I just acquired a Woodland Scenics Tidy Tracks Roto Wheel Cleaner.
I have just started using it, and it makes cleaning wheels on locomotives easy.
The wheel cleaner can be placed on straight track, and it will get power from the track with contacts on the bottom of the cleaner. Alternatively, it has leads with allegator clips to be connected with a power source.
It has rails the legnth of the unit which are spaced closer together than rails on track. The locomotive wheel flanges make contact with the rails. With power on, wheels spin on cleaning pads. More abrasive pads instead of the regular cleaning pads can be used to clean very dirty wheels.
I use DCC. It was easy to place a locomotive on the wheel cleaner, and enter its address in the controller to power the locomotive.
The cleaner rails are HO scale 87' long. A Big Boy would fit without its tender. One could have an elevated section of track for the tender with it coupled to the locomotive. The elevated section of track could have power leads connected. Then a large steam engine could have its wheels cleaned. ... I have not tried to do so, but it looks like it could be done easily.
This photo shows and SD7 getting its wheels cleaned.
Edit ... I cleaned all wheels of 6 SD7's and SD9's in only a few minutes.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
I purchased one a few months ago to use on my N scale diesel fleet. I have not had any success with N scale locos. If anyone has had success with N, let me know the secret, please!
Joel
We have one of those at our HO scale club. It doesn't really clean wheels very well unless track cleaning fluid is applied to the felt strips.
I was surprised at negative comments about the wheel cleaner. It works fine for me.
I used mine according to simple instructions. I cleaned all 12 wheels on each of six locomotives without adding any cleaning fluid. The wheels were well cleaned in only a few seconds.
The instructions do say to apply downward pressure on the locomotive, and perhaps it would not clean well if someone failed to do that. Just the weight of the engine is not enough downward pressure.
Garry,
I trust Your opinion....I'm going to try one of them tings.
Take Care!
Frank
I have one, you do indeed have to press down on the locomotive, otherwise only the flanges hit anything. (Just do not press so hard it stalls out.)
Amazed me how much crud it got that the paper towel method must have missed..... (I did get even more using cleaner on said felt... But don't recommend using cleaner, as the felt kinda peeled away a little bit.)
Their tidy track track cleaner is not that bad either.... But that's for another discussion.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
I have one of these as well. I put one black strip that loosens up the dirt on one side and then put the white felt on the other side. I run the locomotive and then flip it around so it loosens the dirt on the other side. Then I flip it once more to finish.
If the dirt is too heavy on the wheels, sometimes I use plastic safe gun solvent and it eats away the dirt enough that the felt pad usually takes it off. I have the nscale one as well and that works fine for me too. Only problem with the nscale one is it's a bit too short for my tastes.