Lionel Flat Car Track Cleaner Addon by CountDeM0net

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Track cleaning cars are expensive for O Gauge. I've seen some for well over $100 and I just don't want to pay that much. I had a beat up Lionel 6-17407 Flatcar that I have been using for a while with a wadded up scotch bright pad screwed into the bottom. I decided it was time to make this more professional looking.
Parts needed:
A cheap flat car or box car to modify with the cleaning pickups
Two m2.5x10 screws. I bought a lot of them a while back here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N8XJVHQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
One round 8-32 inch x 1-1/2 inch machine screw with nut. I get these cheaper at home depot but something like this:https://www.amazon.com/Hillman-Group-7668-Machine-8-32-Inch/dp/B000BQW6AA/ref=sr_1_9?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1487882293&sr=1-9&keywords=8+32+round
Package of scotch bright pads. I get them cheaper locally but here is an example:https://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Brite-Heavy-Industrial-Scouring/dp/B003FYJ83S/ref=sr_1_cc_1_a_it
To install:
Print the parts as oriented in the file
Push the 8-32 screw through the bottom part with the large indention so it sits flush. You may need to drill it out some so the screw slides right through. I had to drill one part but not the other.
Push the top down onto the screw. There are indention's for button head m2.5 screws so they sit flush.
Cut a scotch bright pad to fit. I get 2 cleaners out of 1 pad. It's designed to only require one cut of the pad.
Place the pad inside the opening like you would sand paper in a block and then tighten down the two m2.5 screws till they hold the pad.
Drill an 8-32 hole into the bottom of the car you will be using as your cleaning car and slide the whole thing in and tighten down the nut
Depending on the car height you can add a spacer so that the scrubber is always touching the track. Load up the car with something heavy so that the wheels stay on the track. Ideally the scrubber is compressed some.
In my example I printed 2 of these and stuck them right behind the wheels so I don't take out scenery material as it goes around the track.
It's working really well. I'll add a video once I have fully completed the car.
I have added a container that can be printed for a flatbed that can hide the screws and also hold extra weight. I did not create the container from scratch. It is based off of
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:38392
but heavily modified. It's been resized and scaled up to O Scale size to best fit 2 of these in the flatcar. I have also modified it with a removable top that has a lip so that it locks into the top without glue. This also makes it easier to print with less support needed. I can then glue these open shipping box bottoms to the flat car and still get to the screws so I can change the pads by removing the top. Whole goal is to hide the components so the flatcar looks like any other car on the track.