I found a product that does not require wheel cleaning once the track is cleaned. The secret is that I clean the track every week. I use Werth Brake and Auto Parts Cleaner in a CMX tank car as part of train. After an initial wheel cleaning I have gone two to three years without cleaning the wheels.I think what makes it work is that I push the cleaner car in front of my lead engine. It does not look prototypical but it sure does work. I make about two to three laps around the layout on each mainline track
For the people who wants to clean their wheels I made a wheel cleaner by cuting slots next to the rails (outside of the rails) on a rerailer mounted on a board hinged to a post so that ilt can be folded up out of the way. The slots on the rerailer has matching slots in the board so that strips of Handy-Wipes can be threaded thru the slots and sprayed with the Werth Cleaner.I used about a half piece of flex track on each side of the rerailer and wired the track to the layout trrack power which is Digitrax. This wheel cleaner rig was featured in a Model Railroader Workshop article.
With this system our club members very sledom have to clean engine wheels.
warmtreas wrote: I found a product that does not require wheel cleaning once the track is cleaned. The secret is that I clean the track every week. I use Werth Brake and Auto Parts Cleaner in a CMX tank car as part of train. After an initial wheel cleaning I have gone two to three years without cleaning the wheels.I think what makes it work is that I push the cleaner car in front of my lead engine. It does not look prototypical but it sure does work. I make about two to three laps around the layout on each mainline track
While I'm sure it probably works well, it sounds a bit dangerous to me. I just read over a Material Safety Data Sheet on brake cleaner and it's not something I'd want to mess with on a regular basis, especially the fumes.
I agree, it sounds a bit dangerous. Cool though, I suppose you could use the car whereever you want in the train.