Locomotive Wheel Cleaning

I run the trains to clean the wheels. Use isopropyl alcohol on the rollers and track... nothing beats it.

Same here. Isopropyl alcohol and lots of elbow grease..........

A roller stand, q-tips, isopropyl alcohol or laquer thinner... which ever I have handy. If you don't have a roller stand, just put the rollers on the layout, or build a cheap roller stand with some scraps in the garage. 

When I do maintenance or any work that puts an engine on my bench, I check things like how clean are the wheels. I may have dragged an eraser over them or some alcohol on a rag to make me feel better on a few. I run mainly MTH 2 rail engines. The wheels just don't need much maintenance. Just a dash of oil when needed. So I have to say I really don't clean them, after about ten years now.

PAUL ROMANO posted:

Same here. Isopropyl alcohol and lots of elbow grease..........

Yep, same here.  IPA, microfiber towel and some elbow grease works for me.

I take them to the workbench, put them in a cradle, power them up and use my Dremel with a wire wheel. Gets them perfectly shiny.

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

I take them to the workbench, put them in a cradle, power them up and use my Dremel with a wire wheel. Gets them perfectly shiny.

And please! Eye protection for you and anyone around.  Those dremel wire bristles are prone to let go from the wheel and are dangerous. 

I hold a flat instrument against the wheel and rotate it to remove any heavy build up. The instrument might be a screwdriver, knife, or a cut down popsicle stick depending on my mood. (The nice thing about the popsicle stick is that it does not leave any marks).
Then I follow up with a QTip fairly wet with mineral spirits, and then the dry end. On really dirty wheels it can take one or more QTips per wheel.

I use Elliot's method with a Dremel wire wheel. It's quick and works well.

I think I've maybe cleaned the wheels on my engines once in the 13 years I've been back in O Gauge. I religiously wipe the track down whenever I switch trains out. Never had a single issue.

I scrape the gunk and/or rust off all wheels with an old pocket knife.  Most of gunk comes from loco gears lubrication and wheel/axle oil and running.

Charlie

A wire wheel may be ok for 3-rail locomotives, but it will leave pits that can cause more problems later on.  If you want to use a Dremel tool, get some fine Craytex polishing wheels.

But most imports now have plated drivers - at least for 2-rail, removing the plating is a must for traction.  For 3-rail you have rubber tires - if you want to preserve the plating, use only solvent and a rag or Q- tip.

Opinion.

With a locomotive upside down I connect wire leads from a transformer and run the locomotive at slow speed. I use q-tips soaked in Goo Gone to remove build-up from the wheels. One or two q-tips soaked in Goo Gone per wheel will usually remove any built up gunk.

  A brass dremel wheel does far less damage than steel ones, maybe "none".

For " super gunk", the kind that looks like steel and nearly as hardened, I've been using a brass key lately vs a blade.

Final tread clean up is usually alcohol, Acetone or paint thinner on a rag, paper towel, or Q-tip. 

I used to use my Dremel but nowadays Q tips and solvent (Electronic/tuner cleaner from O'Reilly Auto Parts) works well for me on locos and passenger cars. The Q tips are handy for cleaning excess oil and other things as well. 

anecdote: I have a conventional Lionel North Pole Mikado that I run on our Christmas layout every year. Around Thanksgiving I clean and lube locos, tenders, and passenger cars. I install new traction tires where needed, and I put new 9 volt batteries in the Legacy tenders. This past season I missed the above loco. It ran slow and needed almost a full 18 volts by the mark on the transformer just to get around the track. I recleaned the track and checked all feeder wires. No change. Checked outputs on my old ZW transformer; right at 18 volts. Finally pulled the loco off, cleaned the wheels and it runs like new. It was pretty cruddy. 

Duh! I'm not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. Check easy stuff first!

Clean track + clean wheels and pickups = happy motoring