Lionel Track Cleaning Car

[3030RICK]

i
I recently purchased a used lionel track cleaning car in great shape but wonder if I have all the cleaning parts. The instructions stste that there is some sort of removeable disc that holds the circular pad in place. On the borrom of the car there is a flat disk that looks about 1 1/2 inches in diameter to which a smaller disk is mounted with two fiber pegs through slots on the larger disk. Is this the removable disk? If so, it is difficult to remove and I have not wanted to break it.
Info would be really appreciated.

Thanks
3030rick

 

[UP2CSX]

Yep, that should be the removable disk. As I remember, the disk is abrasive, like a brite-boy block. You'll have you use a small screwdrive to get in between the smaller larger disk to wiggle it apart. I think it worked by using the abrasive disk covered with a thin piece of cloth moistened with track cleaning solution. I used one of these many years ago and, again, working from memory, it never worked very well. It had too much downward pressure on the tracks and was constantly derailing. It's an interesting conversation piece but don't count on it to really clean any track. There's a good article on track cleaning at http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=a&id=249 which includes plans on how to cheaply convert any car into an effective track cleaning car.