Wheel cleaning

[Anonymous]

I'm new at building HO layout. Could anyone tell me how to clean the wheels on the engines?

[dknelson]

There are some commercial wheel cleaning fluids out there; some people use Goo Gone or Wahl hair clipper oil.
Mount some cheap, perhaps slightly damaged track on a piece of wood. You want it reasonably sturdy. For this purpose adhesive calk or Woodland Scenics tack glue works well, if spread with an old credit card or other stiff flat surface
I think about 18 to 24" long is a good length
Find some way of powering the rails while still keeping the track cleaning thing portable; perhaps alligator clips or use an Atlas terminal track piece. Some guys get a cheap power pack at a swap meet and dedicate it to this purpose. Other guys with DCC run wires from the layout to this isolated piece of cleaning track, but you probably want wires that can be detached readily again to make this portable. If you have a test track you might use it for this same purpose BUT the underlying wood or homasote will get soaked with the cleaning flued over time.

Get some of the strong cloth-like paper towels and soak a small area with the cleaner or goo gone or whatever, and run the engine one truck at a time over the cloth/towel. You will see dark streaks. You may need to hold the engine so the turning wheels rub against the towel. Using weights or thumb tacks to hold the towel in place might prevent it just sailing away. :)

Then do the other truck. Sometimes it is necessary to do this a couple of times to get the wheels visually clean. Remember that the dirty streaks will transfer dirt to the wheels so keep moving that towel around so that the wheels are touching clean areas. Do not scrape at the wheels with a knife or other hard surface as this might create tiny scratches that will just gather more dirt.
The other thing of course is to keep the track clean so you do not have to clean the wheels so often. This is difficult because all your dirty freight car wheels keep transferring dirt right back to the track. Sometimes running freight cars over the damp towel can remove some dirt but the wheels turn of course so there is no real rubbing action.
Dave Nelson

[scole100]

Micro Mark has a great locomotive wheel cleaner. It is a piece of powered track with small velcroed section of cloth across the rails. You set the loco on the rails and move the wheels slowly across the cleaning section. I have used it for several years and it works great.

[SPFan]

I use a Dremel with a wire brush. Apply power to unpowered wheels or the motor directly if they are all powered. About 5 seconds per wheel and they shine.

Pete

[aluesch]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Trub

I'm new at building HO layout. Could anyone tell me how to clean the wheels on the engines?

Lux makes a wheel cleaner that is installed in the layout and cleans all wheels of locos, coaches, cars etc. while you run your trains. It was featured in the May 04 Model Railroader issue. You can also check it out on my web site.

Regards,
Art
http://www.mrsonline.net/

[mikebonellisr]

Will my DCC equipped engines run off a DC power pack?I just mounted a couple of peices of E-Z track along with a rerailer and wired power section.I also mounted 2 KD coupler guages isolated on each end.I suppose I could solder on aligator clips and connect it to my layout if I can't run with a regular power pack

[Anonymous]

I use an extra pack that came with a set and mounted in on my work bench, couple of wires, flip the engine and power up and use whatever cleaner I wish.

[Anonymous]

Thank You to all that replyed to my request "how to clean wheels on engine". I have used a previous tip for cleaning track with metal polish and it worked well.

[Anonymous]

I have a soft-foam cradle (that I mostly use for engine servicing). I place the engine upside down, use alligator clips to provide power, and hold a Q-tip soaked in isopropyl alcohol (light dirt) or Goo Gone (heavy dirt; need to follow up with the alcohol) against each wheel.

Since I have too many locomotives, some build up more dirt than I should allow them to. A slightly tedious but highly effective and not overly abrasive cleaning technique for heavy build-up is a soft eraser.

Do NOT use the wire brush unless you don't care about dramatically shortening the life of the plating that most locomotive wheels are given.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mikebonellisr

Will my DCC equipped engines run off a DC power pack?I just mounted a couple of pieces of E-Z track along with a rerailer and wired power section.I also mounted 2 KD coupler guages isolated on each end.I suppose I could solder on alligator clips and connect it to my layout if I can't run with a regular power pack

Yes, if you have the decoders set to recognize and run on DCC. It's one of the options in CV-29 -- not sure which one, since I'm not near my reference material right now, but I think most decoders default to having it turned on, and you can turn it off by subtracting 4 from the value in CV-29 (if memory serves, and I may be wrong).

[bogp40]

Originally posted by SPFan

I use a Dremel with a wire brush. Apply power to unpowered wheels or the motor directly if they are all powered. About 5 seconds per wheel and they shine.

Pete
Be careful with this method of wheel cleaning in no time the nickel will be worn through to brass, not to metion other damage if you slip. The Alcolhol/ paper towel method mentioned above is the most effective.
Bob K.

Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K.  www.ssmrc.org

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