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I have a small N scale railroad under a dust cover on display in a museum, have to clean wheels and rails every 2-3 days since the locomotives (2-8-0 Consolidations) are so light and intolerant of the least bit of crud. Since this runs unattended a few hours a day it needs to be kept reliable and clean, if they stall nobody there to know what to do about it. <br /> <br />At some point I will get some Aztec track cleaning cars for it and then will only need to clean the roller periodically, but for now i find a quick and comfortable way is to wear a mateless old sock like a glove and soak the end in 91% rubbing alcohol. Then i can rub this along the rails without damage to scenery close to the tracks since i have better control of my fingers on the rails than if i used some sort of tool. <br /> <br />For the wheels i turn the locos and cars upside down in a stryfoam cradle, spin the car and tender wheels with a finger while holding the wet sock against the tread with a fingernail from inside the sock for extra scraping power. Same thing for the locos, but with a 9V battery held against the tender pickup wheels to spin the drivers while cleaning them.
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