Dapol/Tomix Rail cleaner car. (Not raining but pouring!)

[petercharlesfagg]

Friends,

I have been trying to use my new rail clening car with varying success!

(1) The Brass plunger in the rail cleaner where you put the actual fluid, which way up or down is it?  Whichever way I put it in the fluid disappears within aq foot or so of track and merely floods the track!  (I am using Dapol track cleaning fluid)

(2) Which locomotive would be best to pull it?  I tried my using separately, my Class 66, my steam loco and and an American Bachmann loco, they merely sat there spinning their wheels!  Eventually I pushed it around by hand!

I  had fitted the felt wiper and a nylon brush thingy but no cleaning disc, and the motor was switched off.

The wheels of the cleaner rotate reasonably freely despite having the electrical contacts.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Peter.

[Paul B]

I can't help with the problem of the cleaning fluid I'm afraid - I have only used mine on the railway club's layout in the vacuum cleaning mode so far.

However, I use my elderly Minitrix Class 27 to pull my Tomix rail cleaner - it has the weight and power to pull it round the layout with no problems! I have to admit that I haven't tried anything else for it, as the rail cleaner is pretty heavy, and I doubted that anything else would cope.

[bluedepot]

maybe trim the brush thing a bit?  or take it off, see if locos can pull it round without the brush, then you'll know this is the problem.  same applies to the foam wiper thing.  in fact, I would just take that off for now.  not sure it does anything anyway.

can't remember which way the brass thing goes sorry.

cheers


tim

[painbrook]

Peter, can't help with actual Tomix cleaner, suffice to say I was quite disappointed, the only locos Iv'e got are the U/M beasties. Can't remember who it was ( on an older thread ) but he suggested pushing with a loco instead of pulling. Cheers john.

[Caz]

This may help Peter, can't find the last page anywhere.  I also can't find where I downloaded these from despite searching the internet.   

[petercharlesfagg]

This may help Peter, can't find the last page anywhere.  I also can't find where I downloaded these from despite searching the internet.   

Thankyou for the information, my own sheets are in Japanese and the images misleading!

Although your scans are excellent they do not inform me of the positioning of the Brass plunger within the reservoir!

Thankyou again for taking the trouble, Peter.

[Newportnobby]

Slightly off topic, but I have used the Woodland Scenics track cleaning fluid with their applicator and it leaves a greasy residue, so much so that my Blue Pullman lost traction in places
Once I'd cleaned the track with IPA all was well again
I, too, can't remember who posted about propelling the Tomix rather than pulling it, but that was for vacuuming with the Tomix and so it makes good sense to pick up detritus (thanks George ) before the loco passes through it.

[mickeyflinn]

Just checked the instructions that came with mine, and the brass plunger goes wide side down. Mine came with an English translation of the instructions which I'm scanning now

[Caz]

This may help Peter, can't find the last page anywhere.  I also can't find where I downloaded these from despite searching the internet.   

Thankyou for the information, my own sheets are in Japanese and the images misleading!

Although your scans are excellent they do not inform me of the positioning of the Brass plunger within the reservoir!

Thankyou again for taking the trouble, Peter.

If you look at the yellow coloured sheet, 3rd picture down it shows the plunger in position, wide side down, thin side up.   

[petercharlesfagg]

This may help Peter, can't find the last page anywhere.  I also can't find where I downloaded these from despite searching the internet.   

Thankyou for the information, my own sheets are in Japanese and the images misleading!

Although your scans are excellent they do not inform me of the positioning of the Brass plunger within the reservoir!

Thankyou again for taking the trouble, Peter.

If you look at the yellow coloured sheet, 3rd picture down it shows the plunger in position, wide side down, thin side up.   

Thankyou, any chance of blowing up just that image?  Peter.

[mickeyflinn]

As promised, I've scanned my English instructions;

[smg id=9595 type=av]

And I've also done the Japanese ones as well as the numbers in the translation refer to the numbers on the Japanese sheets.

[smg id=9596 type=av]

[smg id=9597 type=av]

[Sprintex]

Brass plunger goes flat-end downwards, I use Isopropyl Alcohol in mine and it seems to drain slowly enough, takes the finish off the wagon mind

Both my Farish locos will happily pull/push it round, Class 31 or 37


Paul

[RST]

This may help Peter, can't find the last page anywhere.  I also can't find where I downloaded these from despite searching the internet.   

...I put exactly the same header on the sheets into google and about the 2nd, 3rd or 4th result showed the same pages?  Granted,one page has the digs missing though.