I've Been Cleaning Dirty Track

I was noticing a little trouble with one of my engines here hesitating a little bit in a couple of places on the railroad.  So, time to clean some wheels and then to break out the track cleaner car.  It's been a few weeks since the last time I did this.

Wheels first, I tear off a piece of paper towel, lay it on the track and dampen it with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and run the locomotive wheels over it in both directions.

There's the paper towel afterward with the marks from the wheels carbon tracks easily visible

Next up is my all-brass CMX Track Cleaner car that I've had for several years now.  I'm not sure now what I paid for this car, but I know it was well over 100 USD, and I'm quite sure the prices have gone up since.My CMX track cleaning car along with a roll of the cleaning pad

Just have to cut off a piece of the cleaning pad, and clamp it beneath the cleaning car.  Load some of the alcohol into the tank car and let a slow drip of the alcohol moisten the cleaning pad.

Of course it's a simple thing to run the CMX car a a few laps around the layout behind an engine 

There's my CMX car coming around the curve behind 5931

So, I actually went through the procedure a couple of times that night, and here's how the cleaning pad s look afterward

So, the results are in, and yes, the rails were indeed dirty.

I got the CMX car and get the roll of cleaning pad from Tony's Trains Exchange in Essex Junction, Vermont.  Here's a link to the website in case you're interested:  https://tonystrains.com/

In case you've missed it, Athearn has announced their new CarKnocker Line of freight car models.  Looks like it kicks off with RailGon and CSX gondola models that feature a swayed back, some with faded lettering,  as well as a pair of data only models. They're looking for pre-orders, so who knows when the cars might actually become available.  

Here's the link to the Athearn video announcing their new "Carknocker" line of models: Athearn CarKnocker Line   Be advised that the video is pretty boring narration only until the 1:14 mark when they show images of those various gondola models.

And sending thoughts and best wishes out to our friend Peter.