Patent ID: 8371229

Claim:
A track cleaning car comprising: a parallelepiped base plate comprising a top surface and a bottom surface, a front end and a rear end, the base plate having a hole centrally disposed therethrough; a first wheel assembly disposed on the base plate bottom surface at the front end, the first wheel assembly comprising: a first axle and a second axle disposed in parallel, the first and second axles disposed rotatably within a forward truck; a pair of first wheels disposed endwise upon the first axle; a pair of second wheels disposed endwise upon the second axle; a counter wheel disposed in parallel with the pair of second wheels; a photomicroprocessor disposed on the forward truck in operational communication with the counter wheel; a second wheel assembly disposed on the base plate bottom surface at the rear end, the second wheel assembly comprising: a second axle and a third axle disposed in parallel, the second and third axles disposed rotatably within a rearward truck; a pair of third wheels disposed endwise on the third axle; a pair of fourth wheels disposed endwise on the fourth axle; a floating plate disposed above the base plate top surface, the floating plate supported above the base plate by means of a plurality of guide rods; a motor depending from the floating plate, the motor centrally disposed upon the base plate, the motor projecting a driveshaft through the hole; a rotatable disk disposed on the driveshaft, the rotatable disk having a lower surface disposed in a plane parallel with the base plate; a cleaning pad removably attachable to the rotatable disk lower surface; a plurality of springs, each of the plurality of springs compressibly engaging the floating plate above the base plate; a battery pack disposed on the base plate top surface; a control panel disposed on the base plate top surface; wherein the floating plate compressibly engages the cleaning pad against an extant rail track, the second wheel assembly is driven by the battery pack and alternately an extant powered rail track, the photomicroprocessor is in operational communication with the motor, and the motor rotatably engages the driveshaft only when the cleaning car is in motion.