Dapol Track Cleaner vs WS Rail Tracker?

[Chrissaf]

Im trying to Decide whether I want the Dapol track cleaner or the Woodland scenics Rail tracker, but I Can't figure which one is better?  Apart from the Dapol one being pushed Along by a Loco and has a Vacuum Which is better Bye Quality, Price, Price for Replacement Cleaning pads, and Effectiveness, and Ease of use, Can some tell which was is better in most Categorys. (Please stay on topic please.)  😉

[Chrissaf]

Thread title edited.

[Yelrow]

McTrains. Hi, unfortunately, since this forum became moderated, all fun has been removed from it, and we are not allowed to go off topic.. To answer your question, i have both, and the first thing to say, is there is a big price difference, and comparing, is a bit like chalk and cheese. The dapol, is a fantastic track hoover, i have 3 of them, and they pick up every little piece of debris. As a track cleaner, with pads, etc, its very poor, and there are much better ones, dedicated, and much more expensive. The Woodlands one, does what it says on the pack. Would i buy another one,No, i use it,  perhaps once a year. If your track, is, or is going to be Ballasted, buy a dapol from ebay, purely as a hoover, and use  the rough side of a piece of hardboard, or a scotch, nylon green pot scourer, for the track. Or a track rubber.   Unless you have a big layout, you will then be fine. Specialised wagons like Sharge, and CMX, are wonderful, the latter, very heavy, and needs a big loco, to pull,but are really for a layout where you cannot reach all the track, or are fairly well off.   On topic, enough, i hope.

[Forum-1211528]

McTrains. Hi, unfortunately, since this forum became moderated, all fun has been removed from it, and we are not allowed to go off topic.. To answer your question, i have both, and the first thing to say, is there is a big price difference, and comparing, is a bit like chalk and cheese. The dapol, is a fantastic track hoover, i have 3 of them, and they pick up every little piece of debris. As a track cleaner, with pads, etc, its very poor, and there are much better ones, dedicated, and much more expensive. The Woodlands one, does what it says on the pack. Would i buy another one,No, i use it,  perhaps once a year. If your track, is, or is going to be Ballasted, buy a dapol from ebay, purely as a hoover, and use  the rough side of a piece of hardboard, or a scotch, nylon green pot scourer, for the track. Or a track rubber.   Unless you have a big layout, you will then be fine. Specialised wagons like Sharge, and CMX, are wonderful, the latter, very heavy, and needs a big loco, to pull,but are really for a layout where you cannot reach all the track, or are fairly well off.   On topic, enough, i hope.

Yes your comment was on topic enough Thank you, I Actually meant people who start a Conversation about something not related to Question. Thanks for the Answer 

[Forum-1211528]

So as the Dapol track cleaner hover is good but the Cleaning with the pads is poor, Then would a mini hover with the Woodland scenics Rail tracker work well. Mini hovers are Cheap we're I am. 

[STG]

I have used woodland scenics rail tracker and found reasonable results with the some of the pads, although some of the pads designed for use with liquid track cleaner deposit any loose ballast on the top of the rail  🤔

[Yelrow]

If you have the spare cash, you will be amazed at the amount the dapol picks up. I would not be without mine. You can get a fearful lot of scouring pads for the price of the Woodland cleaner. You will gather, i thought it expensive, for its results. As for mini hoovers, i do have one, but its quite fun to run the dapol. I also have one with a DCC chip in for my other layout, and a Tomix, same idea, sor n gauge. You pays your money...........

[ColinB]

I have one of these, I bought it to clean in a tunnel. Trouble is it relies on picking up power from the track to run the cleaner. Well if in my case you want it to clean up the track because the loco cannot pickup any power then it is not going to work. I did work on a circuit to run it on batteries if it lost power, but my initial go with a PP3 battery didn't work. I was going to look into rechargables, that seems the way to go. I like the concept of the Dapol, the only other issue I have with it is a bit light and easily derails. As for the tunnel, believe it of not a Peco Track Cleaning rubber on the end of a long stick, worked really well. I had even tried the Woodland scenics hand held track cleaner, but it don't work well when used horizontally as it the case of a tunnel mouth.

[96RAF]

The Dapol one as John says is a good hoover.

 

As a whizzy disk abrasive cleaner  it is very good at changing points, which way depends upon the direction the disk is going at the time. Changing the points whilst the cleaner is moving over them results in a derail. Not good if you have points in a tunnel that you are trying to clean.

 

I didn't find the wet cleaner bit much use either as the tank is too small as there is no dribble control and the associated pad is quite small.

 

The reason you push this round is as stated because the track is grubby so you clean it and the donkey engine runs on the hopefully newly cleaned track.

 

I use ladies finger nail buffers which come in various grades for rail head cleaning. These are as cheap as chips in discount stores.

[JJ73]

I have the Dapol Track Cleaner & it seems to do the Job - cleans the track of dust & other bits!!!

I have reviewed the

Please take a look & see what you think - thanks in advance  😀

[96RAF]

Or there is this one - turbo-hoover.

 Link removed and replaced by a screen grab.

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[Yelrow]

i would like one of them.

[96RAF]

May be a tad out of loading gauge John.