Even tho I clean my track often the wheels on my engines pick up hard to remove gunk. I have tried just about everything to clean them. Does anyone have an easy way??
Thanks
91% isopropyl alcohol does a quick job of cleaning off the gunk and dries quickly too. Use a Q-tip.
Tilden
Yea… I have one of those, have for years.
Use the alcohol.
Tilden
I also need to clean the wheels on my locos from time to time. The best method I have found and works very well is to take a sectoin of track and hook up a power pack to the rails (I use alagator clips) then lay a paper towel over about half of the track. Wet the paper towel with alchol and put the loco on the track with one set of wheels on the wet paper towel and the other set of wheels on the bare tack. Hold the loco and let the wheels on the bare track spin and the other set will spin on the wet paper towel cleaning the set of wheels. Do this with each set of wheels until the loco doesn’t leave any black on the towel.
This works very well but keep in mind that the alchol is flamable so use caution . Hope this will help you. Mike
I do the samething Mike does. It works very well and probably is the fastest way to clean wheels. Use the blue Shop Towels paper towels for extra durability.
I have used the Kadee wheel cleaner for many years. Although it is quick and easy, I have noticed considerable wear of the nickle silver coating and some having the brass start to show through the scratches. Just too abasive, I now do the alcohol/ paper towel method and it cleans and will not harm the wheel finish.
This is the way I clean the wheels. I use the Seuthe smoke flluid.
Wolfgang
Hello all I am new here. I am new to the forum but old to the model railroad world. Well not that old I am only 30 years old.
Anyway The best way for me to clean engine wheels and i recommend it to everyone is to use alcohol on USED sheets of dryer sheets. It works the best because it holds its durability very very long. You can use one more than 10 times over. You know when you get a paper towel wet it starts to fall apart and that was my issue. Or the little fibers would break loose and end up on the track or in the engine. So I switch to my own idea of using Dryer sheets. It works great give it a try.
P.S. I say USED dryer sheets of course because the stuff on the sheets before it is put into the dryer is a thin film like stuff that you do not want to have on your wheels. Once it is used they are very clean.
I have used the rail and cloth method as well. HOWEVER, I laid 2 metal plates separated with a plastic strip insulater on a section of track near my loco servicing faciltiy. The metal strips are in contact with the rails and provide power to the TREADS of the wheels, NOT the wheel itself, as the constant grinding can wear the nickle plating off. So one set of trucks are on the powered metal strips, while the other truck sits over cotton cloth laid on top of the rail. This gets the inside treads clean as well as I run the engine full power to scrub the grime off. The metal strips simply look like a grade crossing, or work area for maintenace of the engines, which in fact it really is!!
I only use cleaning solutions if the grime is really caked on, but with normal use and a lot of running, I simply only need to use a regular section of cotton cloth I keep handy near the area. The slightest balking of enigine power and the wheels get cleaned. It takes about 10 seconds per truck and you have a squeaky clean running system.
I tried to get a picture put in but not sure it made it?!
Dear friends,
Here you have my 2 cents contribution:
For cleaming tracks I use the Roco track clean rubber it is sold for under US$ 10 and after it I clean the track with paper towel.
For the engines weels, I use the 66602 Trix HO locomotive wheel cleaning brush, you can attach several bruses to clean at once large engines. It is very efective.
best regards,
Luiz Affonso Saraiva
Sao Paulo, Brazil
I use the same approach as Mike describes above but I stopped cleaning my engines on my layout track. Instead, I mounted a piece of scrap track to a 1" x 3" piece of wood, then mounted a cheap power pack to the end of it using electricians tape and finally soldered wires from the power pack’s DC terminals to the track. This way, I can sit at my workbench and clean as many engines as I want without worrying about wearing out my mainline track. Actually, my real motive is to do the job sitting down. I have bad knees and need to spend as much time sitting down as possible… It can take a while to clean several engines.
Hope this helps.
Mondo
Get one of those wire brush cleaners that pick up power from the tracks and put the locomotive on it and run the loco stationary. Wire brushes all moving wheels. Minitrix makes one.
I use smoke fluid works well for me. LHS recommended it
[#ditto] …but I use the alcohol.
David B
A great method but it does nothing for tender pickups (or pilot wheels for that matter). Yeah, I like steam. Actually I also use the towel method for the drivers then clean the other wheels with a q-tip and alcohol.
Karl
I take it from everyones comments that the alcohol approach doesn’t have any harmful effect on traction tires? Thanks!
[C):-)] Rob
I also strongly suggest not using anything that resembles a wire brush to clean locomotive wheels. It will scratch the wheel treads and exacerbate the dirty wheel problem. (And imagine what it would do to rubber traction tires.)
I have used the 90% ISP alcohol and paper towel method successfully for decades - literally - including 30 years in N scale several years ago. I like the suggestion of using “used” dryer sheets (although I have never had a problem with paper towels). Be careful of loose threads getting caught around the wheel axles if using a fabric material.
As for cleaning unpowered wheels that provide electrical pick-up, such as on tenders, place the paper towel/s lengthwise along the track, add ISP alcohol along its length, and role the unit back and forth, moving the towel occassionally, until no more black streaks appear. It works!
I have been experimenting with a product called Rail Zip (?) for cleaning my track. It apparently leaves a mild conductive film on the rail. I recently used it to clean the wheels on my Walthers Sperry Rail Car to which I had added strobe lights front and rear, and a rear marker light. (I should mention an additional 4 ounces of weight as well.) Only the front truck is powered, but the rear truck is used for additional pick-up. Using the methods described above to clean all the wheels, this unit has never run so well. It now crawls around the layout without even a hint of hesitation.
Not to open another back-of-worms with this final observation, but running all your equipment with metal wheels will help fight the dirty wheels syndrome.
Cheers, Marty on Vancouver Island, modeling the Maine Central’s West End, St. Johnsbury, VT.
I use solvent whenever possible such as alcohol or laquer thinner. But older brass wheels get rings of darkeded surface rather than thick crud. These are removed quickly with a light touch of a wire brush in a motor tool at moderate speed.
A 2 inch scrap of flex track can be handy to spin the drivers. Clip the leads from your test power pack to the rails at one end then hold the other end of the rails against a pair of drivers while the loco is upside down in the foam holder.
Don’t forget to clean the faces and backs of the wheels. This is the route oil ang grease are taking from the gearboxes to the rail. Removing the supply of gunk closer to the source will gain more time before the next cleaning. Use a minimum of oil and grease. Over lubrication is extremely common and lots of locos are shipped with much more lube than needed.
And, of course, DON’T PUT ANYTHING ON YOUR RAILS THAT WILL HOLD DUST AND DIRT! Nickel silver doesn’t need to be lubricated to prevent corrosion as brass did years ago. Before you put anything on your rails, pour a 1 or 2 inch diameter pool of it on a clean scrap of glass and let it sit for a few days. If you see any residue on the glass, that’s what you’ll shortly be cleaning off your wheel treads along with all the dust that will stick to it.
Years ago when we had to clean the heads on a disk drive 90% ISP was all we could use. This was that any other alchol or freon would leave a film. If this was applied to cleaning wheels and rails there might be enough of a film to cause a high resistance. A hi resistence would not let the electronics get all the current possible.
“MAKE A GOOD RAILROAD DAY!”