First of all, it's not perfect. The concept is excellent and it does its best but track just attracts so much dirt it needs the next generation cleaning car to package the dirt and self-clean! I had cleaned my track by hand with chemicals and track rubber and then used a vacuum to suck up debris left by the rubber etc. ending with a soft polish. Then the cleaning car arrived at that moment in the post, so I ran the car with its vacuum option just as a test and it sucked up more debris from, what I thought was, a pristine track. So I changed the option to a hard clean and that came up showing dirt on the disc, I used the wet clean option and that showed more dirt.. and we are talking of only minutes between deep clean by hand and the Tomix cleaning car! In short, I am saying you will still have to do both because the rails seem to suck dirt from the atmosphere. Using electronic 'dirt-burning' devices fries sensitive devices connected to the track (even if the power to the track is coming from a separate circuit). Many cleaning pads and cloths fray and don't last well. I suspect track rubbers wear away the surface. Its all a bit of a battle and the proprietary cleaning 'systems' don't come cheap. The Tomix cleaning car is expensive but is a very well-made solid vehicle that needs a loco to take it around the track. I now have three of these cleaning cars set for the three different options and start by running them on my three tracks, swapping them over until all three tracks have had all three cleans. I can see the evidence for dirt being removed but the cleaning discs are pretty much spoiled after one use.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
While this Tomix track cleaning car is a good attempt at an all around track cleaning car it falls a bit short. It is GREAT in vacuuming the track. However when the track cleaning disk is installed it takes either one very powerful loco or two average loco's to pull it around the track. So I just use it to vacuum the track. ...Racerbill27
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
This Tomix track cleaner does what its designed to do quite well. Being n scale its quite easy to pick up loose ballast and scenery foam on the way around, I have had one impeller jam but it was easy to clean out. Great product!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Both Atlas and Tomix cars are the same, just the names on the sides and colors are different, all parts and accessories are interchangeable. The FAN mode sucks up everything, I have had mine suck up plaster bits 3/16th inch in diameter, amazing for a fan so small. Dust and debris go into the "squirrel cage" and are easily removed. The wet pad mode works very well and has a circular scrubbing motion (inserts where the fan blades were), the only drawback is the tank does not hold much cleaner fluid and needs to be refilled about every 15 feet. I recommend getting TWO of them and running them in tandem, the fan car first, followed by the wet pad cleaning car (there is a dry pad option for very dirty tracks but I've never had to use that), doing it that way not only saves time but also a lot of fuss changing the pad/fan set ups. When you purchase the cars remember to get lots of pads and replacement heads, stuff eventually does wear out and parts may not be easy to find a few years from now, so stock up. This is my first review, I am well pleased with the performance of the products mentioned I give it a 10 out of 10 rating. In fact I like them so much I'm getting 2 more for my other track. Yep, I feel they are THAT good that I want more of them. Yes they are "pricey", and some people may not be able to afford getting 2 at the same time, but as with anything "you get what you pay for"..Read full review
Verified purchase: No
Good quality product, does a great job of cleaning the track. Works out of the box on analog systems (DC) however it needs a decoder installed for operation with DCC. It's easy to install a decoder and there are several available that fit will inside the shell. It is not self powered and requires a locomotive to pull it around the layout. Over all this is a great product and a must have addition to any layout.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I gave this 5 stars because I was having problems with my DCC engines running smoothly. Two trips around my layout with the polishing disk and my DCC engines ran perfectly. The vacuum gathered a lot of loose foam bits and dirt from around the track too..I found that both the polishing and vacuum features work well. It is easy to switch over from polishing to vacuuming. It is easy to empty the vacuum chamber. There are a lot of tunnels and a hidden staging yard on my layout that I cannot get to easily without this cleaning car, and I would recommend it. CAUTION: This product is designed for DC power out of the box. Do not run this with DCC power or you will burn up the motor. If you want to run it with DCC power you have to convert it to DCC.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Does a really nice job cleaning and vacuuming my track. Great for tunnels and hard to reach places. Easy to change between vacuum attachment and the abrasive disk. WARNING: Do not use in DCC mode unless you convert to DCC. You will burn up the motor since DCC will feed it a constant 18-20 volts and it is not designed for more than about 8 volts.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
It simply does what it says it will do, clean your n gauge track, quite amazed at how much dust & grit was removed using the vacuum, even after a good clean with the fine nozzle of the Dyson, no slouch itself at cleaning. The scrubbers work very well ridding the track of stubborn dirt. highly recommended in my view. Be aware buying directly from Japan as I did will have to pay UK VAT on entry into the county, this is automatic via Royal Mail, £5.50 plus R/M handling church total £13.00
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
This is an even better product than I expected. The vacuum feature picks up things I did not even know were there. The track cleaning pads are amazing! I thought my track was clean until I looked at the used pad, it was black with the stuff that collects on the surface. My only criticism is that it took almost 5 weeks to get it here from Japan.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
have used it once or twice and it does a great job of cleaning the track and picking a lot of débris. would recommed it to anyone that does not like to clean track.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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