Tomix motorized track-cleaner - a conversion from N to TT

[rekoboy]

Some of you may have read my contribution on the theme of Tomix N-scale motorized track-cleaning vehicles on the German Railways section of RM Web - but since those photos were lost from the site and since I have made one or two changes, here we go again. The machine in question is available in the UK, mine were bought direct from Japan from Plaza Japan, whose prices are generally very low - but whose postage charges are quite steep. On the German TT-Board site there has been a lot of discussion about the re-gauging to TT of the very over-scale N-gauge Tomix track vacuum cleaner and polisher  - indeed one contributor sells professionally rebuilt Tomix machines through his website (www.digitalzentrale.de). The discussion centred around the pros and cons of using bogies or chassis parts with power-pickups as in the original Tomix design. The Tomix track-cleaner has a powered rotating brush, which can be easily replaced with a supplied fan to make a vacuum cleaner, along with a fixed track brush and an onboard tank for cleaning fluid. As in the case of other colleagues from TT-Board I decided not to add power pick-ups to TT freight bogies (in my case from Roco) but to power the machine by jumper connection from a semi-permanently coupled loco. After experiments with a Piko Taurus and a Zeuke V180, which were not especially successful thanks to the weight of the track cleaner which has some meaty zinc blocks inside it, I settled on a BTTB Ludmilla which had been an unplanned acquisition in a job-lot from E-Bay. As you can see from the attached photos the original bogies with pick-ups and N couplers were removed and replaced by Roco bogies which were modified with a distance ring made from poly tube. The original self-tapping screws were re-used. Peho coupler mounts were glued on to both ends of the machine and a small hole for the jumper cables drilled carefully in one end of the body shell. Those jumper leads were then soldered inside the Tomix to the original connections to the now removed bogie pick-ups, and were then cut to the correct length and soldered on their other ends to home-made copper plugs - ex mains-cable earth wire - which fit the sockets made of brass tube under the cab windscreen on one end of the Ludmilla. Inside the Ludmilla the brass sockets are simply wired to - and soldered to - the motor leads. To anyone who is sceptical and believes such a machine to be a gimmicky toy my answer is - try it and be amazed! On its first full test-runs round my layout I was amazed how much fluff, dust and loose ballast was vacuumed up. Before most operating sessions I run the Tomix in a cleaning train which also contains one or two Tillig freight wagons with Noch cleaning pads attached. Problems? Not really, apart from the fact that the plastic employed by Roco for the freight bogies is resistant to most adhesives - Araldite worked in the end.

[Paul tpxguard]

Hi not speaking German is the commercial part you mention under TOMIX Drehgestell Spur N / TTm / H0e 

thanks

[rekoboy]

The word 'Drehgestell' means 'bogie'. Do you mean the bogies you find on the Digitalzentrale website? They are the standard Tomix N ones, probably left-overs from his rebuilds. Sadly, he appears to have stopped selling the ready -made Tomix rebuilds and the bits to do the job yourself. But if you can get hold of Roco TT freight bogies it easy-ish to do the conversion - see my article

Edited May 7, 2023 by rekoboy

[Paul tpxguard]

Looking at your conversion I was thinking perhaps Hornby Pullman bogies (pickups already fitted) but not started pulling my atlas mow cleaner apart yet

Edited May 7, 2023 by Paul tpxguard

[rekoboy]

That sounds an interesting idea! Do the Hornby bogies carry the coupler pockets? If not, surgery on the bogies will be needed to allow clearance for the pockets which need to be cemented to the underside of the Tomix body. The Roco freight bogies are designed with one end open to allow space for the coupler.

Edited May 7, 2023 by rekoboy

[Paul tpxguard]

No the. pockets are fixed in the coach as far as I can see 

How close does  the disk get to the track can it still grind with tt wheels

[rekoboy]

Ah, good question! I use my regauged Tomix only as a vacuum cleaner with a fixed brush lightly touching the rails. If you need a polisher, then you will have to adjust the TT bogie mountings so that the track is just touched by the polisher disc. Any real pressure by the disc on the track will stall the Tomix motor and potentially cause it to fail and will also make the vehicle difficult to move. A question of experimentation, I think!

[Paul tpxguard]

Just thinking about the functionality of it all 

no real need for it I suppose