Review: Many New Products - Track Cleaning Car

[ChiefEagles]

Brent, great review.  I will be ordering one of these cars.  Thanks for passing this on to your buddies.

[jonadel]

Brent--excellent review.  I enjoyed the pics and feedback , first person experiences are refreshing.

Thank you!

[lion88roar]

Buckeye - no problems with switches. At least not with Atlas 21st Century Track System switches. They do not sell Scotchbrite pads, the pads are felt pads - kind of like what you use under furniture feet, so if you can get some double faced tape I think you could do it. I would email MNP to see what he says though.

[Buckeye Riveter]

88.....Thanks for taking the time to review this product.  Do the pads catch at the switches?  Can you trade out the pads to a Scotchlite type of pad?  I have had really good success using Scotchlite type of pads because it really cleans the black crud off of the rails. 

[lion88roar]

It has been a long time since I have been impressed enough with a product to do a review. About a year ago I received an email from Weaver Models announcing their new track cleaning cars http://www.weavermodels.com/page31.html, after looking at their page I went to Many New Products' webpage to see what else the sell... http://www.mnpinc.com/weaver%20models.htm. Now I am not the person who buys 'sight unseen', so off went an email to see if they would be at the next York Meet - after a few back and forths, I waited till the April 2013 York Train Meet to check them out.

After spending about 30 minutes speaking with Matthew (the owner) and watching the various cars in action, I decided I really needed one of these track cleaning cars! First about the cars. They are available for N, HO, HOn3, On30, O 2-rail, O 3-rail, S, and G scales. Being only interested in O 3-rail that was my focus. The cars have dual-motors, run off track power, include an on-off switch, and have removable pad mounts. The car can be ordered with or without TMCC (ERR Upgrade), I chose to forego the TMCC for the time being.

The cars are available in many different varieties, I chose a double-door boxcar at Matthew's recommendation because the doors open wider to allow for easier motor maintenance.

Car with Pads removed


Car with Pads mounted


Bottom of the car without Pads


Bottom of the car with Pads


Clean Pads


I am still constructing my layout, but am at a point where wiring and testing the track is taking place. During a few test runs I noticed the engines and cabeese would lose power at various locations around the track. I cleaned the outer loop with Lionel Track Clean and a cloth rag, that reduced power loss quite a bit, so I decided it was time for the track cleaning car. I hooked it up in front of a Lionel S2 switcher so I could run the engine at slow speed and the track cleaning car at full 18-volt TMCC voltage. The results were... quite impressive. I ran the train around the inner loop 3 times, making note of where the power drops were around each pass. During the first pass I noted 10 power drops (layout is 8 feet 10 inches x 13 feet 2 inches to give you an idea of how much track we're talking), after the first pass I noticed only 2 or 3 drops, after the third pass none.

Pads after 3 trips around the track


Now the impressive part. These track cleaning cars do not use any liquid. They do not require any manual labor (other than putting the pads on the car, putting the car on the track, powering up the track, and running the engine). This model Weaver boxcar is weighted and the added motors and electronics provide all the weight needed to keep the car on the tracks, the pad mounts are also spring loaded to keep them firmly on the track.

The cars are not cheep, mine ran me $190.00 since I picked it up at York and I got a bag of spare pads. The quality and performance justifies the price, in my opinion.

You can also run the cars powered off and without pads as a basic boxcar, but mind the weight - put them near the front of your consist!

Adding a ERR Mini-Commander offers a variety of configurations. The car comes with a Single Pole Single Throw switch, you can wire the EMC between the truck power and MNP board (and remove the switch), or wire the switch as the PGM/RUN switch, or wire the EMC between the switch and MNP board and use the switch as an On/Off... or find a Double Pole Single Throw switch and wire one pole for On/Off operation and the other pole for a PGM/RUN switch. Adding the ERR Mini-Commander allows you to control the motor rotation.