Tomix track cleaning car now in US

[up1950s]

Hmmm, how would the suction on of the intake of a jet engine melt snow? Suck - yes, melt - no.  Just saying... 
But you're right, this is way OT here.

Not to melt snow , use the intake as a vacuum to pick up dust on the layout tracks . Geez

[pnolan48]

...
Something got stuck between the fan and the housing of the unit, and if the fan doesn't turn then the unit doesn't work (go figure!).

I thought it was a motor problem but tried rotating the fan with my finger and found it was offering a lot of resistance so I figured something was stopping the fan from rotating... Sure enough, a large piece of ballast had wedged itself in there.  Once I removed that the fan turned without much effort and I continued cleaning my main.

If you have a lot of loose ballast, you'll be doing this all day. And, just like bigger vacuums, these will grind before passing the bits that don't completely stop them..

[rogergperkins]

The vacuum fan is removable; a small tool is included with the car for that purpose.
I think one is fortunate to have vacuum up the loose ballast with this car rather than have it pulled into the gears of a locomotive.
I ended by days of ballasting after a locomotive "ate" a piece of ballast.  Tough on gears.