track cleaner: advice wanted

[ECML43]

can anyone tell me about the Dapol Model Railways B800 Non-motorised OO Track Cleaner with motorised cleaning heads and vacuum. i am thinking of buying one as my tracks are constantly getting blackened with oily deposits and its driving me mad. I know i could be going round it with meth and a cloth but its so boring and meth stinks so i only do it sparingly - and that's not enough. does anyone know if this product could save me any work? its £52 from ehattons so i wouldnt want to waste money by buying it and being disappointed.

thanks

[GRAHAMHOWARD]

Save your money buy a sheet of the finest wet and dry paper cut it into 4 and rub

[Dave Roberts]

We have one for our Club Layouts. Makes life a lot easier and gives us more 'Play' time. It does a fantastic job of removing any track pins and other ferrous metallic stuff on the lines butt we thing that the abrasive pads are a little too abrasive. We are experimenting at the moment. A good buy!

[railwaybuddy]

Originally Posted by Dave Roberts

We have one for our Club Layouts. Makes life a lot easier and gives us more 'Play' time. It does a fantastic job of removing any track pins and other ferrous metallic stuff on the lines butt we thing that the abrasive pads are a little too abrasive. We are experimenting at the moment. A good buy!

just in your opinion

do you think it is good?

and does it do the job?

[railwaybuddy]

ive got one of the hornby track cleaner cars and it is totally crap

[27vet]

Try "Super Servisol" (for PC boards). It may work on your train tracks.

[62440]

PLEASE BE CAREFUL with where you spray/put SERVISOL. I speak from very unhappy past experience of the stuff. Having purchased a can I sprayed it on and in all sorts of contacts/switches/volume & tone controls. A great improvement in all cases. BUT! After about seven weeks I got a complaint from the Mother-in-law that there was a problem with their record deck. A plastic component had totally disintegrated. A few days later a socket on our TV set came away in my hand. Then my daughter complained that her Radio/Cassette wouldn't tune. Then a tranny radio lost a socket. The falling apart went on and on. Nothing that I had used the stuff on seemed to be immune. I reckon that a can of that stuff which I paid about 75p for (Mid 80's) cost me in the long run over £250. I can only repeat, BE CAREFUL. It has a chemical reaction with certain commonly found/used types of plastic which results in the plastic becoming crumb like after a while. As a switch/contact cleaner it works great but avoid getting it in contact with plastics at all costs.

Regards, 62440.

[27vet]

Thanks for that heads up, I had a feeling that Servisol reacted with certain substances.

[lnwr20]

Hello 27vet,
I use the peco track rubber an a household hoover it does the job spot on for me an the rubbers last for ages, i'm still using the first track rubber i bought an that was more than 7 years ago an it's the small one. I also have a large track rubber as well i've used that loads an it still looks like new. So save your money the track rubbers cost i think about £3 for the small one an £5 for the big one. I hope this helps.