:cry: Wheels on your rolling stock rather than sit there with a cotton bud cleaning i spent past few hours cleaning my wheels more so on the plastic b--gers than the metal ones seems like 10 year crap on them strange onlt been modeling 3 years lol come guys what gives with cleaning your wheels dont say you dont please ty mike on the VALIUMMust be a better way to clean your ?
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:cry: Wheels on your rolling stock rather than sit there with a cotton bud cleaning i spent past few hours cleaning my wheels more so on the plastic b--gers than the metal ones seems like 10 year crap on them strange onlt been modeling 3 years lol come guys what gives with cleaning your wheels dont say you dont please ty mike on the VALIUMMike: One of the local fellows had the prototype of an automated wheel cleaner at the Christmas train show: a motorized roller and some sponges. No idea when available.
My own method is a paper towel over a spare length of track. a few inches at one end is soaked in track cleaner and the car is rolled back and forth on this and then onto the dry bit of the towel. As the towel develops black streakes, it is shifted sideways.
As I roll the car, I push sideways so that most of the wheel is pressed against the ail. I like fairly heavy rail (Peco code 100 or even old TriAng code 125) to cover most of the tread.
After that, I turn the car upside down and take anything that remains off with the cotton bud.
My own method is a paper towel over a spare length of track. a few inches at one end is soaked in track cleaner and the car is rolled back and forth on this and then onto the dry bit of the towel. As the towel develops black streakes, it is shifted sideways.
As I roll the car, I push sideways so that most of the wheel is pressed against the ail. I like fairly heavy rail (Peco code 100 or even old TriAng code 125) to cover most of the tread.
After that, I turn the car upside down and take anything that remains off with the cotton bud.
Ultrasonic cleaner?? I've never used one for cleaning model train wheels but I have used the industrial size and they wil remove about anything. Small hobby and jewelry size ones can be bought from several sources.
I don't have plastic wheels on any of my cars, and I haven't had any problem. When we set up the modular club layout, we clean tracks first. Then we have a cleaning track set up just off the back of one of the club modules, with paper towels and isopropel Alcohol. I take any locomotive I'm going to run over to the cleaning track and clean locomotive wheels before putting it on the track. I've never had a wheel cleaning problem. I am probably 2 years away from getting started on my home layout, so I can't comment on how hard it will be to keep everything clean on a home layout that is set up all of the time. I think if I find myself having problems keeping wheels clean on a home layout, I'll spring for the small jewlers ultrasound machine.
What I did was a little diffierent. I took a piece of masonite and cut two grooves in the rough side that are the same spacing as track. I put this in a shallow aluminum foil contaner and added alcohol to just cover the board. Grab a car, run it through the grooves for a few seconds, and set it on a paper towel (to absorb the excess alcohol), and grab the next car. The rough surface of the masonite helps to scrub the wheels. With the solid surface around the grooves, the car easily slides into the groove for cleaning.
A word of caution (actually, several). Use in a well ventilated area. With that much surface area, the alcohol evaporates quickly. Also, if you paint your wheels and trucks, test on an old set first. The alcohol may take the paint off.
If anyone is interested, I can post a picture.
Tom
A word of caution (actually, several). Use in a well ventilated area. With that much surface area, the alcohol evaporates quickly. Also, if you paint your wheels and trucks, test on an old set first. The alcohol may take the paint off.
If anyone is interested, I can post a picture.
Tom
Mike, here's the picture as promised. Next time, I think I would make the board a little bigger to fill up the bottom of the pan. It would take less alcohol. The other option is to fold the tray up around the board. Mine is grooved for HO scale but the idea would work in any scale.
Tom
Tom