Anybody have recommendations for one of those wheel cleaners that uses track power? I’ve got one (from MicroMark, I think) that is a stiff wire brush that clips to the rails and uses throttle speed control to turn the wheels. I’ve been concerned that it will scratch and damage the wheel contact area with the rail. Any suggestions? Am I worrying about a non-problem?
Mike
That wire wheel cleaning brush you have is probably the one made by Kadee. Brass wires that could conceivably scratch the wheels with prolonged use.
The simplest is to take a rag or paper tower stretched across the track with some track cleaning fluid or rubbing alcohol on it and let the loco’s wheels run onto and spin on this back and forth a few times. No scratches.
I use alcohol and paper towel.
While the brass wire brush could be abrasive, brass would be softer than the metal on the wheels, so it should be the brass that is abraded.
I use alcohol and a Q-tip with the loco inverted in a cradle and power applied. Though I’ve never used the Kadee wire cleaner, I have heard that eventually, the wire brushes will take the plating off of the wheels.
Tom
I agree with cacole. I use a rag moistened with paint thinner and draped over a short piece of track on a scrap of 1X4. One truck is held over the rag while the other is on the rails. A power pack is used to supply power.A paper towel would also work. DO NOT use Lacquer thinner or xylol as these solvents attack plastics.
I built my own cleaner
I built it big enough to take my big boys. I use a cotton pad with wheel cleaner and then use Wahls clipper oil on another pad to help with electrical contact with the rails.
I prefer the paper towel method as well. Its safer and just as fast as using one of those brass brushes. I use the blue “Shop Towels” brand paper towels, they are more durable then the plain white ones.
Same here but I use Goo Gone. One thing I do is dry the wheeels by running the engine on a dry paper towel as well. Keeps the wheels from picking up gunk as quickely. I all so have the Kadee brush, I use it for a quick cleaning.
Cuda Ken
Paper towels and 91% alcohol will work every time.
This method also works for freight car wheels…[tup]
Tom,At all three clubs we have one of those wire cleaners that we use for stubborn wheel gunk…I never seen any damage.A lot of guys swear by 'em…
IMHO its like the bright boy myth.
I place the loco upside down in a foam cradle, power it with leads from a cheap transformer (I’m a DC guy), and use a nylon bristle brush running on low speed in my dremel tool. It works very quickly and the nylon brush is safe for the wheels.
Larry–
Thanks for the information, that’s good to know. Now I can file that along with the other Urban Myths (including the Briteboy[:P]) I have seen the Kadee in the Micromark catalogue and it looks pretty darned efficient.
Tom [:D]
I have used the Kadee wheel cleaner many times but I still perfer the Alcohol and paper towel method the best… Kevin
Ther is actually basis in fact to the idea that it will happen, that a softer metal will cut a harder metal. Believe it or not, you can machine stainless steel with a high speed steel cutting tool. It’s hard to say if the wear is from the running or the cleaning, but I’ve had some wheel’s plating flake off.
Like the bright boy myth that requires 10,000x under a microscope to see the scratches on the rail?
I am not buying into the cleaner causes damage myth…I been a member of one club for 20 years and never seen any damage.
One is free to believe as they will and welcome…
The peeling could be cause by several things to include old fashion wheel wear…
My old Athearns with the cast iron wheels is completely shiny after years of club use and the locos I use at the Bucyrus club hasn’t been clean for 2 years and still shiny!!
That to me is a great mystery…
I use kitchern paper towels. And in hard tasks I use alcohol or track cleaner:
Wolfgang
I use either paper towels and alcohol, or the brass wire brush.
If you choose to go the brass wire brush route, look at using the Trix wheel cleaner brushes instead. They come as a block 4 inches (or so) long that you set onto the track. They can be ganged end-to-end, which allows you to clean all of the drive wheels on even the largest steam locomotives. They’re a lot less fiddly to work with than the little Kadee hand-held job.
The Trix one is their item #66602. The photo that Walthers shows on their site is an earlier design of the same item number. At $33 and change, they’ve gone up over 50% in price since I bought mine at $20 apiece a number of years back.
In all the years I’ve been using these, I haven’t seen any plating wear that I could attribute to the wheel cleaner.
I use gun cleaning patches across the rails and alcohol. The patch doesn’t tear and leave cling-ons.
Peter