Tomix 6425 Track Cleaning Car

[Mutro]

I recently bought a Tomix 6425 Track Cleaning Car after watching a few recommendations online.   I've yet to use the fluid cleaner with the car, but the vacuum function does collect measurable debris off the track.  But with the brush and the sponge attachments installed underneath, my SL struggles to pull it. So I placed one SL ahead of the car to pull it and added two SL's to push. With this config, it does move with sufficient speed. My question and concern is: (1) have others experienced this cleaning car to be effective? and (2) does running this cleaning car, either with one SL pulling or having three SLs, one pulling and two pushing, damage the SL's?

 

 

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[cteno4]

I’ve used the Tomix cleaner car for mainly sucking up dust bunny and schmutz off the tracks. That puzz between the tracks can get sucked up into the truck and worm gears and creat a nasty mess with any lubricants in there. So running the vacuum is a good thing as dust is ever present. Having a hepa air cleaner in the layout area can also greatly help reduce dust on the layout.
 

I also added a 6x1mm neodymium disc magnet under the car and it has sucked all sorts of typing bits of metal off the tracks.

 

for fluid cleaning I usually just use cotton cloth (old flannel sheet rags) and cleaner on my finger. When I use to use a cleaning car I used the roller kind that had a cleaner soaked strip of handiwipe wrapped around a rolling cylinder. I also never used the abrasive pads in the cleaner cars. I did try a few times using the fiber polishing pad in the Tomix after cleaning fluid car run.

 

i don’t thing a SL would be the best engine to use. Usually used one of the big heavier electric or diesel engines and never had to use 2 of them.

 

For cleaning fluid I’ve moved to very non polar contact cleaners after reading this article where someone finally did the leg work to figure out what was going on with the black gunk! Turns out it’s oxidized metal created from micro arcing from track to wheel with polar solvents (ie isopropanol and the like) and water that get trapped in the minute cracks in the surface of the metal. The contact cleaners leave a very thin film to prevent oxidation from happening then. Once you get rid of most of that stuff by using a non polar contact cleaner the black gunk most goes away! After a couple of hand cleanings our Ttrak modules now stay pretty clean, just hit them once a year now! 
 

this makes sense as at times on the old club layout when black gunk got bad we cleaned like mad with isopropanol and things just got worse instead of better! It also explains why some of the old track cleaning tricks of using clipper oil or transmission fluid worked as they are very non polar, but can get on tracks too tick easily and then you loose traction. It also explains why abrasive track cleaning seemed to lead to more black gunk in an unending circle as it was creating a lot of micro scratches in the track surface to attract and hold more polar molecules and create more micro arcing.

 

article

 

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mrhpub.com/2019-05-may/online/index.html?page=9

 

another topic with more discussion on this

 

 

[GeorgeHInch]

The SL might have a hard time pulling based on how the motor for steam is geared. I suspect a lot of steam locomotives just don’t get as much traction in order to get a motor that fits inside the body and also can move the larger wheels. 
 

As @cteno4 suggested, using a different loco might be your best option. I’ve pulled mine with various locomotives including a Kato EH200, and Kato P42 without any issue at all. 

[Wolf]

17 hours ago, cteno4 said:

I also added a 6x1mm neodymium disc magnet under the car and it has sucked all sorts of typing bits of metal off the tracks.

 

Oh boy, this genius! I really need to memorise this.

[disturbman]

You should use put these under some your numerous freight cars and place it in front of the cleaner car to make a cleaning consist. Or under your Dr Yellow...

[cteno4]

Whenever I have used the magnets I’ve been amazed at the little bits it picks up and always has me scratching my head where they came from! It’s not like I do metal work around train stuff! I purposely try to do any dust or metal filing work away from any train stuff for just this reason.

 

found a installed staple once and a couple used paper staples another times. Again head scratching how they got onto the layout or modules. Just a nice safety measure.

 

when one of our club members got his custom layout fro CRM he kept running the cleaning car all the time for months to get the loose scenery material all sucked up. We used a micro vacuum and my long arms to go along all the roadbed to try to suck up all the stray pieces of ballast as it was code 55 and at times a piece of ballast in just the right place could cause a derailment an for some reason stray ballast would forever find its way to his points! Then it was dental pick with micro vacuum hose to clean them out.

 

jeff