I have just had an opportunity to test a new type of rail cleaning car, Centerline Products' "limited slip" roller type cleaner. Centerline president Dick Webster loaned me one of the ten cars produced as pilot models. The cars will not be available in any quantity until April 1st, but Dick assures me that, if anything, the production run will be nicer than the test batch.

The Centerline Products rail cleaner uses a weighted, absorbent roller that has been saturated with track cleaning fluid. This free-floating roller is guided along the track by the open frame rail cleaner car. The roller appears to roll freely, but because it is pressed against the rear edge of the framework it actually slides along the rails to a certain amount, providing the "limited slip" feature. If the roller pad encounters a high switch point or rail joint, it simply rolls over it and then goes back to limited slip mode. Because of this feature, it is not only highly resistant to derailments that seem to plague sliding-pad type rail cleaners, but also requires less power to move.

Centerline has sold HO and N scale versions of this car for over a year, and the principle is well-tested. A check with a local hobby shop that stocks the HO and N versions indicated that customers were satisfied with their rail cleaning cars.

In testing, I discovered several unadvertised features of the Centerline Rail Cleaner. First, it will negotiate the 24"-radius curves of the Atlas sectional track (the Hi-Rail version will run on O-27 trackage). I suspect it will take a much tighter curve, but none of my friends had curves tighter than 24".

Second, the car will operate in a bi-directional mode; you can clean stub-end sidings by pushing it into the siding and pulling it out. This will clean all but the last four inches of the siding.

Third, by removing the roller end cap you can add or subtract weight. A heavier weight cut through the track dirt easier, but it also increased the load dramatically; a lighter weight would be easier to pull but might not clean the tracks as well. The idea is to load the roller with as much weight as your locomotive can handle on your stiffest grade, but not to load it with more than 75% of it's volume filled. When we filled the roller with extra weight it actually performed worse than when filled to about 3/4 full. The out-of-balance tumbling action seems to help.

The car body is a one-piece silicon-bronze lost wax casting. In shape, it is mostly utilitarian with two bolsters for the trucks and couplers and a square "well" that guides the free-floating roller. The trucks and couplers are standard Weaver O Scale parts. The roller is cut from a 3" Shur-Line paint roller that you fill with BB pellets or pennies and cap with the provided caps. The carbody casting had been polished to the point you're almost afraid to touch it.

The car comes complete with trucks and couplers (the Hi-Rail version uses Weaver's Lionel-compatible trucks and working couplers), and can be assembled in about five minutes (the Hi-Rail version is delivered ready-to-run). Six roller covers are provided with the car, and these can be washed in your automatic washer.

Does it work? My O Scale (2-rail) sample showed dirt marks on the roller after just one pass on a rather small layout. After two passes, the locomotive pushing the rail cleaner ran noticeably smoother.

48/ft., OSN Hi-Rail editor Dave Evangelisti tested the O Gauge (3-rail) version and found that not only did the track car clean the rails, but that the wheels of the cars pulled in the train with the rail cleaner were also cleaned. Thus frequent use of the rail cleaner will also keep your wheels clean. The rail cleaner had no problems on 3-rail sectional track or Gar-Graves flex track.

Centerline states that you can use almost any solvent that will not melt your plastic ties, but that you should read warning labels carefully to watch out for flammability, toxicity on contact or fumes. A safe bet would be to use a commercially-available track cleaner like that offered by Lifelike Products at your local hobby shop. People using tin-plate or steel track are advised to avoid water-based solutions. On his Hi-Rail layout, Dave used mineral spirits. DO NOT USE fluids that give off toxic fumes; read the labels before you use any solvent.

Do you need the rail cleaner? Well, some years ago I had a cast bronze diesel that weighed almost twelve pounds. On rusty steel rail that engine still found its connection. The new engines are much lighter and the nickel-silver rails seem to oxidize with a nearly invisible, but insulating, coating, so this track cleaner seems to fit the bill. Clean track reduces the wheel-destroying arcing (sparks) caused by dirty track.

Although the Centerline Rail Cleaning car looks like nothing on prototype rails, I suppose it could be disguised as a small freight car, or perhaps as a caboose; although I think you'll want to be careful of the extra weight and drag. The O Scale version weighs 15 ounces without the extra roller weights that you will add (the O gauge version weighs 17 ounces without weights).

Is it worth the money? I think so; not only does the car work as advertised, but it is extremely well-built and with occasional replacement of trucks, couplers, and rollers, it should last a lifetime. -- H.H. Gregg

Note: This review was made with a pre-production sample. The O Scale and O Gauge (2-rail and 3-rail respectively) track cleaners will be available at dealers or by mail about April 1, 1993.