Anyone ever use one of these cars?

I have two of them and they will keep most of the track clean for a while AFTER you give your layout an old fashioned wipe with alcohol and some sort of non abrasive cloth. But I find the issue of track cleaning is one that requires actual hand wiping especially if you have a lot of dust or cooking near your layout. An air cleaner can actually help in keeping some of the goo off your track by the way. The never ending physics of dissimilar metals + current is going to create problems and dirt no matter what you do. I have tried one device that is actually pretty good, it's like a heavy flat car, all brass with a rotating center weighted roller that one wraps a supplied cloth around:

HO Scale Rail Cleaner Model D35, manufactured by Centerline Products LLC, Reno, NV, 89512
http://www.centerline-products.com/

The model I have but this one is die cast aluminum: http://www.centerline-products.com/images/D35.jpg

I paid about $70.00 for mine, I think they are hand made and assembled in the US. It will never wear out. I would not buy the Marklin cleaning cars again, they are for limited use and not rugged or weighted enough (in my opinion).

Bill,

I have two of them (the Z gauge version ) and they mostly sit in a siding gathering dust. I had planned to include them in a standard freight consist, but they struggle as a single wagon behind a loco, and you're forever changing the pads. So I prefer to use a little Isopropyl Alcohol on a rag and clean the track by hand.

Cheers,

Wal