Fine Track with Wheel Cleaning Device

[Guest ___]

Does anyone use one of these? If so, how well does it work and is it hardwired down to your layout? I'm planning my tram layout using TOMI track instead of KATO this time around, and I'm thinking of placing a siding from the tram line up in to a hidden fiddle yard inside the mountain. Inside the fiddle year, I'm thinking of placing one fo these tracks inside if they work.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10032056

[bill937ca]

I thought about buying it, but never have.  Traction tires can be an issue with these devices.

[Guest ___]

Hmmm... that is a good point that I hadn't considered.

[keiman]

http://www.gaugemaster.com/instructions/hf1.pdf

 

Have one of these, but obviously can't be used with DCC.

[Martijn Meerts]

I have 2 of them, they work okay for small amounts of dirt. Traction tires aren't an issue at all, since the regular pads or just paper I think. Just make sure not to use the grinding pads unless you want to replace all the wheels ;)

 

The biggest disadvantage is that the pads get dirty REAL fast.

 

 

Keiman, they're usable with DCC, just make sure not to feed the motor inside the wheel cleaning track with DCC power directly. Either hook up a regular power pack, or you can install a regular loco decoder and control it like that.

[Guest Closed Account 1]

My wheels got so coaked Sunday at the open house that the car lights were off.  Nasty. Freed up one car using an alcohol soaked napkin laying over the dead track and car on top of that.

 

What's the difference between the cleaning surface with Tomix 6414 and TGW Wheel Polish Soft-kun 12503?

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10078941

[keitaro]

my understanding was that the tgw only really worked for powered units where the tomix unit works for all cars as the train gets puled through the cleaner spinning the wheels a full 360 degrees cleaning them.

 

Where the tgw is short and you need to press and push manually if you want to clean the non powered units and it's less effective as the wheels wont turn as easily.

 

I guess it would be nicer on the wheels though.

[Guest Closed Account 1]

I'm sure the Tomix is a great tool for regular cleaning.

 

I'm going to get a yard of flex track and make a separate track for my nasty wheels.

 

I can sacrifice the $4 track. What solvents other than alcohol should I use? I Plan on using the soaked napkin over the track method just for non-powered wheels.

[cteno4]

probably faster to just do the old paper towel over the track soaked in the cleaner of your choice and just run the unpowered cars back and forth by hand or hold one truck on the paper towel with a power unit running. this is pretty quick and you can just move the paper towel over if it looks like junk is coming off. one big thing in getting stuff to come off/dissolve is to keep your concentration of the crap where its to go low. like martijn says these little tiny pads seem like they would be dirty and need replacing in a flash...

 

if you want to ultra clean powered wheels and not harm your traction tires you can just flip the engine over and then just glue two strips of copper onto a stick that are track spaced apart. then hook them up to a power pack and run the engine by touching it to one truck. then while the wheels are spinning on the other truck use a qtip soaked in your cleaner to go at the spinning wheels w/o the traction tires with the qtip.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

The Tomix track is nice to just add somewhere in the layout where all trains can reach it. That way the wheels get a regular cleaning and you won't need to swap out the pads all that often. If wheels are really dirty (like when interior lighting just stops working all together), the Tomix cleaning track isn't an option, as you'll need 1 set of pads per train.

 

Another thing is, some steamers seem to have problems with the small leading or trailing wheels being pushed off the track by the springs in the cleaning track. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Obvious solution is to add a re-railer track of sorts just after the cleaning track.

[Guest ___]

Rather than a paper towel,. I'd suggest something more lint free like a pecpad. I'm still thinking of integrating one of these tracks in to the tram line I plan to someday build in phase two. I might just make a spur track and run it in a fiddle yard inside a new Plastercloth Mountain.

[cteno4]

pec pads are pretty soft though, you want something a little rough to help wipe the smutz off i think. paper towels have always worked great for me, i just make sure to use the higher fiber kind that are a bit stronger, the real el cheapos will start to disintegrate.

 

i have used the little alcohol swabs for locos as they are nice and rough and full of isopropanol, but a bit too fat to run cars over though. i always keep the alcohol swabs around, great for quick cleanings of things that need some scouring, not for use on anything with a nice paint job, glass, etc though.

 

jeff

[Mudkip Orange]

I just received one of these guys, going to hopefully set up the layout within the next week and test it out.

[Lawrence]

I use the minitrix cleaner (brass brush type thing that sits on the track) then either the IPA soaked kitchen towel on the track method, seems to work fine so far

[Mudkip Orange]

I set up the Tomix Wheel Cleaning track but it appears the motor is driven from a separate circuit than the track power. There's an additional power cord that I assume plugs into the Tomix power packs, but I'm not sure.

 

The Japanese description is here: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/explanation_j/10032056/

 

Machine-translation says "The drive of this product, please use the power unit of the next N-neo series." The backs of the Neo power packs have two different plugs, one that's just  DC, one that's for "TCS" which is apparently a signaling system. From what I can tell I think the wheel cleaner plugs into the TCS bracket.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10160414a3/20/3

 

I guess what I want to know is if I can just splice this with a Kato switch machine cord. If they're both 12VDC it seems fine. But... is TCS 12V DC?

[brill27mcb]

My understanding is that the TCS power supply out of the power packs is 12 V DC (fixed voltage).

 

Rich K.

[KenS]

My Tomix NEO N-400 pack has a sticker on the bottom that gives voltage and current info, and it says "TCS 12V DC". That's pretty clear.

 

That's assuming these use the black connector TCS outputs.

 

I'll note that Tomix's "12V" may actually mean 9V (I've measured one of my packs that's nominally rated for 0-12V track power as having a max around 9V). But I imagine it's going to be safe on both.

[Mudkip Orange]

That's assuming these use the black connector TCS outputs.

 

It's actually brown. :/

[KenS]

Interesting.  I have black for TCS on my signals, but perhaps that doesn't matter.  I don't have any other TCS hardware to compare with. As long as it's not white (which is track power) I expect it's TCS and 12V.