Cleaning wheels has always been a problem taking time and effort. It doesn’t seem to matter how clean your track is because in spite of this, that black hard goo still cakes onto wheels, especially locomotives. I know, there are several commercial answers to this problem, but I hit upon a simple (and cheap) way of cleaning the wheels on my locos. I place a clean, soft, nappy cloth over the rails (anywhere on the layout), then saturate the cloth over the rails with Goo Gone (Wal-Mart). Then, I place the engine on the cloth-track, thus allowing the Tender to stay on bare track, then turn up the juice. The wheels spin on the locos and cleans them perfectly. On larger (challenger type) locos that gain their electricity from the Loco wheels, I place half on the bare rails and the other half on the saturated cloth. For rolling stock. I simply roll them back and forth on the cloth until the black goo is gone. Try it, you’ll like it.
Works great doesn’t it, I’ve been doing it for ages. A cheap and effective method.
Ken.
Larry,
Do your cars have plastic or metal wheels on them?
I’m asking because of your “black goo” description. That’s usually symptomatic of plastic wheels, which leave a deposit of grime on rails. With metal wheels, the time periods between rail cleaning will be considerably longer.
Peace.
I am still in the process of changing all my rolling stock over to metal wheels, that will take care of one problem. I have not had to do any maintenance to them since.
I have used the same method as stated above for cleaning all my loco wheels, you can use the same basic process for diesels as well. Half the wheels on and half the wheels off the cloth.
i have to many locos and rolling stock to clean so i just let it go
For cleaning car wheels I made a little gadget by attaching a rerailer to a section of track, just roll the car onto the cloth covered rails and roll back and forth as you suggested. The rerailer makes sure the car is easy to put on the track (I work in N scale) but this should help in HO too. I have had a problem with Goo-Gone however, it works fine the first day but track must be recleaned the next one as if there was a deposit left by the Goo-Gone. Alcohol doesn’t have this problem.
Also, does anyone know if metal wheels are available for N scale?
BTW, Dr. Larry Crabb - the theologian?