The vacuum is the only thing about that Atlas cleaning car that works. The track cleaning pad itself is too small to do any good and the fluid reservoir doesn't hold enough to clean more than a few feet at a filling.
We have one that we never use any more since acquiring a CMX Clean Machine.
Ed the Atlas car does a great job as a track vacuum. The weak point as you found out is the truck electrical pickup transfer. The springs pick up dirt then get hot . Replace the springs with some ultra flex wire to fix the problem. Also keep an eye on the vacuum wheel as it tends to jam when it gets filled with dirt and dust. layouts that have never been vacuumed will jam the car up in a hurry. Amazing what they pick up. ---- Ken
Tomcat,
When the OP first posted this thread, I did a little searching and read a lot of reviews about that track cleaning car and I didn't reply because all the reviews were negative, but they did like the vacuum that is on it. And no one had a fix for the pick-ups, other than call MFG.
Take Care!
Frank
Do yourself a favour and loose the track cleaner !! They only do a half job and leave muck on the tracks anyway.
Nothing works better (in my opinion) than a rag with a little RP7, WD40 (or your eqivelent in the US) its a lubricating spray and manually wipe the tracks and you will see the results on your finger, at the same time leave a protective barrier on them as well.
YOUR TRACKS WILL SHINE!!!
Now I dont want to upset anyone with this type of track cleaning nor do I want to open a HUGE can of worms in which is the best way to clean tracks, I had that track cleaning car myself and it just wasn't worth it, I found myself cleaning the tracks after I ran it anyway!!
For some reason I double posted.
Here is a DIY link that I picked up from another thread. Grab a look around the Electronics and DCC section, you will find other links for ones that you can buy.
http://www.55n3.org/cars/tender_wipers/
I purchased a Atlas track cleaner car made by DAPOL. (I think this may be a Germany company)
I installed a Digitrax DZ143PS decoader in it to run with my DCC locos. It worked ok for the first couple of track cleaning jobs. However, recently the motor that runs the vacuum and cleaning disk stopped working. After placing the car on my programing track and trying to reset CV 08 to 008, my NCE Power Pro did not recognize any decoder.
I found the problem to be the two electrical contact wipers under each truck (small copper springs) were bent and smushed. I made an attempt to straighten them without much success.
I'm looking for suggestion as to how I might replace these with some other type of electrical contact.
Any help would be appreciated
Ed