If you're sick and tired of your motors stuttering, getting a cmx track cleaning car may be the greatest investment you ever alllow for your design. I recall spending hours having a Bright Child abrasive block, scrubbing away until our arms were painful, learn that the locomotives still flickered and stalled upon the back turnouts. It's the age-old struggle of this pastime: we want in order to run trains, not spend all the spare time playing janitor to a couple of hundred ft of nickel silver rail.
I finally decided in order to see if the particular hype was real. People in the forums talk regarding the CMX car like it's some kind of holy grail of upkeep. After utilizing it for a while today, I get it. It isn't simply a piece associated with rolling stock; it's a heavy-duty device that truly solves the problem instead of just shifting dirt around.
Built Just like a Metal Tank
The first thing you notice if you consider a cmx track cleaning car out of the box could be the fat. This isn't your own typical plastic freight car. It's produced of solid brass, and it feels like it. In the world associated with track cleaning, weight is your closest friend. You need that downward pressure to ensure the cleaning pad actually makes contact with the railhead, especially if you have parts of track that aren't perfectly level.
It's essentially the pressurized tank found on vehicles. The design is usually utilitarian and commercial, which I actually very like. It appears like it belongs in a maintenance-of-way consist. But the particular beauty is really within the mechanics. There's a needle device on top that will controls the circulation of the cleaning solvent, along with a skid dish underneath where a person wrap your cleaning cloth. It's simple, effective, and constructed to last more than I possibly will.
The Science of the Drip
One of the greatest difficulties with other cleaning cars is that they either dry up too fast or even they soak the track so much that your engines lose traction. The cmx track cleaning car uses a gravity-fed drip system controlled by that will needle valve I actually mentioned. You fill up the tank together with your solvent of choice—a lot of men recommend ACT 6000, but high-percentage isopropyl alcohol or even Denatured Alcohol functions too—and then you "dial in" the circulation.
You don't want a flood; you just desire enough to maintain the pad wet. As the car moves, the solvent breaks down the "black gunk" (that lovely mix of dust, oxidation, plus oil) and the cloth pad wicks this away. Because the car is so heavy, it's also doing a bit of mechanical scrubbing at the same time. It's a "wet-to-dry" process in case you run a dry pad on a car at the rear of it, which is usually the gold standard for getting rails really clean.
Getting It Moving
I'll be honest with you: you're going to require some serious pulling power. Since the cmx track cleaning car is heavy and the sleeping pad creates a reasonable amount of friction (drag) for the rails, a small switcher isn't going to cut it. I usually pair mine with a heavy six-axle diesel or even a consist of two train locomotives if I'm operating it on the steep grade.
It's actually a good test intended for your locomotives. When an engine can't pull the CMX car, it most likely needs a bit more weight or better tires anyhow. When you discover that car gliding along, leaving the faint, evaporating trek of solvent at the rear of it, you know it's working on the project you used to perform by hand.
Why Manual Cleaning Fails
We've all been there—using a cloth plus some fluid in order to wipe down the particular easy-to-reach spots. Yet what about the particular tunnels? What regarding that massive link in the corner that you can barely reach with out knocking more than a landscapes tree? That's exactly where the cmx track cleaning car really earns the keep.
Manual cleaning can also be inconsistent. You may press harder in one spot plus lighter in one more. The CMX car provides uniform pressure across every inches of your mainline. Plus, abrasive pads can actually depart micro-scratches in the particular rail. Those small scratches are like little valleys where dust and carbon buildup love to conceal, meaning your track actually gets dirty quicker the more you scrub this with abrasives. A solvent-based approach with a soft pad will keep the metal soft and conductive.
Choosing the Perfect Pads
Here's a little professional tip I learned the hard way: you don't have got to buy costly pre-cut pads forever. While the ones that come along with the car are usually great, many enthusiasts (myself included) simply use heavy-duty paper towels or pieces of old corduroy.
I've found that high-quality, lint-free shop towels work wonders. You just cut them into pieces, wrap them around the skid plate, and secure them. When the sleeping pad gets black—and it can obtain black, even in the event that you think your track is clean—you just rotate it to a new spot or change it out. It's incredibly satisfying in order to pull the car off the track after a few laps and discover two thick dark lines on the material. It's gross, yet it's proof that the system will be working.
Will be It Worth the Price Tag?
Let's address the elephant in the room. A cmx track cleaning car isn't specifically cheap. You can buy a couple associated with nice high-end shipping cars or actually a budget locomotive for the exact same price. I hesitated for a lengthy time due to that will.
Yet then I believed about the frustration of a train ending in a hard-to-reach spot during a good operating session along with friends. I believed regarding the flickering LEDs that ruin the realism of a night run. When you factor within the time you save and the sheer dependability it brings to your layout, the cost starts to seem a lot more reasonable. It's a "buy as soon as, cry once" type of tool. Once you have it, you'll never need one more solution.
Maintenance and Care
Since the car handles solvents, you do need to deal with it with a little bit of respect. You shouldn't leave solvent sitting in the tank for years on finish, as it may eventually affect the particular seals, though they will are pretty sturdy. I usually vacant mine back directly into the bottle in case I know I won't be using it for the few weeks.
Also, make sure the needle valve is closed tight whenever you're done. I actually forgot once, and I came back the next morning to a very clear, but very vacant, tank and the very smelly cellar. Lesson learned.
Conclusions on the particular CMX
If you're serious about the particular hobby, especially if you're running DCC (Digital Command Control), clear track is non-negotiable. DCC is way more sensitive in order to tiny interruptions in power than the old DC techniques were. A small speck of grime can cause an audio decoder to reset, which is enough to drive anyone insane.
The cmx track cleaning car is the particular most effective way I've found to help keep things running effortlessly without making it a chore. It's rugged, it's weighty, plus it actually functions. It might not be the flashiest bit of rolling stock in your collection, but it'll probably be the particular one you're nearly all thankful for when your trains are gliding around the room without a single hiccup. Honestly, I can't imagine going back to the older way of carrying out things. It's simply one of these tools that makes the hobby even more about the "fun stuff" and much less about the "work stuff. "