Lux 9470 Track Cleaning Car - Any Experience?

[peteski]

Yeah, I noticed that, too. Agreed that the added friction wouldn't be much of an issue. It may even be to our advantage since it might work with replacement wheelsets. The Tomix car has small flanges on the axles with a wiper arrangement. Those make wheelset replacement a challenge. It can be done by re-bending the wipers to scrape the backside of the wheels, but you lose the advantage of the low-friction contact with the small internal flanges.

Yes.
But if the there is an appropriate axle length available you can simply replace the stock wheels with FVM wheels.  That way you will end up with low-profile flanges.  And you can likely bend the wipers to contact the wheel backs closer to the axle (for reduced drag).

[Bill H]

Yes.
But if the there is an appropriate axle length available you can simply replace the stock wheels with FVM wheels.  That way you will end up with low-profile flanges.  And you can likely bend the wipers to contact the wheel backs closer to the axle (for reduced drag).

Pete:
I guess he can replace the wheels with FVM wheels, when the boat comes in - literally.

Kind regards
Bill

[peteski]

Pete:
I guess he can replace the wheels with FVM wheels, when the boat comes in - literally.

Kind regards
Bill

Oh, you mean the FVM boat?  Because I think the cleaning car will be shipped Air Mail. 
There are other wheelsets available but at this point we don't know if the axle length of any of them will be correct. European models usually use extra long axles. Heck, maybe even none of the FVM sets will have axles long enough.

There are some aftermarket European wheel manufacturers, but those wheels might still have flanges that are too deep for code 40 rail.  Maybe turning down the flanges will be the only answer.

[nickelplate759]

You could almost certainly replace the wheels on that motion-detector axle with NWSL wheels - or just turn the flanges down.

[Bill H]

Oh, you mean the FVM boat?  Because I think the cleaning car will be shipped Air Mail. 

Pete:
Not to be accused of RW thread drift, has anyone heard when the FVM wheels - on the proverbial boat - is going to dock? Realized that there have been some personal/family issues, fully understand, but heard they were "on the ocean" numerous times. Perhaps what did arrive was not in sufficient number to resell, but was relegated to their own internal production - which would also be clearly understandable. Several items i have bought that are recent FVM releases all came with their wheels so they must be somewhere in stock...

Kind regards,
Bill

[mmagliaro]

Sooooo....

Nobody out there has actually tried one of these? 

The wheel flanges don't trouble me.  I would turn them down, change them wheels, whatever I have to do.

I am always in the hunt for a Holy Grail track cleaner car because even though I have a modest bedroom-sized layout, I hate cleaning track.  I have one of the Atlas/Tomix cars, and it is the best solution for getting track clean in the awkward hard-to-reach areas like inside a tunnel  and within the span of my truss bridge.

This Lux car looks like it would work better, and also lacquer thinner would be no problem as a cleaning fluid if you just wetted the rotating fuzzy drum with it.  (Lacquer thinner in the Tomix/Atlas car is a no-no, because the fluid reservoir is painted plastic... I found this out the hard way and spent many hours cleaning and sanding out the gooey paint and attacked plastic).

But the price... ouch... somewhere between $175 and $200+    Too rich for my blood.

[peteski]

. . .
 I hate cleaning track.  I have one of the Atlas/Tomix cars, and it is the best solution for getting track clean in the awkward hard-to-reach areas like inside a tunnel  and within the span of my truss bridge.

This Lux car looks like it would work better, and also lacquer thinner would be no problem as a cleaning fluid if you just wetted the rotating fuzzy drum with it.  (Lacquer thinner in the Tomix/Atlas car is a no-no, because the fluid reservoir is painted plastic... I found this out the hard way and spent many hours cleaning and sanding out the gooey paint and attacked plastic).

Isn't lacquer thinner a bit of an overkill Max?  What kind of crud do you have on your track?! 
There are other solvents and degreasers which do great job on the track.  91% (or better yet 99%) isopropyl alcohol, or even denatured alcohol work really well and don't attack plastic. Naphtha is also excellent solvent, but it might slightly attach Polystyrene after prolonged exposure.  To me alcohols, being polar solvents are the best.

[C855B]

The price doesn't bother me (...much...) considering the engineering that went into it, and, truly, how big is the market for this? A coupla hundred, maybe? Five hundred? Also, avoiding clumsiness around fragile trackside details - such as signals I've spent dozens of hours working on - is worth it to me.

My priority isn't so much solvent cleaning as it is polishing through the thin oxide layer. I'm currently using 5000-grit polishing paper which works very well, aside from the misdirected fist problem. This is after trying about six or seven different contact cleaners, and IPA, with mediocre results. There's something special about my brand of track crud, evidently. What I'd really like to try with the Lux mechanism is Dedeco or Cratex extra-fine polishing wheels provided I can get them in a compatible diameter. One thing I really like about the Lux design is the articulated carrier with a guide bogie, which allows for narrower scrub wheels

When the Euro Rail folks get back from their toy convention in Germany - tomorrow, according to their site - I'll wait a couple of days for jet lag recovery, then give 'em a jingle and ask about ETA on the restock.

[learmoia]

It may be one of those things where they need x number of customer orders to justify a restock order from the MFG to make the shipping worth the effort.

~Ian

[mmagliaro]

Isn't lacquer thinner a bit of an overkill Max?  What kind of crud do you have on your track?! 
There are other solvents and degreasers which do great job on the track.  91% (or better yet 99%) isopropyl alcohol, or even denatured alcohol work really well and don't attack plastic. Naphtha is also excellent solvent, but it might slightly attach Polystyrene after prolonged exposure.  To me alcohols, being polar solvents are the best.

I thought we went through a whole big discussion, including an article in MRH, wherein the theory is that non-polar solvents work better than polar.  It does seem to me that lacquer thinner cleans the track more thoroughly.

[peteski]

I thought we went through a whole big discussion, including an article in MRH, wherein the theory is that non-polar solvents work better than polar.  It does seem to me that lacquer thinner cleans the track more thoroughly.

Well, if the crud only consists of non-water-soluble material then non-polar solvent will be the best (alcohol acts as a solvent for both water-soluble, and petroleum-based substances).  I just like to cover all the bases.    But I agree that highly likely the curd is mostly petroleum-based stuff. So I'll grant you that in this case a non-polar solvent is best.

Yes, lacquer thinner will take the chrome off of a trailer hitch!    But it seems to me like an overkill.  Naphtha or even mineral spirits (paint thinner) are much milder non-polar solvents, which will work quite well (without those really strong solvents which attack polystyrene,  like acetone, MEK, or others found in lacquer thinner).

[C855B]

It may be one of those things where they need x number of customer orders to justify a restock order from the MFG to make the shipping worth the effort.

I have no problem with that, but if I'm going to order one, it will be with the device-specific accessories (spare tool wheels, for instance) in the same shipment. The tool wheels are in stock, but I have been burned before on ordering something with add-on parts, receive the parts in a pre-shipment, and then for some reason they can no longer supply the core product. IOW, I want to talk to them first about being certain they will hold the order for the cleaner car to arrive and then ship (and bill) everything in a single transaction.

[MichaelWinicki]

My challenge with a track-cleaning car like this is that with a larger pike, that pad is probably going to become saturated with undesirable materials pretty quickly so you would most likely need multiple pads– And then I question how effective it will actually be. 

And if one goes with a more abrasive cleaning method you run the risk of taking the nickel plating off of Atlas turnouts.

While not a time-saving, non-scenery method, a clean rag with mineral spirits turned often seems to do the best job for me.

[Steveruger45]

I’m really interested how this track clean car works out.  I’m somewhat dubious but I’m afraid that’s probably just me.
In the meantime I will continue using that woodland scenics pad on a stick thing with the soft pads installed and wet with IPA.
It gets through the bridges and tunnels fine and keeps my hand away from delicate scenery and I can go over the whole layout in about 10 minutes.

[C855B]

OK, apparently being the designated guinea pig here, I have abandoned all caution and ordered the car plus three pair of the separate tool wheels: felt, abrasive and polishing. Their pre-order information indicates 2-4 weeks, and they normally ship all at once unless a partial shipment is requested. In the ordering notes I specifically requested to hold everything until it's all together anyway.

As said up-thread, this car is very close to what I was designing in my head. It'll be interesting to see how well the theory matches the reality. My main hesitation is testing the abrasive wheel. At 1500 grit it's over 3X coarser than what I use today. As @MichaelWinicki said, pretty big risk of grinding the plating off of Atlas frogs. Maybe I should add a turnout to my test rig to see just how much abuse they'll take - better to ruin one rather than the 75 currently on the layout. 

Footnote - a concern I have from Euro-Rail's general ordering information is a $45 minimum order. So replacement tool wheels @ $8/pair means a big stock-up just to replace a single worn-out pair. Given their product focus there's not a lot else I would order from them. They handle ESU decoders... at MSRP... if I absolutely had to fill-out an order.