Hi Guys, tonight i was doing some wheel ,engine cleaning,its nice to clean wheels when there running ,and the motor,but, when you have ,stock on the track,its kinda hard ,so ,Tonight ,i remembered i had a old bachman,D.C controller.so i came up with a piece of 2x4 and some old track ,soddered it ,to the controller,and you have the perfect maint,center,not sure with DCC,but i think you can just ,unplug it for this ,homemade unit,BOY! did it work great ,Heres a Pic so if you want to try this ,It does work!
Not to be nitpicky. Is the comma on your keyboard sticking? There’s an overabundance of them in your post that makes it somewhat harder to read. Just wondering…
Sorry for the sticky comma,[#oops] Its not all the way finished yet,but im thinking of making some bumpers to work like clamps so you can adjust to enigine size,Then incorperate a cloth type piece for the wheel cleanning,I will keep you updated ,Any thoughts please tell.
How about adding a re-railer section to one end? I’d make a bit longer, so you can do that. Then, I’d cut the track in the middle, and drop the other end about a millimeter. That’s where you put the cloth, and with the step-down of track height, the cloth won’t pinch between the track and the wheels when you pass over it.
Hey ac4400fan, just thought I’d point out that the controller is a Life-Like, not a Bachmann. The Bachmann controllers have a black housing and a red knob with a swing out lever on it.
Good gismo! To make a really effective wheel cleaner for engines try stapling bronze bore cleaning brushes (.30 cal. works fine) to a pice of 1X4 instead of track. You don’t need a power supply. Screw two pieces of brass w/ notches to fit your track and connect them to the bore brushes. I use three bore brushes on each side and space them so they’ll work w/ switchers or GPs. Put the gizmo on the track w/ polarity set so it will butt up against a block (I actually use KD cplr ht guages so it will work pulling or pushing), set the engine on the gizmo, crank up the track power and go do something else for a couple of minutes or so. When you’ve used it a few times the collection of crud on the gizmo will give you a good idea of how well it’s working.
Hi Carl,
I made the same device you did…the only difference is that I used a smaller piece of wood (1" by 2"), just because I have a small hobby table.
In order to clean the wheels, I cut paper towels up into strips about 4" wide. I lay them on the track, squirt “Goo Gone” on the paper towel, place one set of wheels of an engine on the paper towel and the other set on the track and turn up the power slowly. Obviously, the set of wheels on the track allow for electrical pick-up and the other wheels spin on the paper towel and get cleaned. Once one set of wheels are cleaned, I simply turn the engine around and clean the other set. Naturally, you need to keep moving the paper towel and adding more cleaner until the whole paper towel is a mess and it’s time to begin with another strip.
Now, I know a lot of guys are going to say “Goo Gone” leaves residue on the wheels and I definitely agree. That is why I use a two step process. I clean the wheels on several engines with the “Goo Gone” and then I repeat the process with isopropyl rubbing alcohol, to clean off the “Goo Gone”. Trust me, alcohol alone will not remove all the gunk on the wheels but I’ve found that ALL gunk will be removed by the “Goo Gone”.
The second step with the alcohol only takes a moment and is worth the extra effort.
A rerailer to get cars and locos on the track easily
A Kadee height gauge on one end, bumper on the other, so you cna check coupler height and trip pin height. If you screw the kadee gauge on the track you have to gap one of the rails or it will short.
A second rerailer modified per an MR article I saw that allows you to stick a towel through it for wheel cleaning
Mark the distance off from the kadee gauge end listing the recommended weights - that way you can couple up a car and read off the required weight.
Bigboy, When they get dirty and when they quit running!!! Or when the crud build up is so bad the the flanges have disappeared!!! [}:)][}:)][(-D][(-D] Idon’t think there is any time table like changing oil in your car. I have locos that I;ve had to clean the wheels every week and others that haven’t been cleaned in years, but then they haven’t been run that much either.
I have cleaned one set of engine wheels only, and that was to get them clean from overspray of Dull-coat. My BLI Hudson has the most hours, and I have yet to clean those wheels…They may be due, but not as of today.
So, I would recommend a maintenance cleaning about every 20 hours of operations. For me, that would be once every three months at my daily rate of playing.
Also I bought the ACT-6006 TRACK & WHEEL CLEANER and it seems to be pretty good as a cleaner. I have tried WD-40, Rub Alcohol, Goo Gone and Rail Zip but this stuff too seems pretty decent. I only have to clean the whels a 1/3 as much as before.
Of course it could be that I spent 30 + bucks and think it works better [:p]
Hi,
I usually will clean the wheels of an engine on my layot when I notice the headlight flickering, indicating less electrical pick-up due to dirty wheels.
I’ve recently implimented a “standard” procedure for my layout. Whenever I take an engine off my layout and place it on the shelf, I clean the wheels. Therefore, I always know that my engines are ready to go on the layout, without dirtying it up. I’m also going to do this for rolling stock. Before I put the cars away in my closet-bound beer flats, I will clean them. Of course, all I do with rolling stock is turn the cars over and clean them with a Q-tip swap, first dipped in “Goo Gone” and then afterwards, using a clean Q-tip, I clean the wheels with rubbing alcohol. The alcohol removes any residue from the “Goo Gone”.
I really think a standard procedure will save aggravation in the long run because oftentimes, I’ve cleaned my track just to dirty it up later with an engine I haven’t cleaned for a while. In fact, I generally clean my track when I’m about to switch out various engines and rolling stock on the layout. I’m like most folks in this hobby: I have much more rolling stock and many more engines than I can place on the layout at any one time, so I change around every once in a while.
I saw a hand held brass brush wheel cleaner that conected to a power pack. The wheels would draw current when they contacted the brushes and spin and clean the wheels.I think it was on the Kadee site and it was only about $11. Has anybody used one of these or know if they work?
Brass is a VERY soft metal, it won’t scratch nickle-silver or other harder metals. You wouldn’t want to scratch the bore of your gun barrel, either. A brass brush is not like a typical wire brush with steel wire bristles.
