Subject:
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Re: First Third Party product for the LEGO(r) Trains market?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 28 Apr 2003 04:45:20 GMT
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Viewed:
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1972 times
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In lugnet.trains, Richie Dulin writes:
> In lugnet.announce, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> > Pretty exciting news!
Agreed! Having third party LEGO support products is an excellent step forward in
the hobby of electric LEGO trains. The fact that this product exists is
remarkable news!
<snip>
> I thought that it was a fairly commonly held belief that cleaning 9V track
> didn't make much difference to performance. Is this still the consensus view?
>
> Also, I thought that the advantage of 9V was that sprung flanges picked up
> the power from the side of the rail... so cleaning the tops of the rail
> wouldn't make much difference would it? (Except for nice, shiny rail, of
> course. But $104 seems expensive just for shiny rail!).
>
> (Or is the flange picking up power from the inside top edge of the rail
> rather than the side?)
Well, from personal experience in our club, I can tell you that some track can
get pretty grimy, and cleaning is definitely an issue. Dirty track results in
loss of power, jerking motors, and general unreliability.
On the other hand, it is true that the power pickups are from the side, rather
than the top of the rails (Which is part of the reason that LEGO track does not
get dirty anywhere near as quickly as other gauges). I can't tell from the
pictures whether the cleaning wheel rubs the inside of the rail or not. It's
possible that it does (or at least hits the inside corner, which would impact
the electrical contact). Hopefully the upcoming info page will have some photos
from track level looking along the rail so we can see the profile of the
cleaning wheel.
On the third hand, Zonker Harris's comment that the trains ran more reliably
after track cleaning is no doubt true. So whether the inside of the rail is
being contacted or not, cleaning the track using this method does have
significant benefits.
This would definitely make a great club purchase, and would be a huge help at
train shows.
I'm looking forward to learning more about it, once the info page is up!
Rick Clark
PNLTC
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