Just want to know what you use and what you would like to use, also any damage from things like the speedie or trix type
I haven’t needed to clean my wheels since I went with my CMX and ACT-6006 cleaning fluid about 12 years ago.
Over the years I have replaced all the plastic wheels with metal wheels, not sure if that is partially responsible.
I run the CMX about once a month for two passes.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I have always used an industrial paper towel soaked in CRC contact cleaner placed over a section of track.
I run jumper wires from a power supply directly to the motor, place the locomotive on the paper towel and track, and run it for just a few seconds. All the wheel crud comes off easily.
-Kevin
For locomotives, I just lay a shop paper towel damped with 91% alcohol on top of the layout tracks and run the front & rear trucks (at slow speed) over the paper towel until no more dirt comes off.
All my rolling stock has either Proto 2000 or Kadee metal wheelsets. If I need to clean them then I remove the trucks from the body and wipe them with a Q-tip dampened in 91% alcohol.
Tom
I place a paper towel moistened with Goo-Gone on a section of track. Put one truck on the paper towel and the other truck on metal rail to pick up power. Run for a bit until the wheels look bright and shiny. Repeat for the other truck. For steamers there is usually enough power pickup thru the pilot truck or trailing truck to power the drivers.
I do the towel on the track thing, for locos, with either 91% alcohol or laquer thinner.
Mike.
From published findings over the past three years, kerosene should be the fluid of choice. It’s a solvent, so it will dissolve organic compounds of some kinds, and it will leave a suitable film on the tires that is claimed to be the best of all those tested. In order to preserve paints and other effects one wants on the ballast and rails, one should probably do this OFF the layout, but otherwise, the kerosene is good for keeping the tires and rails clear of black crud.
What about on steam where the tender wheels etc. are not powered. Hear that big layout Miniatur Wunderland uses a dremel type tool.
I’ve used the Dremel on freight car wheels. I’ve also used a Q tip with solvent, then the Dremel.
I use a soft wire wheel.
Mike.
I sometimes use lens wipes such as Zeiss brand that you can pick up at Wal Mart or Sam’s Clup, because they contain alcohol and are lent free and clean them by laying the towel across the rails and running one truck on it at a time while holding the locomotive in place. I try not to use alcohol on any wheels of locomotives that have traction tires because I have heard that it can dry out the rubber and shorten the life of the tire. Has anyone else heard this?
Ralph
I would guess the alcohol would dry out the rubber wheels. How easy would it be to remove the rubber part? They just fit in a groove on the wheel.
I mean I know on a steam loco you wouldn’t get the band completely off because of all the gear attached, like rods, etc. But I would think you get get them out of the way enough to clean the wheel.
Mike.
No traction tires, don’t think I ever owned anything with them once I moved to HO from N.
Of course, if the driver has a traction tire, there’s not much reason to clean the wheel, as it’s not able to pick up power anyway.
The only wheels I’ve found that needed cleaning were brass wheels on older locomotives, both steam and diesel, and usually only when they hadn’t been run for some time.
I did have some Kadee wheels on cabooses that seemed to pick-up an inordinate amount of gunk, and cleaned them first with an X-Acto blade, then followed-up with a wire wheel in a motor tool. That also removed the blackening on the wheels’ treads, so I then used the wire wheel on my Rivarossi passenger cars, all of which had Kadee 36" wheelsets in the slightly modified Rivarossi sideframes. Those wheels weren’t dirty at all, so my intent was only to remove the blackening from the wheel treads.
Unfortunately, it was difficult to prevent some of the wheels from turning too rapidly, with the result that the ends of the plastic axles became deformed, causing some wheelsets to later fall out of the sideframes.
I was able to get replacement axles from Kadee, but later learned that some of the journal boxes of the Rivarossi trucks had also been deformed by the build-up of heat generated by the spinning wheelsets.
I do think that the generally clean aspect of my layout room helps to limit the necessity of both track cleaning and wheel cleaning. Track cleaning is usually done with an appropriate tool on the ShopVac’s hose, perhaps once every year or two, and wheel cleaning not at all unless a loco or car shows some anomaly in its operation.
Wayne
The brass wire type powered cleaning brushes work fine. Isopropyl alcohol is a good and effective solvent for wheel crud. So is electronic contact cleaner, btw. (Mostly isopropyl is my guess).
Grinding, sanding or other abrasives are not a good idea and completely unnecessary. If you scratch the metal you just provide more places for dirt to embed. Brass wire will not scratch the metal wheels.
The only hard tool I’ve used is a hobby/jewellers flat screwdriver as a skimming chisel for stubborn deposits. You power up the drivers and lightly skim harder deposits off using the flat blade at a sharp (very acute) angle to the metal tire.
Regular track cleaning is a better way to keep locomotive wheels clean. Track cleaning fluids will also work well on wheels.
one can also use a thermal printer head cleaner, which is basically a marker filled with 91% isopropyl
I have a Kadee wheel cleaner such as this, and I do not like it.
After the wheels are clean, there is a need to clean the cleaner.
If your wheels are difty enough to require a metal wire brush, there are other problems that need to be addressed.
-Kevin
I like the idea and many now come with 99%
Brand new engines, just want to keep them running well.
Bought a 12 pack of pens, someone had a damaged box sale, almost 100% IPA.
This is a rare instance where I agree with Spike.
I rarely use my brass wire wheel cleaner, but it does a very effective job of cleaning locomotive wheels without damage to the wheels.
Locomotive wheels are particularly hard to clean when trying to remove black gunk because the geared wheels don’t turn easily to expose the black gunk. So, by turning the locomotive upside down in a foam cradle, you can use the wire brush to coax the wheels into position to clean off the black gunk.
Rich