I recently bought some HO cars off Ebay for a good price that were used. They are HO flat cars with lumber loads and a autorack. Since I bought them used I expected them to look used or be a little dusty but when I took them out of the box they are filthy. I don’t even want to touch them. They are in excellent condition just dirty as hell. I wient through this before and I called myself soaking them in some hot soapy water for a hour or two and then drying them off with a old towel. But then the wheels and couplers rusted so don’t know if I should try that again. This was over six years ago. So don’t know if the couplers/wheel sets are of different quality material. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Regg, I haven’t run into that too much but some ideas from experience and what I’ve read others do: If you’re worried about rust, remove any metal parts such as wheels from the trucks and clean those seperatley with alcohol and q-tips or small brushes. As for the stock themselves, warm soapy water shouldn’t hurt them unless your scrubbing vigorously. That may try to scratch paint or lettering, but a sponge or soft cloth thould be okay. Old toothbrushes or even different make-up brushes (check with significant other first if applicable) work well with the soapy water for couplers and things of that nature. To help the drying process along with toweling off, you could use compressed air like the canned stuff for PC’s and keyboards and blow out hard to get areas or couplers, metal trucks, that sort of thing.
Hope that helps! Others may chime in with other remedies too. Happy RR’ing!
Duane
Toss 'em before you get tetanus.
Dusty is one thing, dirty is quite another.
Shame on the seller who must live in a sty.
Rich
I would remove the wheels and couplers and wash in the cars…I usually use a disposable aluminum baking pan and a artist sponge brush and then I blow dry with a cheap hair dryer.
In your case I would wash the wheels and couplers with alcohol.
You’re joking right?
All those cars need is a good cleaning.
LOL
Joking?
Kinda, but, personally, I would toss them. Who needs someone else’s crap?
Rich
After spending the cash…I would clean 'em…
If I was worried I would use disposable plastic gloves but,considering every day life no worries…I’ve handled far worst.
Hi Regg,
I’m familiar with your scenario as a while back a retired coworker, who knew I was a model railroader, gave me a plastic bag that contained 1970s Bachmann & Athearn freight cars and an Athearn switcher. They were covered with dirt, flakes of rust, and grime, yet the bodies and trucks appear intact. I get the impression that they must have spent years outside in someone’s back yard or lawn mower shed.
What brand are your units? Are the trucks talgo or are they secured with screws? Plastic wheels or metal?
You received some good advice:
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Remove the trucks/couplers. Soak and then scrub them with alcohol. Either 50% or 70% Isopropyl alcohol works fine. 91% may be too strong as it may lift paint. Don’t use the green rubbing alcohol!
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Wash the bodies with warm, soapy water. Preferably a soap that contains no moisturizers, such as original Dawn or Ivory Liquid.
If there still some “crud” left in grooves that is difficult to get out, use a medium bristle toothbrush. For car sides, scrub in vertical strokes.
Can you post photos of your units?
I just went through the same problem with ‘dirty’ used freight cars from Ebay. I use warm water with a toothbrush (soft bristle) and Dawn dish detergent. The Dawn removes grease and oil. I dip the toothbrush in the Dawn (just a little on the bristles) and scrub the car body and then rinse under running warm water. I dry mine with a paper towel and sometimes my air compressor. I don’t let them air dry as they will rust the axles somewhat. I haven’t had any problems with this method and they come out ‘squeaky clean’. If you have any with Kadee couplers, then I would remove them first and clean them with iso alcohol.
Good luck,
-Bob
Good advice for cleaning the typical pad-printed plastic car as manufactured in the last 3 or 4 decades.
But also consider if it’s not. Something that’s been decaled or weathered (as opposed to just dirty, but that may be hard to tell with dirt over weathering…[:(]) will probably need more gentle treatment. Dull cote may be present to seal the surface, but if it’s not fairly thick, it may not protect decals from soaking. A lot of folks don’t even bother to seal decals. Many decals are far less “stuck” than they ought to be, depending on the skills of the builder, and could float right off.
I throw this in just in case someone comes across a wonderful old car, throws it in the water and finds all that wonderrful stuff floating when they return to check on it.
Another obvious issue, less encountered nowadays, are wooden cars. Don’t ever soak them or it’s a goner. Same for ones with paper or cardboard sides.
Oh my a museum relic from the early years of the hobby…Such cars should go straight away into a display case.
As far as decals…A good eyeballin’ with show a excellent decal job or a excellent crappy decal job…
Still the car can be washed with a gentle touch of a damp sponge.
It is not enough to remove the trucks and couplers from a plastic car being soaked - take out the steel weight too.
I too have seen dirty models being sold where I can only wonder what storage method was being used! But if trains are just put in an open box and that box sits where changes in temperature or humidity can make the surfaces damp to the touch, dust and other dirt can easily start to attach themselves; a garage just adds more types of dirt and dust (and grease) in the air, but an attic has its share too. When I was a kid I think the fact my folks heated with oil created some grunge in the basement air as well because the tops of my trains would get an odd texture over time.
The caution against using soap and water should be extended to metal cars such as the Varney lithographed cars, the old Athearn tab-in-slot metal cars (that Menzies reintroduced in the 1980s), and similar cars made of rustable steel. It might be that the cast zinc metal cars from Ulrich can withstand a brief dip in soapy water but I would not soak them the way I’d soak a plastic car.
Brakie might regard those as display models too, but I run 'em and think they look just fine. Wood car kits such as Silver Streak, Ambroid, Suncoast (excellent reefer kits) need not be regarded as museum or display case pieces and were still made in the 1970s and beyond. Wood is still a good material for scratchbuilding even today. Embossed paper cars are indeed a thing of the past but some embossed paper sided cars (with wood outlines, and perhaps cast metal ends and frames/bolsters) can still look good enough to run. To clean serious crud off any such cars a continuous but gentle brushing is called for.
Dave Nelson
All worthwhile comments. I think most toothbrushes are too stiff. I like a well-used shaving brush. Yes, they are still made, and a lot of old codgers (like me) still use 'em for their intended purpose. If you use it dry, it works like an old-time feather duster.
I asked a seller at a show why his prices were so low, he said his basement flooded and he wanted to get rid of the stuff. Be careful, if the sewer backed up it’s not just dust and dirt on those cars…could be something much…um…crappier. I’m allergic to mold and mildew (nothing serious, but I needed shots when I was younger), I give everything a quick sniff before buying at a show. In the past, I bought a kit in a box and found it smelled musty and it was hard to get rid of the smell. Replacing couplers and wheels isn’t a big deal, even leaving them a little rusty isn’t bad as long as they work; as soon as they get washed, brush lightly with WD-40 to make sure they still move. Any surface rust can be brushed off/painted over with little harm but it would be best to remove anything metal before soaking in water (with a little bleach to kill the bad stuff). I’m not a germaphobe, but it gross to have someone elses crap on my layout, pun intended 
I’m sticking with my initial recommendation. Toss them!
Rich
I have clean items that went through the Bucyrus '07 flood…
Nothing plastic gloves,bleach and soapy water couldn’t fix-the furniture went to the landfill.
BTW…Ever have the pleasure of cleaning out a hen house or barn? Ever been in a firefight?
There’s things a lot worser then cleaning freight cars.
Delray1967
That was my first thought when I saw them…I was thinking have these been through a flood because I remember my flood from back in April when I lost alot of train stuff. I just tossed everything though tools and all. But for Rich’s comment to toss them is insane at least at this point. I just paid for them and not going to toss them without trying to salvage them first. I’m going to go buy one of those aluminum baking pans as mentioned earlier and use some dishwashing liquid with a old toothbrush while wearing gloves. Maybe they have just sat in a garage for a while in a open box. I’m guessing if they had been submerged for any length of time the wheels and couplers would be rusty which they aren’t.
OK - I have to ask this question:
What would happen if you took the metal bits off of the cars and then put them through the gentle cycle in your dishwasher on the top rack? Obviously that wouldn’t be a good idea if the car has been decaled, but I’m talking about your plain old simple BB stuff. Maybe reducing the amount of detergent might be a good idea, and turning off the drying cycle would probably be smart.
Anyone ever tried this? I don’t have too much dust and crud on my fleet but I may just select a dusty car that I can afford to sacrifice and see what happens. (without the wife watching of course!)
I’ll let you know what the result is.
Dave
Dave,
‘‘Dishwasher’’ Is that something you store dishes,cups and saucers in? Or A guy,with white appron and a white cap on? [(-D]
Don’t clean um’, toss um’, Who said that? [:)]
Frank
Edit: To the OP, take coupler’s, trucks off and weight and wash shells in warm dish soap. Throw coupler’s away, wash trucks and wheels same way, also weight, dry with paper towels, spray paint weight to color of your choosing and #5 Kadee’s ,or what you want and run um’.
Frank:
I am very well trained! I empty the dishwasher (the mechanical kind, not the guy with the apron) after every wash! You don’t want to know what happens if my wife gets home and the dishwasher is full of clean dishes.
I’m serious about putting a car through it! Stay tuned!
And NO, my better half is not a bit…!
Dave