This last weekend I finally splashed out and bought the track cleaning loco, wow, what a handy little beast. my track has never looked better! The advantage of the loco, apart from the obvious, is that when it's not cleaning it's a normal loco, great, exept I run an American RR. My question is, has anybody give this machine a face lift to make it more American when it's being used as a normal loco? - after the guarentee runs out of course!
Cheers,
Kim
Kim you may recall when i was at your place in 2005, i too bought one of these units and i to am very impressed with mine,
The idea of running it as standard loco may not be as good an idea as you would think and i am not sure of my facts here at all, just a suspicion.
I have had an incidence of both of the cleaning wheels wearing unevenly and i have the idea that running it around without it doing its track cleaning job, may well be the cause of it, i am not sure, not at all sure that i am correct though.
Uneven wear means you get a herringbone effect on the cleanliness of your track and it is hard to get rid of.
Think about it Kim, try it outr and see if you agree, all you have lost is that you have to replace a pair of cleaning wheels earlier.
On your track; cleaning them once a week; you should get about 18 months out of a set of wheels.
Rgds ian
Tom Trigg
I've had a couple of those engines and wish I had another one. I've been out of G for a couple years and I have a lot of track to clean. I had the same trouble with the herringbone pattern, an uneven wear. I thought it was the outer plastic wheels hitting the ties. You can trip down the plastic side and get a little more wear.
tom
Thats a good idea Tom about the plastic wheels i will look at it.
tks Ian
http://www.beathis.ch/lgb/20670/20670_e.html
enjoy....
The herringbone pattern and bouncing of the cleaning wheels are normal because the cleaning wheels rotate in the opposite direction to the main drive, a few trips around the track and the pattern disappears. Apparently the cleaning discs can raise a ridge of material after quite a bit of use, these cut off with a knife and give a lot more use. Bay models also stock a load of LGB spares, cleaning discs being amongst them.
Kim the herringbone i am talking about is not acceptable and it is not normal until the cleaning discs are neaerly worn out. I can tell you my Stainz does not like it and to a much lesser exent neither does my ICE train.
I repeat i am not sure at all that it is running as a normal loco that does the damage but i am very suspicious. Cleaning pads are a bit expensive and it is better to not bring undue wear on unless you have too; well thats my opinion wanyway.
When running it as a normal train, you will find it goes much more smoothly in reverse and seems to not knock the cleaning section around as much..
Rgds Ian
T,F & WL the link was quite interesting apart from the fact I didn't really have a clue what it was on about. Electronics are somthing I have no idea about, nor wish to know about to be honest. As for stripping loco's down, I would have a load of bits left over or I would be missing a wheel!
Ian, I ran the loco around a dozen or so times and the herringbone pattern completely faded out. I cleaned the track last Saturday, so this is a week on. I just put the pic of my LGB radius 5 switch in because I think it is a thing of beauty, points the direction the RR is going in, so to speak!
Thanks for that Jack, does this allow the cleaning wheels to rotate freely or are they actually off the track when switched out?
Kim and Jack, am i missing something here but a) of course you would have the cleaning motor switched off when it is running as a normal loco, common sense. b) The Herring bone pattern should not appear until the cleaning wheels have been nearly worn out.
I just put new cleaning wheels on mine and in one hit it got rid of 2 months worth of herring bone! terrific really
Kimbrit, tell me about the switch. How long is it. Is it about the same as the Aristo Craft #6.
What is the street price.
Tom
Hi Tom, the switch is LGB radius 5, 2' long, a little bit shorter than the Aristo#6 switch which is why I bought it. The price in the UK is £85. I need another 4 of these so that's my spare cash used up for a while.
Hi Ian, I assumed, wrongly it would seem, that the cleaning motor switched itself off when the loco ran in the opposite direction, because there's no indication that it is running, noise wise. I can only assume it keeps turning but it is now in the direction of travel, which shouldn't cause any undue wear on the discs. If by switching the motor off it allows the discs to free wheel then, again, there shouldn't be any undue wear. Anyway, all in all, I should have bought one years ago!
Cheers mate,
Hi Kim
The beast in question bears more resemblance to a track machine than a locomotive.
So conversion is as easy as I name thee American outline job done
It would benefit from a cct that puts a pair of small flashing red lights on when grinding the rails the lights should be on the buffer beams two each end and flash on and off so track workers can see them.
For a train you need a water tanker with water cannon for fires started by it wagon painted yellow a steel box car painted yellow for spare stones and tools an extra water tanker also a crew passenger car.
Our US friends may be able to suggest what tankers to use there may even be one available with water cannon and a suitable smooth side passenger car
regards John
Bucksco wrote:The cleaning motor should be turned off when running it as a loco.
Kim from what i understand LGB have two different model track cleaning loco's or so they told me in Hamburg, yours anologue and mine MTS. I press "7" to get mine to turn on and off. So if it is off, the cleaning motor is not running.
I knew but i didn't properly realise, that the cleaning wheels were free wheeling when the motor is off. If so them my suspicion abouty it causing the herring bone effect, is completely wrong.
I'm glad you have one Kim, i love mine and if you have tunnels and or shot knees as do i, you will find it hard to do without one.
Rghds Ian
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