tender wheels so dirty, it comes off like a hard crust?

Co r text huh

Sounds like built-up crud to me.  It's amazing, isn't it?  If you get tired of using your fingernail, a small screwdriver works well.

I usually get what your describing on the first time cleaning the wheels. After that it subsides. I use an ear swab (Q-tip) and charcoal lighter fluid to dissolve the caked on hard stuff after scraping as much as I can off the wheel. You can use any lighter fluid I just have that handy and it evaporates and hasn't harmed any of the paint if I get a little off the wheels.

Sorry

 Yes, it is dirt 

too much oil and dirty track.

Lightly hold the wheels to a wire wheel or use the dremel wire wheel to remove the buildup

Well, I guess I have plenty to do watching tv, for a while! I don't think I can avoid dirt on a Christmas floor layout. This loco is on the track that goes under the tree. I just can't skip annual cleanings.

Thanks all.

Yep, it's dirt.  I don't have much luck using a wire brush with a Dremel. I use a sharp screwdriver and scrape the hard stuff down to the metal, then finish the job with a solvent such as denatured alcohol and Q-Tips and/or a rag.

.....

Dennis

For all of the complaints of smoke fluid, causing it, or too much oil causing it. Most of the "crud " on the wheels is actually the byproduct of the electrolysis that occurs when the current passes through the dissimilar metals of wheels and track. No matter how clean the environment it would still happen. Its just the "nature of the beast" as they say.

Sounds like postwar truck assemblies and wheelsets, I remember having to clean my older Lionel wheelsets a lot more then the newer fast-angle wheelsets.

Smoke flid will help increase the dirt on the wheels

 

Lee Fritz

I never had this on any post-war locos I have but then I don't put dozerns on hours on them as I think would be needed to build up the crust.  

 

I have had this happen on two locos: a 2004-ish Lionel SD70 and a Willians trainmaster.  No idea why just those two although there is this: I use the SD70 - far outside the time period of my layout - to pull my track cleaning train - wet pad Pat's trains cleaning car, dry-pad cleaning car to mop up, vacuum car.  I've wondered if the track might still be wet and the goo building up on the wheels.  but that does not explain the trainmaster.  

 

Much as I hate to use any hard implement that would scratch to clean wheels, nothing but a small chisel would clean the guck off . . . well, cleanly.  Frankly, since it recurs on only these, I wonder if lightly scratching or whatever that does to the wheels causes it to recur more often.  

Doesn't a wire brush/Dremel combination scratch the wheels up?  I have found that the alcohol method dissolves the gunk pretty well.  And the wheels are left clean and smooth.

I have been running trains since 1971 when the wheels get  crud on them I take the train car to the bench grinder and with the wire wheel side I clean the wheels. I  have never had a problem. I guess there are other ways but it has always worked for me .  

 

Hold the truck assembly lightly up to the wire wheel .  I am sure no was is right or wrong just diffrent . "To each his own "

I'm sure the wire wheel method works well but at a price. If the wheels get sratched up by the cleaning process, you are providing crevises for dirt to build up in.  I would think a method which does scatch the surface would be a better choice. I have used a small screwdriver in the past when the gunk is really thick. That is more the exception than the norm. 

The key is to clean the wheels at regular intervals so the gunk does not build up so much. I can hear the difference when I run a car with clean wheels. You can hear bare metal running on the rails when the wheels are clean. Dirty wheels ride quiter due to the gunk between the wheels and the track.

Yes it does, and using an X-Acto #11 or a small, sharp chisel to scrap it off probably does at least as much damage.  But whatever this gunk is, no - alcohol, Goo-Gone, acetone will not dissolve it.  I tried on mine - even letting it "soak" with a paper towel wet with alcohol wrapped around the wheel. Those solvents all just sit there with no effect until they evaporate.  Whatever it is, it is a very hard plastic like gunk, defiant of any solvent I was willing to try (And no!!!, I did not try Simple Green!).

OK I give up after after 40 years of cleaning my wheels with a wire wheel and never seeing any damage to the wheels . I will try alcohol .

I received a used 6457 with exceptionally dirty wheels of the caked on crud kind.  Dremel offers something called a finishing abrasive buff, made from what appears to be scotch-brite material.  I used one of those and it worked great.  No damage whatsoever to the wheels.  The ever thrifty Gunrunner John makes his own from pieces of scotchbrite.  Warning - it makes a big mess as the crud flies from the wheels.  Eye protection mandatory.

 

Pete

I use the small screwdriver  and alcohol wash. Been doing it that way for years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the right answer IMO. I have seen it on ALL of my preowned engines especially the diesels. And it will certainly mess with performance -- poor speed control sparking and so on. I use a cotton swab with Goo Gone and follow up with DNA. Pretty amazing how black the swab tips are when you start.

Same here. I find that the wire wheel method, while removing some crud leaves a smearing of the stuff on the wheel surface. I notice this often at train shows when I examine a car and the truck sides and wheels are shiny black. Also when I have tried this, my wire wheel becomes coated with the crud and spreads it to the next thing I use the wire wheel on.

Really ?

I found if I clean them often when running I don't have to deal with much of that hard build up. While it may be a pain to clean everything often it sure beats letting the stuff build up.

 

I think it is a combination of grease, oil, dust and what ever else is floating around all baked with some heat from friction.