Track cleaning/Locomotive wheel cleaning

[Anonymous]

i have a couple athearn BB, some dirty track, a walthers bright boy. a couple days of trying to clean the track and locomotive wheels with the bright boy.>>>still dirty track, still dirty locomotive wheels, and a walthers bright boy. the bright boy doesn't clean track very well or i'm not using it right. does anybody have any suggestions on "what" i should clean my track and locomotive wheels? thanks

[nfmisso]

If you Athearn have the sintered iron wheels, you will never get everything clean. They are dirt magnets. Replace these with NWSL or JayBee or new Athearn nickel silver wheels.

Using an abrasive cleaner, like a bright boy is also not the best, because it puts groove in the track and most wheels (not the sintered iron ones Athearn used to use though) which collect dirt.

I use a paper towel (good one like Bounty) and isopropyl alcohol, 70% is fine, and less risk of it attacking the paint. Some people like to then apply a tiny bit of Wahl's clipper oil (Wal-mart in the hair clipper section). Some don't like the whole concept.

[Anonymous]

yes, go with the nickel-silver wheels for sure. I like to clean my loco wheels with a Kadee powered cleaning block. Its a red plastic thing with alligator clips and wire brushes. You clip it to the rails, turn on the power and put the wheels on the brushes. In about a minute you can clean a whole loco!. I've never had any trouble with bright boys except you shouldnt use them often. If i neglect to run trains for awhile, i clean the track thoroughly with a bright boy and then get the track cleaning cars running like normal. I have at least 2 running all the time. I use those $4 kits with the fiber pad that you mount underneath a boxcar. They seem to work fine. I see no need for the $100+ track cleaners. If i get lazy, i have a car i built like the ones mentioned above except with a bright boy underneath. You cant run it very often, but its an alternative to scouring the track by hand.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

where can i get nickel-silver wheels and how do i take out the old wheels and put in the new ones? thanks

[Anonymous]

replacing wheels in an athearn is easy. If you look underneath the trucks there are plastic plates running the length of the truck. You can just pop them off with a small flathead screwdriver. Then the wheels just pull out and the new ones will drop right in. If you break one of the covers dont worry too much about it. Theyre real cheap and a hobby shop can get you replacements.

[Anonymous]

can you just glue the cover and forget about them or should get new ones?

[Anonymous]

DO NOT glue the covers! they also cover the gearbox and if you get glue in there youve got big problems. The covers should just snap back on if the wheels are in properly. The brass bearings should be flush with the top of the metal part of the sideframes.

[LD357]

 Every few months I like to get all my locos out and run them around the layout 4 or 5 times to make sure they're all working ok, last time I did this, I noticed some were sluggish and hesitating,  time for a wheel cleaning, thought I. The easiest way I had been using to clean wheels, was the WD40 on paper towels and run the locos across it,  works pretty good, I also use the Q-tip dipped in laquer thinner to get the thick crud off, works good too.......but, about a week before I had bought a brass bristle brush for my Dremel, so I decided to try it, I figured it would work about the same as the Kadee cleaner with the brass brush.

 I attached power leads to the motor, and put the Dremel on 7500 rpm, and gave it a try.....WOW!  it worked better than I could've hoped for!  it didn't just clean, it polished, and even those pesky Athearn wheels, that rust and collect crud like a magent, were soon shiny and smooth!  I put an Athearn SD45 on the rails, [it had been hesistating and slow] and it took off like it just had a total tune up!

 While I had all my tools out I gave each loco a cleaning and re-oil, and made sure all the contacts were clean and wiring in good repair, it made a huge difference in my loco fleets performance, even the old AHM locos ran better than they had in a long time.

  I've never used the Kadee brush cleaner,  but if it works like that bristle brush did in the Dremel, BUY ONE NOW!!!

[LD357]

 Every few months I like to get all my locos out and run them around the layout 4 or 5 times to make sure they're all working ok, last time I did this, I noticed some were sluggish and hesitating,  time for a wheel cleaning, thought I. The easiest way I had been using to clean wheels, was the WD40 on paper towels and run the locos across it,  works pretty good, I also use the Q-tip dipped in laquer thinner to get the thick crud off, works good too.......but, about a week before I had bought a brass bristle brush for my Dremel, so I decided to try it, I figured it would work about the same as the Kadee cleaner with the brass brush.

 I attached power leads to the motor, and put the Dremel on 7500 rpm, and gave it a try.....WOW!  it worked better than I could've hoped for!  it didn't just clean, it polished, and even those pesky Athearn wheels, that rust and collect crud like a magent, were soon shiny and smooth!  I put an Athearn SD45 on the rails, [it had been hesistating and slow] and it took off like it just had a total tune up!

 While I had all my tools out I gave each loco a cleaning and re-oil, and made sure all the contacts were clean and wiring in good repair, it made a huge difference in my loco fleets performance, even the old AHM locos ran better than they had in a long time.

  I've never used the Kadee brush cleaner,  but if it works like that bristle brush did in the Dremel, BUY ONE NOW!!!