Description
The Sharge uk range of track cleaners are manufactured as double bogie tankers which uses a cleaning fluid to wet a contact pad rubbing on the track.
The unit can be pulled or pushed by the loco and enables the track, loco wheels and rolling stock to be cleaned and polished whilst operating the layout.
Chris S –
It was about a year ago I became aware of this product, until then I had only seen the CMX competitive product in action on a friends layout, but felt price and availability in the UK for the CMX was an issue for me to make a personal purchase of my own.
George’s Sharge unit was 60% of the CMX price. I very nearly bought one but was put off by the overall dimensions of the Sharge 00 unit. The filler on the top protruded quite significantly, high enough to potentially collide with my tunnel arches and I felt there was a risk that the side mounted flow control might hit my curved platforms.
But these new HO/00 models have eliminated those previous concerns with their new design that has adopted the style of George’s long established N gauge cleaners.
Why am I appearing to be on first name terms with George I hear you ask? I’ve never met George the man behind Sharge UK, I’ve never spoken to him or had any other contact, but his name comes up on Model Railway related forums and other web based articles as someone who is passionate about his product and will do his best to satisfy his customer’s requirements.
Anyway back to the review.
With the new HO/00 design I now felt comfortable about the product providing adequate track clearance and ordered one.
It arrived by Royal Mail recorded delivery within 72 hours in a plain white box. Nothing fancy in the packaging. No specially fabricated cardboard interior, just plain bubble wrap and plenty of it to protect the contents.
The contents of the box consisted of:
• The cleaner wagon of course.
• A syringe for filling the reservoir with the cleaning fluid.
• A length of cleaning pad, which felt like a velvet material.
• Instruction sheet.
• And a screwdriver by RS Components for making any adjustments that might be necessary.
I specifically highlight that the screwdriver was by RS, as RS Components are a long established wholesaler of quality products and don’t normally come cheap.
As well as the spare length of cleaning pad velvet in the box. The cleaner came with a length prefitted to the chassis cleaning block as well, thus the cleaner was ready to go “out of the box” (minus cleaning fluid of course).
At the time of writing this review, I have only performed a dry run to check for clearances and as I had hoped, this new HO/00 design does not disappoint in that department. There is plenty of clearance all round top and sides with my layout environment.
If I had any criticism at all, it would be that the weight of the HO/00 cleaner is a lot less than the competitive CMX (made of solid brass), but the weight does seem sufficient to keep the cleaning pad firmly in contact with the rails. The spring pressure can be adjusted with the supplied screwdriver. One could argue that being slightly lighter than the CMX is beneficial, as I observed on my friends layout that the CMX needed a powerful loco to pull it or even a ‘double header’. Therefore the lighter Sharge unit should be pulled easily with a typical multi-drive wheeled diesel loco.
The one criticism of the Sharge UK website is the lack of detailed information regarding the physical specifications of the HO/00 cleaners. So for anybody who is looking for this information I have provided the key measurements below.
Overall length of the chassis, including the protruding end bogies but excluding the couplers: 192mm
Width of the cleaner at widest point (bogies): 31mm
Cleaner Height taken from the baseboard, whilst sitting on Code 100 track: 50mm
Weight of the cleaner (empty): 167 grams
Brian Tucker –
Purchased a track cleaner with fluid some weeks ago now and must say it is just about the best product of this sort to buy. There is no comparison with others, like Dapol for example. This cleaner is very good. Why? Well simply there is no erosion of the track unlike my example Dapol. So glad I have one. If you need any endorsements then I’m your man.
Brian Long –
Thank you for my track cleaner, modified to EM standards at no extra cost. It certainly does the job well, and I can recommend it to anyone with extensive track (inc. tunnels etc) to invest in one – especially if you are operating with DCC! Those of you who are fine-scale or even P4 would have no difficulty in adapting this unit, and with a little imagination, could make a convincing weed-killer train for example. Happy shunting all!!
Aidan –
I bought the white Esso track cleaner just over a year ago, and I wanted to give it abit of time and work for the Sharge track cleaner before writing a review. I have too say i’m glad I went for the Sharge works really well on my 12′ square layout.
I did look into the CMX cleaner and I hear good things about it, but there was no way I was going to have that ugly beast on my layout (never mind the price of it), when I could have the Sharge Esso beauty running around my track twice a month.
Though I don’t own a CMX so I can’t compare the two, but I will say I have been using the Sharge track cleaner twice amonth for over a year now, and it works like a charm. I actually love clean my track now, and before it would nearly have put me of model railways. One thing though I painted the two sliver nuts black that hold the bogies on, it would look even better if they came painted, but that’s not a problem.
So would I recommend it, most definitely and I have done. Hope this helps anyone that is considering one.