Martin Cheshire Photographs by the author

MY PREVIOUS LAYOUT, Cheshire Lines, was very extensive and involved numerous tunnels and inclines and sub-board sidings, so that manual track cleaning was very difficult. I therefore built a track cleaning vehicle which could be propelled in a push-pull fashion round the tracks by a shunting engine. A commonly used track cleaner was glued to a block of wood of the same outline, and a piece of lead screwed onto the top. This was loosely held in place on the track by a metal box suspended between two old coach bogies. The weight of the cleaner on the track was less than would normally be applied manually but this could be compensated for by several passes over the same route. My present railway is on a much smaller scale occupying just one large shed with most tracks within easy reach. There are two external branch lines which run out and are encased in roof felted enclosures where the track cleaner is still the easiest way of cleaning them.