Model Railway Forum

I have just ordered the Hornby R 296 track cleaning wagon,however I am not going to use the the abrasive pads,i will remove these pad holders and clip on gaugemaster GM 37 track cleaning pads to the axles of the R 296,what with what you hear about not to use abrasive pads,im really scratching my head as why Hornby released this wagon,would love to hear from others on here about this topic,pictures will be posted,

I guess when they brought it out many years ago it was the way to clean track. To be honest the abrasive strips aren’t very abrasive and aren’t applied with much pressure so it doesn’t actually do very much cleaning.

The GM pads don’t do a very good job either. Nothing beats a track rubber and some IPA. The best wagon is the Sharge or CMX. There are several others.

http://www.model-trainstrack-cleaner.co.uk/shop/

It does something so it is better then nothing.

I do use tea towels and ipa

Agree with most on here this is very poor performer and very much over priced for something which dose the job badly as well. If you are able to cancel
the order and put the money towards one of the better ones on the market.
IPA with a cloth and a track cleaning rubber if you must rub the track is the best way to clean track.
..................John

Thankyou John, the wagon has been cancelled

You won’t regret it.

If you have some relatively inaccessible places this is a pretty good alternative
https://tencommandmentsmodels.co.uk/pro ... ing-wagon/

Given the relatively early item number, I would guess that most Triang-Hornby track was then steel rather than nickel steel, so was probably effective at cleaning surface deposits.

I would also suspect it may have been more of a "scenic" item rather than something that was actually effective?