was filthy, so I tried cleaning it with meths whereupon it disintegrated. So - I ordered up a replacement pad and this is now in place on the model.

 

The pad has tiny shiny flecks in it, as if of something metallic. I'm wondering, is it supposed to be used dry or with some kind of lubricant? Though clearly, not meths. The main reason for me to run this is to clean the track in a tunnel, and also perhaps before a daily running session. I usually use a rag with meths or IPA to clean the rails.

 

- Richard.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Those Roco track cleaning wagons are among the best I have come across over  the years. But it is just basically a big abrasive track rubber mounted below a very heavy wagon. No use putting any fluid on the pad.

 

You need a fairly chunky loco to propel it, pref a diesel/electric model with at least 4 axle drive and plenty of weight.

[47137]

Those Roco track cleaning wagons are among the best I have come across over  the years. But it is just basically a big abrasive track rubber mounted below a very heavy wagon. No use putting any fluid on the pad.

 

You need a fairly chunky loco to propel it, pref a diesel/electric model with at least 4 axle drive and plenty of weight.

 

Yes it is hard to write "smiling" but I have read a dire warning about always putting this next to the engine, not at the back of a train for fear of breaking couplers. I'll give it a test run with the Di8 or the class 66.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

Well they say "guilt is good" but all the same I won't be posting a photo of the pad after its first run up and down the length of my layout. It does seem to removing the grime.

 

On a 1:20 gradient, the Di-8 just about manages the wagon, but the Mehano class 66 just spins its wheels. Both have central motors, traction tyres and drive to four axles, and can pull many coaches on the same track. The wagon has got to be good for areas difficult to reach like under overhead wires and bridges. It is more effective than I had expected.

 

- Richard.

[naugytrax]

When the pad on my ROCO-CLEAN gets dirty, I clean it with IPA. No signs of disintegration yet!

But like all flat pad cleaners, it only does the top surface of the rails and doesn't shift much muck from the top "inside corner" of the rails, which is where the wheels (if properly profiled) actually make contact - physical and electrical. To clean this area I use the little whitemetal cleaner wagon kit from Wills which drags upright cigarette filters, moistened with IPA, along the top and shoulders of the rails. It finishes the job nicely.

[47137]

My goodness - I can remember reading about a wagon using filter tips donkey's years ago, I think it was reviewed in the Railway Modeller in the late 1970s. I will keep a look out for it.

 

- Richard.

[Alan Kettlewell]

I made up this cleaning train for my HO layout. It's a Roco plus a Dapol cleaning wagon which I painted to match the two Piko diesels produced in Banhbau Gruppe livery so it looks like a maintenance train (which it is). These wagons do need a bit of oomph to pull them hence the two locos. I like it because it can travel in either direction and so can reverse when it gets to the end of a line, also depending on what I want to do.

 

If I use cleaning agent in the Dapol unit then I put that to the front so the pad behind dries then the Roco polishes. All up it may be a bit over the top on some layouts but I'll have catenary everywhere eventually and I have storage loops and helices inside mountains, so this way I can automate the process. I run this around on special cleaning days - it works a treat.

 

 

 

Cheers ... Alan

[47137]

I have taken mine to pieces to repaint it, the chassis would easily take a body for British outline as long as you accept the platform at one end:

 

Yellow again, but I am much happier with this than the orange:

 

No transfers yet, but I might try some of those "graffiti" ones.

 

This wagon really needs top and tailing or double-heading if you have significant gradients, but it does work.

 

- Richard.

 

 

 

[FSB]

Have three of these wagons. Only satisfactory product I have come across but does need a heavy diesel to pull round. I have Bachmann 37 and 47 locos kept just for this both with sound which enables me to get diesel noise on my essentially steam layout. My steam locos will not pull these wagons. Have successfully cleaned the pads with ipa on a cotton bud. Have regular cleaning sessions using both locos while the third wagon is being cleaned. FSB