How to build a simple track cleaning car – MR contributor Gerry Leone shares instructions for making your own rolling innovation for cleaning the rails of your model railroad! From Gerry’s workbench, you’ll see the tools, materials, and simple techniques needed to shape a railcar and a small patch of Masonite (hardboard) into an unrelenting device for scrubbing layout track clear of dirt and debris.
The thrill from building your own model never gets old! But if you want to get straight to the task the quickest way possible, you can acquire a wide variety of helpful trackwork/track maintenance tools and supplies directly from the kalmbachhobbystore.com
A thought based on my first introduction to this track cleaning method:
Instead of nails, use flat head screws epoxied to the Masonite with a pair of nuts on top for added weight and to prevent the pad from dropping out of the car frame when picked up. And, if you feel that more weight on the Masonite is needed, simply cut a piece of boxcar, etc., weight, drill it out to fit the screw spacing and clamp it between the pair of nuts inside the car.