palmerston
trains
Does anyone have this loco in use, the battery trackcleaning loco?
Piko G25T battery track cleaning loco? Hands on experience?
- Thread starter palmerston
- Start date
casey jones snr
Registered
I have one for use at the CFR. It is quite a capable locomotive for keeping the track relatively clean. It is also a capable locomotive for hauling Feldbahn type stock. Depending on the choice of batteries it is capable of running for two plus hours.
palmerston
trains
ok, the LGB trackcleaning loco is to noisy and expensive. IMHO
The Piko loco will 'polish' the track, rather than clean it. - Which the LGB unit will do..
You will need to go round, remove twigs and other debris.
It will not deal with baked-on Bird-lime, and will struggle if you have problems with tree sap.
It relies on the pressure of the springs on the skates, which is not great.
It will help if you run fairly regularly, as there will not be a great deal of oxidation on the track.
PhilP.
You will need to go round, remove twigs and other debris.
It will not deal with baked-on Bird-lime, and will struggle if you have problems with tree sap.
It relies on the pressure of the springs on the skates, which is not great.
It will help if you run fairly regularly, as there will not be a great deal of oxidation on the track.
PhilP.
I have one of the Piko 25tonners, not as a cleaning loco but bought as a track powered machine and converted to proper battery and radio control using Fosworks and including a My Loco Sound unit. Not the easiest of conversions but it does all and more that I ask of it.
As has been said, yes the LGB track cleaner is a noisy beast but nothing will clean code 332 or other similar sized track like it does. The Piko one probably works pretty well as a keep clean for a while once a proper job has been done.
As has been said, yes the LGB track cleaner is a noisy beast but nothing will clean code 332 or other similar sized track like it does. The Piko one probably works pretty well as a keep clean for a while once a proper job has been done.
palmerston
trains
So in fact any battery powered locomotive with the LGB 50050 attachment under a goodswagon could deliver the same result. Or even a trackpowered loco with ballbearing pickups under the wagon.
Correct..
Although the Piko pads are a little more abrasive..
The elephant in the room is, of course, that for a track-powered cleaning locomotive, it has to clean the track ahead of trying to pickup power...
If the track is clean enough to power otherwise, it doesn't need cleaning..
PhilP.
railwayman198
Registered
I don't run track power frequently. The only thing that gets my track really clean is the LGB red manual cleaning block. I have the LGB track cleaning locomotive but I usually have to pre-clean with the block before it will operate successfully. I also have an abrasive block on a pole to reach awkward areas but nothing is as effective as getting down on my hands and knees with the red block. The wagon with the pads and a US made 'clean machine' are useful for polishing and degreasing the rails but insufficient for really dirty track, in my experience. When I ran track power regularly the LGB track cleaning loco did a decent job.
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palmerston
trains
Well, locos speed up on parts that are cleaned, and after using battery, track power is the way to go for me.
If i would start from new ... stainless steel rail would be nice, but having brass track and secondhand largely available for less then new i will stick with brass.
What we reely need is an automatic WD40 dispencer for removing the sticky stuff. After evaporation another dispencer with Brasso followed 5 minutes later by a polish sander, all powered thru yours favorite cordless battery system. Radio control of course.....
Software Tools
Registered
Only until it hit something on the track, or an uneven rail joint, and the fitting broke off...... not useful for anything much at all.