Subject:
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Re: First Third Party product for the LEGO(r) Trains market?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 28 Apr 2003 18:04:29 GMT
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Viewed:
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2230 times
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Zonker still can't post but is reading the thread with interest... he sent
me this (reproduced in it's entiriety) and asked me to post it.
________________________
As a follow-up to my first posting (and hoping to answer a few questions
raised by other posters), here is some more information on the topic.
L-GAUGE AS A STANDARD: While the NMRA is still considering making L-Gauge
a recognized standard, I'm thrilled that Centerline Products has made an
L-Gauge product available. They are a recognized leader in the track
cleaning car area, hopefully, this may lead to other manufacturers
recognizing the needs of the LEGO train building community.
CLEANING FLUIDS: The Centerline folks have been working with rail
cleaning products for many years, and they've done a fair amount of research
into how tracks and wheels get dirty, and also how various cleaning products
stand up to the test of time. (That's why I approached Centerline for this
project.) For example, the soap and water routing can leave water that may
start rust and corrosion...on LEGO track, it could wick under the railhead,
and at the junctions. Electrical conductivity of the cleaning fluid is also
a concern, since the car is usually pulled by a motor getting its power from
the tracks. More info is available at their website at
http://www.centerline-products.com/cleaning.htm. They also include some good
printed material with the cleaning cars.
My older, brass and bronze HO scale track used to need frequent cleaning.
I'd use fine steel wool, but that would snag on track junctions, and switch
track points, and you could never do that with the power connected! Things
have changed, for the better, in my opinion!
ABOUT THE COST: The time to clean just the main tracks on our display
layouts is more than 30 minutes, and then we have the sidings and yards. But
besides the time, there is the effort involved. If you take 30 minutes, but
don't make an effort to remove the gunk, it's 30 minutes wasted. Either
someone else needs to spend another 30 minutes, or the trains will run worse
than they could have.
Now, multiply that time and effort by the number of shows in a year, and
also include the number of times you set up the layout at a meeting for
practice...you should be cleaning the tracks any time you take them out of
storage, and any time they've been handled to assemble the layouts. As the
guy that usually cleans our tracks, TRUST ME, it will pay for itself!
I think that every club that puts on public displays should have one of
these. (I have enough track that I wanted one for myself.) When BayLUG gets
one, bought with club funds from past show prize monies, I'll still bring
mine to the shows, and we'll get more cleaning done in that same amount of
time. But I'm sure that some folks with fewer trains and less track may find
the price too high for their tastes.
I suppose you could try to build something similar with LEGO parts (train
weight bricks and etc.), but then you'll want a case to put it in, since
it'll still have the cleaner on the rollers. You get all of this when you
buy one of these track cleaners.
CLEANING THE TOP VERSUS THE SIDE OF THE RAIL: The cleaning pad is mounted
on a cylinder, with plastic end-caps. You add weight to it by adding nickels
or quarters (or fish weights, or whatever) to hold the rolling pad to the
track, but this also means that the cleaning material is also cleaning down
the sides of the railhead.
The cloth is not very abrasive. The cleaning fluid (in my case, Goo Gone,
a citrus-based cleaner) is mainly deposited on the first go-around. The
fluid left on the rails starts to loosen the krufty on the railhead, but it
is also picked up by the wheels of the train behind the cleaning car. The
passing wheels also help loosen the krufty on the rails, as well as the
krufty collected on the wheels of the train. As you let the train make a few
more passes, you start to see more gunk on the cleaning roller. When it's
really dirty, put another roller in it's place, change out the trailing cars
inn the train, and send it around some more.
Given the clearance seen in the photos, it will be hard to get a good
between the tracks' picture showing how low the pad covers, but I'll try to
get something together for the web page.
The difference that a clean track makes is something you see more at low
speeds, such as a slow freight, or starting and stopping at stations. But
sticky wheels on a long freight make it more likely that you'll pull some
couplers apart when trying to start moving the train, because you'll need to
apply more power to get things rolling. With clean tracks, there is less
friction, and smoother application of traction on the motors. You just need
to see the before and after effects.
Thanks,
-Z-
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