I’ve always cleaned my locomotives’ wheels with a paper towel soaked with alcohol, holding the locomotive and letting the wheels spin on the paper towel. It seems to work well.
Lately, I’ve noticed my trains were not running as well as they used to. Some were struggling up inclines they used to go up with ease. The locomotives wheels were clean. The track was clean.
I took a boxcar and set it on an incline. It rolled but not very fast. I checked the wheels and was amazed at the gunk and lint on the wheels themselves and where the axles sit in the trucks.
I took apart the trucks and wheels and cleaned both. It was amazing how much difference it made in rolling.
Short of covering my layout with a plastic dome, is there a way to prevent that buildup? I do clean my track often, but obviously not often enough.
Also, is there an easier way to clean these wheels than having to disassemble everything and cleaning each individual wheel? This could take months. Thanks for any suggestions.
I’ve had this problem too…
I don’t really know of a way to keep that lint out, but I do have an idea that may or may not work. This may be very, very stupid, but why not try putting some kind of a filter into the HVAC registers in the room? I know that there’s a main furnace filter, but perhaps secondary filters will reduce the whatnot.
As for cleaning it, I have no problems doing so with just a pick and tweezers… but I’m using O Gauge. Maybe try dousing it in (plastic-safe) electrical contact cleaner. But that may not be strong enough. I’d use brake cleaner, but that’s nasty stuff and would probably attack the plastic after cleaning up the gunk!
For rolling stock I spray contact cleaner on a paper towel and run the cars over it several times. A car is clean when no black residue shows on the paper towel. It takes 5 to 10 seconds per car.
I have not had any problem with lint on the ends of needle point axles. It can happen with blunt end axles but it takes years of operation. All of my wheelsets (S Scale) will drop out of the truck by slightly spreading the truck side frames. No disassembly is required.
About once a year, I have to clean the metal wheels on some of my freight cars and passenger cars. The issue is black gunk. It looks like gum on a sidewalk.
If it is thick enough, I use the flat blade of a small hobby screw driver to scrape it off as much as I can. Then I finish it with a clean piece of white cotton cloth soaked in 70% isopropyl alcohol. I never use a paper towel.
And, yes, I often have to remove the trucks to release the wheelsets.
Now I’m thinking outside the box a little. In regard to not having to remove the trucks/wheels, could soaking a sponge with 70% alcohol and running the car back and forth work? Would be quicker and less bothersome than removing trucks?
Chris, I think it would depend upon the spread and thickness of the black gunk. When I use the flat blade of a small hobby screw driver, I leave the wheelsets in the mounted trucks on the car. I rotate the individual wheels with my thumb with the flat blade against the tread to peel off the bulk of the gunk.
Rich, roger that. I’ve had to do that numerous times over the years. It’s disappointing how that gunk gets there. Rails are cleaned such that engines run perfectly (DCC). My layout room has finished walls, finished dropped ceiling, and industrial carpeting. Dehumidifier in summer. Temperature in the room always between 64 and 72 depending on season. Guess we just have to deal with it.
I think there are a few things going on with track and wheels. One is micro-arcing, and another is water with galvanic action. These are causing corrosion. Alcohol attracts water. When the alcohol evaporates its leaving a layer of water on the rails and or wheels. This is part of the reason to use low odor mineral spirits, then follow with some graphite. It keeps the water off the rails and fills in the micro-cracks and scratches to minimize the arcing and galvanic corrosion.
I have not yet done this yet but I’m going to only use clean room wipers on wheels and rails. The reason being, to avoid lint fibers causing wheels to micro-arc when going over them. As mentioned before, good air filtration should help keep things cleaner as well.
I try to get all of my freight cars to come off the layout (and back on) via interchanges around the layout. I use a simple method Bill Darnaby showed me, which is whenever a car goes onto the layout roll it back and forth a couple of times on paper towel dampened with cleaner on the track. I use low odor mineral spirits, and it only adds a couple of minutes do even during an operating session. In time all of the cars get their wheels cleaned.
All of my N scale freight cars regularly go to interchange sidings (as per my routing cards.) I then remove them and clean wheels (alcohol on paper towel draped over a cleaning track which I also power up for engine wheel cleaning.) I also inspect for various issues and fix/replace things as needed. Since I have two interchanges, the cars are then spotted on the opposite track from which they came, and are eventually picked up by a local and sent to yard for classification. Since it’s never more than 8-10 cars at a time, cleaning and inspection go quickly and I feel better about the car roster overall, knowing that I’m cutting down on track gunk and rolling resistance. .
One thing that I have noticed is that a build up of gunk on the wheel treads can eventually cause derailments, likely because the wheels more easily slide off the rails.
I’m not sure I understand about the arcing on rolling stock. I know it happens on locomotive wheels.
My layout is N. Surprisingly, metal wheels on the rolling stock were fairly clean. The worst gunk was on the plastic wheels. Does arcing happen on those?
Ah. Reason I asked was that at former club we had cars that derailed. Inspection showed the black gunk described had built up so much that there was almost no flange to keep wheels on the rail. Had to be scraped off with exacto blade. Always was Kadee wheels.
