I’ve already built one of those cloth over the tracks and spin the wheels while holding the loco gizmo. It works ok, but the cloth needs changing and I don’t really like to hold those drivers spinning on the rails.
So I got to thinking about how a better contact could be made on a loco upside down in a foam cradle. At first I thought of using some kind of wiper on a frame and then thought that some wheels running on wheels would be better. I couldnt think of a good way to hold the things down to the loco’s drivers on an arm of some kind, when I looked at my workbench and realized I had everything there I needed in place.
I took an old Tyco type loco apart and stripped it down to the frame and snipped off the truck side frames in front. I took out the front wheels which were already equipped with wipers and wires, and were just idlers with no gearing in the truck (the advantage of crappy old Tyco). The axle was in two parts fitted into a plastic center, but because I wanted the contact wheels to run inside the flanges of the loco being cleaned, I took them apart and shortened both the plastic and the axles (so no short would occur when I shoved them back closer together.
I wired the wipers directly to the old power pack and set the frame in the panavise which was already permanently attached to the workbench on the side.
Voila…it works like a charm.
I find I can see what I am doing much better, I can adjust the cleaning cloth quickly to a new spot, and the drivers run on the powered idlers much better than letting them spin on the rail. I have no fear about cranking up the voltage to avoid holding the motor to a stall while cleaning.
The disadvantage is that the loco has to be inverted onto the detailing on the roof…handled more. But the loco is going to end up in this position anyway f