I was looking at buying one of these electric track cleaners. But I was wondering if anyone has used one, and had comments about them. They look like a good deal, and the reports I have read about them (from the retailers) say that they work well. Since they cost a few dollars, I thought that I would look into them further before buying.
Unless the Electrac II is radically different than a British version that was developed and advertised a couple of years ago, I would be extremely leery of using one. I inquired about the effectiveness of this device when I saw it advertised, and got the following response from the manufacturer:
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You CANNOT use one of these devices on a DCC equipped layout unless you remove every decoder-equipped item from the track, because they will destroy decoders. They are for use on DC controlled layouts only.
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Their effective range is limited to less than 50 feet of track because they have very low Wattage.
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The devices put a very high frequency radio signal onto the rail that is superimposed with the DC current from a power pack. The theory is that the radio signal causes a spark to be generated between dirt on the track and the locomotive wheels, thus burning dirt off of the rail. This sparking will pit and ultimately destroy locomotive wheels.
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They are not suitable for use outdoors on G scale rail (which was what I was asking about).
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They work only when a locomotive is running on the layout, because a spark must be generated by the locomotive wheels. I was interested in the possibility of connecting one to a club HO scale layout and letting it clean the rail while the layout was not in operation, but that is not the technical theory behind their use.