Recently I aquired a fairly good size amount of used rolling stock for a very good price. A few of the cars have some missing details & missing couplers which have been replaced. The biggest problem with every car is that the wheels are completely caked with dirt. Most of them you couldn’t even tell they were metal wheels since they were so black. I started scraping ti off with a hobby knife which is quite effective but also very slow going. There has got to be a better way. Does anyone know of some type of solvent that will effectively clean off all of the grime without attacking the plast parts? Any ideas would be helpful.
Sounds like wheel cheese. Try Goo Gone. Soak a paper towel or a rag in Goo Gone, lay it over a bit of track, by hand run the car back and forth over the damp towel/rag. When you see black streaks on the towel/rag, you are getting it off.
You could try removing the wheel sets and soaking them in alcohol but I find that, when wheels get gunked up beyond a certain point, only some mechanical means of removing the gunk is effective. I like to use a flat blade jewelers screwdriver to carefully scrape off the gunk without scratching the wheel tread/flange. An old truck frame screwed solidly in place to a piece of wood could be used as a “handle” allowing you to roll a wheel set using the thumb of one hand while you scrape the wheels using the screwdriver or whatever tool you prefer with the other hand. You could probably clean an awful lot of wheel sets this way while watching television to ease the monotony.
If the dirt is that caked on, I do not know if this will work. I usually just use 91% alcohol on a paper towel laid over a piece of track, and roll the car back and forth over the alcohol wet paper towel. It may take several passes to get the gunk off.
Paul
I use a ‘mesh’ dishwasher bag - it has a zipper top and I fill it with wheel sets, then hang it in the dishwasher. It works quite well. Your wife may already have one. You can buy them for $10-20 on-line. If you have ‘plastic’ wheels - Hang it up on the top drawer!
Jim
If you have a Dremmel tool or something similar, after a soak in track cleaner, alchol or other mentioned solutions, use the buffing wheel (non-metalic) to scrub the crud off. The idea of a truck screwed to a board to hold them sounds like a good idea. Hold the buffing wheel at a slight angle to the tread, do you are not just spinning the wheel.
Good luck,
Richard
Thanks to everyone for all the great suggestions! I like the dishwasher idea…as long as the heat from the water isn’t too hot for the plastic. If not, all of the other suggestions seem great as well!