A First Impression of te Dapol Track Cleaner.

So for Cristmas I recieved a Dapol Track Cleaner in 'oo' guage, but due to certain restrictions I havnt been able to try it out, the snow meaning my baseboard space has been taken up by two rabbits. Joy.

But today I managed to make room to place the board on top of the table to finally give it a try, so here goes.

First Impressions....it looks the buisness. It comes ready to run in the box, in 'Vacuem mode'. It seems well made, and fairly simple to use, which is good as the biggest let down is the basic insructions that come with it.

You need to push the cleaner with another engine, as it has no motive power of it;s own, so for this trial run I deliberately chose a very old engine, which doesnt run that well, so it should show any improvements quite noticeably.

With a bit of a jerky performace, which I didn;t know if caused by the engine or the cleaner, the vacuem ran well and picked up fluff and dust, collecting it in a hopper in the centre f the train. It seemed to do the job well, but admitedly as the board has been stood up against a wall for the best part of a month, there wasnt actually much to pick up. I'm interested in what it will perform like when I start to ballast.

So onto the cleaning function. Using an included tool, you have to remove the fitted vacum part, and fit the cleaning pad. The train includes two types of pads, a grinding and a polishing. The grindng pad should only be used for really bad cleaning, as potentially it could remove the plated surface of the track. In this case, I went for the polishing pad, which is what I see as being the one used 99% of the time. A brush pad is included to brush the inside edge of the track, which needs to be fitted before use. This is included in the box, and mouns with a single screw. I dont see why this isnt factory fitted, as ince on it isnt remved, but it isnt, so you need to do it yourself, an easy job. This isnt mentioned in the instructions however, so a little logic is needed. A small resevour on top of the train is filled with cleaning solution, and your ready to go. Switched on, and the old engine pushing, around it goes. And the results?

By the second loop, running performace was noticabley improved. The run was less juddery and smoother, and the track surface was shining. On stopping the cleaner the dirt on the pad under the train showed just how effective it was.

On running one of the new engines, it sailed round without any problems and seemed quieter, though this could just be me.

So for performance, I give it the thumbs up, and would heartely recommend every layout has one. I can see how running this as a regular routine, will improve the performance of your railway and the life of your engines and stock.

Is it perfect? No. although minor, there are some issues I had with it.

Most of all the instructions are very week, with little more than the most basic instructions. It's ok to get you up and running, but more is said about fitting a DCC chip than anything else. As an example, included in the packaging is a rubber O ring, but nowhere is there any explination of what it's for. (For anyone wondering, it;s a spare seal for where you fill the cleaning solution).

(Talking of DCC, it is fully ready for it, but as the only actual function is on/off, it isnt by any means vital or advantageous. But it will work perfectly with either system)

There are a couple of niggles with the buld, which are just my opinion, in that the collection cover for the hoover function feel a bit flimsy, but as long as your no rougher than you would be with any loco, it isnt a problem. I also think the bogies and wheels are a little small, tight, causing a few derailments switching tracks over points and making it quite akward to actually put it on the rails. I'm not sure if these could be replaced, but I think that with deeper wheels it would be alot more stable.

And one real niggle.....the cleaning solution. This is not included with the main model, and I think this is a real oversight. Even if just enough to run it once, I would include this with the initial purchase. Fortunately I also got a bottle with the gift, but without it you loose one of the biggest features of the cleaner.

Overall, this is something I think anyone would benifit from owning, makng track maintanance more fun, and alot easier in some of the hard to reach areas. I am suitably impressed, and think it's worth every penny of it's purchase price. Loks wise it wont look like it fits on a 1920's branch line, but thats ot the point. It does a job, and it does it well. Could you ask for anything more?