Dapol Powered Track Cleaner
Objavljeno: 07.03.2010, 19:55
After hearing good reports of this track cleaner, and as I have catenary which makes cleaning by hand difficult, I purchased one.
The working was very intermittent, then it refused to work at all, so I returned it to the dealer. The replacement was not much better and only seemed to work on clean track!! Not good for a track cleaner!
Investigations seemed to indicate poor current collection, so I soldered additional pick up wires to the bogies - this improved it a little, but the major improvement was made by polishing the chemically blackened wheel treads. Now they are shiny, the current collection is excellent. The original arrangement of springs rubbing on a plate is frankly pathetic!
The cleaner as received.
This shows it set up for vacuum cleaning, also shows the additional collector wires and the polished wheel treads.
The vacuum is effective as shown below.
This shows the cleaner fitted with the rotating polishing head, and the abrasive head alongside (I used this first). It also shows the foam strip which spreads cleaning fluid onto the rails, then polished by the rotating mop.
The cleaning heads are fitted with a very light spring which gives good contact with the track without undue pressure.
The idea is very good, but the build quality could be better and for a unit retailing at £60 (66 euro) - although I got mine at £51 (56 euro), the user should not have to do basic modifications to make it work properly! However, now it is working well I should be able to keep my tracks clean much more easily.
Now to change that horrible colour! It will be painted grey and yellow and lettered with SZ logo and lettering.
The working was very intermittent, then it refused to work at all, so I returned it to the dealer. The replacement was not much better and only seemed to work on clean track!! Not good for a track cleaner!
Investigations seemed to indicate poor current collection, so I soldered additional pick up wires to the bogies - this improved it a little, but the major improvement was made by polishing the chemically blackened wheel treads. Now they are shiny, the current collection is excellent. The original arrangement of springs rubbing on a plate is frankly pathetic!
The cleaner as received.
This shows it set up for vacuum cleaning, also shows the additional collector wires and the polished wheel treads.
The vacuum is effective as shown below.
This shows the cleaner fitted with the rotating polishing head, and the abrasive head alongside (I used this first). It also shows the foam strip which spreads cleaning fluid onto the rails, then polished by the rotating mop.
The cleaning heads are fitted with a very light spring which gives good contact with the track without undue pressure.
The idea is very good, but the build quality could be better and for a unit retailing at £60 (66 euro) - although I got mine at £51 (56 euro), the user should not have to do basic modifications to make it work properly! However, now it is working well I should be able to keep my tracks clean much more easily.
Now to change that horrible colour! It will be painted grey and yellow and lettered with SZ logo and lettering.