Dear All,
While installing DCC lighting in one of my coaches, I found that the wheels do not conduct current at all. Apparently the wheels need cleaning/polishing. How do you usually do that?
Regards
Walid
Model railroad forum would be the place to ask. This is a 1:1 scale real railroading forum.
I posted this for him in “Electronics and DCC” on the Model Railroader forum site, under the stirring title ‘Wheels appear to not to be conducting’. By the time he navigates over there I expect he will have replies from the ‘correct community’ that will give him a leg up on his problem.
Of course the first thing he should check is if his coach has plastic wheels that never conducted in the first place…
Hi,
Thanks for posting to the other forum.
Plastic wheels/axles do not exist on this side of the Atlantic.
Regards
Walid
So much for the signal maintainer getting some overtime.
I don’t normally comment on model RR stuff, but let me take a stab at this one.
An easy way to clean really dirty wheels is to take a dremel tool and put one of the fiber fittings into it (one that’s like a dowell is best). Spin the wheel set with the dremel on one wheel, while lightly holding a piece of very fine emery cloth on the opposite wheel. That will quickly clean even the dirtiest wheels
But keep in mind the problem may not be dirty wheels. Are the lights not working at all, or are they working intermittently? If they aren’t working at all, the problem probably isn’t dirt - there’s a broken electrical connection somewhere. If they are working intermitttently, the problem could be a poor contact between the wheelset and the lighting circuit. How does the current get between the wheels and the lights? Take a continuity tester (available at any hardware store), and clip one wire to a wheel. Take the other wire and test every point where the circuit isn’t hard wired and depends on some kind of mechanical contact. For example, if the current is supposed to pass from the wheels to the truck frame through the ends of the axles (a very small contact area), is it actually doing so? Put the second wire on the truck frame and work you way up to the lights checking every mecha
This is why you will never get away with just a one man crew… trains always need a conductor.
Now, wait an ampere moment there! Them wheels maybe paper made at its core!
Real wheels on real trains do conduct electricity. Sometimes not wdl enough, and that causes signal problems.
I have a length of track tacked ot a 1 x 2 for maintenace purposes. I take a paper towel and put some Ronson cigarette lighter fluid on it and put that on the rails. Put the car on the towel on the rails and move it back and forth. I am always amazed at the amount of dirt left behind on the towel. It works for locomotives too when I put power to the rails and run an engine that has contact enough on the rails to run it while part of the drivers or truck is rubbing on the towel, then turn it around to do the other truck.
On coaches with lighting I use a product called Never Stall on the contacts, generally a wiper on the axle and lights stay on at any speed with almost no flickering. It’s available from Daylight Products- www.daylightsales.com
I do that too, except I use electrical contact cleaner (available at hardware stores). Works fine for ordinary dirt buildup. But it doesn’t work well for caked on dirt. The wheels have to be spun to get caked dirt off (either that or you have to manually clean it off wheel by wheel). Of course, that’s not a problem with powered loco wheels (the loco can just be run to spin the drive wheels on the paper towel). I use the dremel/emery cloth method on unpowered car wheels.
[:D] I see what you did there.