[Accrs-ho] ACCRS HO - new cleaning train

[Wayne Toigo]

ACCRS HO Members,

The creation of our new HO Cleaning Train has been completed and is now in operation!

The train is composed of three (3), club-owned, orange Sierra Western locomotives, and ten (10) of the new Walthers cleaning pad cars in various road names. Kadee 148 couplers have been installed in all new cleaning cars, replacing the plastic Walthers couplers.

The gearbox on each locomotive has been thoroughly cleaned and lubricated. These locomotives appear to be Proto-2000 models, which are quite old now. The locomotives appear to be running fine for now, though a couple are a bit noisy. We can use them for now and see if their reliability holds up.

The Cleaning Train locomotives are equipped for DCC and currently have addresses 7190, 7191, and 7192. The DCC address are labeled on the bottom of each locomotive and also on a very small decal on top of each one. There was a suggestion to set the DCC address the same each locomotive, for easier throttle assignment. That seems like a good idea, so I'll let you know when I've relabeled and readdressed them.

The pad cars are easily cleaned with alcohol and a "blue towel". It's strongly recommended that each pad car be cleaned after one or two full loops of the layout. You can't continually run the pad cars without cleaning them, otherwise they're just spreading the gunk back on the rails.

The Cleaning Train is intended to be run only before shows. It is not intended to be run for regular Friday sessions or other non-show activity. If the train holds up and seems to be performing well, we may relax this. But for now, the Cleaning Train is only to be run before shows.

The ideal use is for a show's morning shift personnel to run the Cleaning Train the first thing before any other member trains. Run a couple loops on the Freight Main, then clean all 10 of the pad cars. You may also have to clean the locomotive wheels. Then, run a couple loops on the Passenger Main and clean all 10 pads again. This may sound like a lot of work, but it really doesn't take that long. You will see quickly that our layout will perform much better throughout the session.

You may have to run the Cleaning Train again, either between shifts or sooner if necessary. This is fine; just mix it in with other operating trains.

The intent is for the new Cleaning Train to remain intact, with all locomotives and all cleaning cars always staying together in one consist. The individual cleaning cars are not to be separated and used by individual members for their own trains. Members must still provide their own cleaning cars for their trains.

The Cleaning Train is currently stored on Track 1 of the Hidden Yard. That should be its "home" when not in use. It took some rearranging of the club cars in the Hidden Yard to free up Track 1. Currently there are only a few free tracks for member setup, so we should reevaluate what club cars are stored in Hidden Yard.

Let me know if you have any questions or if I may provide any additional information.

-Wayne Toigo
ACCRS HO Assistant Trainmaster

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