I recently did a little experimenting with cleaning wheels with an ultrasonic cleaner. Although the results were not as spectacular as I had hoped, some interesting facts did surface. First, I found that Intemountain brass wheelsets cleaned up beautifully. I also found that P2K wheelsets did not. It appeared that the P2K wheels had their nickel plating worn off and the metal underneath picked up dirt like mad and didn’t clean easily at all.
Anyone else have this experience?
One of the advantages of ultra sonic cleaning is that it works great in removing hard backed-on dirt but is not as ideal for soft grimy stuff.
Ever check out the Lux wheel cleaner. It cleans all wheels not just the driving wheels and it does it all while running your trains! Check out the movie clip here to see how it works:
http://www.mrsonline.net/
Regards,
Art
Thanks for the info, Art. However…the LUX system looks like it requires a third railfor power while the drivers are being cleaned. Do you have one of these things? If so…does it work with regular US two-rail power pickup?