Hornby Track Cleaning Unit R296

phat2003uk · Post by **phat2003uk** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 10:14 am

Does anyone know whether this works well or is it just a gimmick?

ianm42 · Post by **ianm42** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 10:56 am

Just found this site, which might be of interest:

http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Maintenance.htm

phat2003uk · Post by **phat2003uk** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:05 pm

Thanks Ian, looks like it's not the best thing for my dirty track

47522 · Post by **47522** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:14 pm

The track cleaning wagon is crud tbh. The springs arnt man enough to push the sand paper onto the rail head, the arms also derail on points and crossovers.

joea1 · Post by **joea1** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 9:16 pm

Is that that little yellow thing? If it is, I have one. It was a waste of Â£14. It always derails on points, no matter how slow I go.

davvydo · Post by **davvydo** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:02 pm

47522 wrote:The track cleaning wagon is crud tbh. The springs arnt man enough to push the sand paper onto the rail head, the arms also derail on points and crossovers.

took the words right out of my keyboard !

there is a track cleaning car made by either flieschman or marklin, it has rotating disks on it that clean the track, this is done in N gauge, i dont know if its done in 00, it looks like it is worth the money, unlike that yellow white elephant.

you cant beat the hand held cleaners though !

phat2003uk · Post by **phat2003uk** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 8:42 am

Well that's made my mind up

Where's that meths..........

47522 · Post by **47522** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:55 am

There is a cleaner around that is a liquid.

You put a little on each running rail then run a loco round its supposed to be really very very good. Cove modeles used to sell it but they have since closed down.

No more Â£3 discounts for me

Post by **NeutronIC** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:37 am

This is what Dad went with on Onehouse Model Railway:

Cleans the track:

http://www.lux-modellbau.de/html_uk/gleis_sh.htm

Hoovers up the mess:

http://www.lux-modellbau.de/html_uk/gleis_vh.htm

The pair run behind a Chessie Systems GP (it's a british themed layout but the colour on the Chessie loco is great, plus being a US build loco it's got lots of pickup and lots of power - perfect for running over bad track).

The whole lot is powered with three DCC chips (one for each unit) and is just left to run a few times before/during/after a running session.

Results are positively gleaming track very quickly and with no hardship, not to mention a good looking train running around the layout

Highly recommended, but involves some fairly serious cash (around Â£250 or Â£300 for the pair if I recall, can't be sure...) definitely worth the money though if you have a lot of hidden or difficult to clean areas.

No problems running over points - normal or complex arrangements involving slips etc. Run it in either direction, using DCC control over the motors in each wagon you can change the speed of the brushes etc.

Matt.

47522 · Post by **47522** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:23 am

wow... that is one neat couple of wagons.

Got to get me one of them!

Caseyjones82 · Post by **Caseyjones82** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 7:43 am

i use a relco unit which goes inbetween ur control unit and the layout, it sends different amounts of current around the layout to burn the . off the rails. it does make ur loco wheels dirty though. i reckon it's great!

alex

Post by **NeutronIC** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:57 am

Pics:

Wagons shown in various different states, tops removed etc:

Click the image to zoom in

Click the image to zoom in

Finally, here's how the layout is looking thus far, scenery is very slowly starting to take shape now that the trackwork and structure is complete but there's also a lot of DCC chipping going on (all the loco's shown on the layout are chipped up and operational - the 37 even has full sound and lighting, *amazing stuff*), not to mention building of electronics to drive the points and signals.

Click the image to zoom in

It's keeping dad busy

it does make ur loco wheels dirty though

Most awkward thing I've found to clean, besides the wheels (particularly with lots of stock) is the pickups - some bachmann loco's actually have pickups on the bit of the wheel that gets dirty, so if the wheel gets dirty so will those pickups and then that loco is going to run like a dog and be really hard to clean.

Nice thing with the system above is that if you keep the track nice and clean, the wheels hardly get dirty at all.

Matt.

phat2003uk · Post by **phat2003uk** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 10:08 am

Great model railway Matt!

Post by **NeutronIC** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 10:12 am

Dads, not mine

http://www.onehouse.co.uk/railindex.html

Matt.

250787 · Post by **250787** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 10:16 am

Any chance of a few more photos Matt?