SOM-1002 HO track cleaner car kit (box car not included)
SHINE-O-MATIC Brand New HO Track Cleaner Car (comes in kit form- Kadee couplers included) (Developed by A-Line) Fits Athearn 40' box car and several other Athearn 40' body styles and other brands of 40' cars (box car not included) Trucks supplied with kit have metal wheels. Kit is supplied with 2' of cleaner strip material, we recommend buying an additional roll to have on hand click: S-O-M #1003
First time ever available on the market from A-Line. Developed and tested on home and large club layouts.
Easy to assemble!
Trouble free operation!
No complicated moving parts!
Most effective way to clean track!
Non abrasive cleaning
Can be used dry or with liquids. We recommend Mineral Spirits for cleaning liquid. This will not damage the block or car floor.
Can be used in conjunction with liquid dispensing tank cars
Can be operated in both directions, pushing or pulling
Cars are optimally weighted so more cars can be run in a train without excessive drag.
We found that during development testing the S-O-M car worked great not only for cleaning mainline track, but for cleaning industrial sidings as well. By using small switcher locomotive and S-O-M car you can move in and out of these areas with ease. And not have to try and clean these areas by hand and end up damaging buildings or scenery. You could even put several of your S-O-M box cars into your OPS sessions and be cleaning the track while switching out industries !
SHINE-O-MATIC - How it all Began
I am a member of the San Diego Model RR Associaton at Balboa Park in San Diego CA. Right across the isle is the La Mesa MRR club, in the same Museum. On a regular basis I visit their club and get a chance to talk with friends there and observe their operation, even partcipate, sometimes. We also talk about what track cleaner equipment to use and what works best and is consistent. La Mesa uses a combination of Brass Tank Car for dispensing liquid cleaner fluid (mineral spirits) and a set of track cleaner cars with brass rollers, with cleaning pad material wrapped around the rollers. As the car is pulled the roller rolls over the track to clean it. The problem is, you can not back the car up or the pad will unroll. After many discussions with Charley(Chief track cleaner person) I found he was hot gluing the pad to keep it from unrolling. This was very time consuming because multiple rollers had to be purchased and pre-glued to have them ready to replace into the cars when they got dirty.
Watching the train run around the layout I thought how rolling over the layout was not actually cleaning and picking up that much dirt. It seemed to me that a cleaning car that slid over the tracks would pickup a lot more dirt. It would also do it faster than one that rolled. The designing began, using a sliding block, not a roller device, was first on the list. I also wanted to have the cleaning car be stealthy, so I made it fit a standard 40’ box car length. It needed to be simple to assemble, operate and maintain. The cost needed to be reasonable and the unit needed to be able to operate wet or dry.
To get back to La Mesa’s problem, I used the roller cars and made a block that fit in the opening. I found strip material that was strong, heavy weight, had good absorbing characteristics and could be used wet or dry. The material I found was white, thus showed the amount of dirt that was being picked up. Because of the block design it gave three surfaces to be used without changing the material. Just rotate the block in the car to a new clean side. You also had the advantage of turning the cleaning strip over and using the other side. Therefore providing six cleaning surfaces before you threw the strip away. The cleaning cars with blocks and the liquid tank cars made up the new Cleaner Train for the La Mesa Club. It has been running ever since with no problems and excellent results.
I continued to refine my design on our new Aline track cleaning car, with much testing on San Diego Model RR Club and my own home layout. The SHINE-O-MATIC mock-ups ran great, with no problems. We got all the components together and packaged the first kits, they were advertised in our monthly PPW-Aline.com E-Blast, immediately orders came in. I took the time to contact our first customers by email to get their feedback, which was extremely positive. The Shine-O-Matc Track Cleaning Car is available in kit form. All the accessories are also available at PPW-Aline.Com, order one and let us know how you like it!
Thanks Joe DElia Jr.
Inventor: Shine-O-Matic Track Cleaner Car
Owner: Aline/Proto Power West/Arrow Hobby/New Rail Mode
La Mesa Model Railroad Club Testimonial:
Over the years we have used several track cleaning systems but none were as effective as the Aline Shine-O-Matic system. This system has allowed us to reduce track cleaning time and cost and is much more reliable than old systems and does a significantly better job at cleaning our railroad. There is no better track cleaning system on the market for home layouts or large super layouts in museums.
Mike,
LaMesa Model Railroad Club Member and San Diego Model Railroad Museum Board Member
We are also working on a 50' box car Shine -O-Matic ! Let us know what you think and would you be interested in one ?
See picture above :
As shown in pictures below, white Cleaning Strip material is wrapped around the Slider Block and taped with masking tape. As the Cleaner Strip gets dirty, just rotate the block to new clean position. When one side of strip is used up, flip strip over and use the other sides. You can buy more Cleaner Strip material click: Cleaner Strip Material
