Wheel and Track cleaning. I'll start another thread to avoid it!

Marty,

Your plight reminds me of an idea that popped into my head while getting my shoes cleaned in a machine at an airport. A motorized pair of rotating bristle brushes with the brushes spaced for O-gauge wheels. Mount the brushes in an open box  fixture so only the bristles protrude like the blade of a table saw. Such a device should clean all of the wheels on your locomotives and all of your track.

Somehow adding friction to the axles of your rolling and coal tenders will enable the brushes to do a reasonable cleaning of their wheels too.

i do absolutely nothing with the FasTrack layout(150 sqft) and the tubular layout(~150 running feet) except pack it up & put it away. All the equipment too(~10-12 locos & trains)

Since cutting back on smoke use and using Lucas Red 'N' Tacky #2 and Mobil 1 synthetics, it has cut down considerably on cleaning & maintenance.

Although, to be fair, I've also never cleaned the track on my(built in 1972) O-27/GarGraves layout either.

Good idea. A similar device exists in N scale, but is murder on traction tires. Metal bristles sit  on  a block, you sit on the track. track power runs your loco using the bristles to transfer the power. Cleaning the locos isn't so bad, esp when you are adding lighting or control hardware. It's box car 12- 70 that is so boring. And not doing them all, means just dirtying the clean ones faster next year

Your plight reminds me of an idea that popped into my head while getting my shoes cleaned in a machine at an airport. A motorized pair of rotating bristle brushes with the brushes spaced for O-gauge wheels. Mount the brushes in an open box  fixture so only the bristles protrude like the blade of a table saw. Such a device should clean all of the wheels on your locomotives and all of your track.

Somehow adding friction to the axles of your rolling and coal tenders will enable the brushes to do a reasonable cleaning of their wheels too.

Incorporating Gunner John's suggestion of counter-rotating brushes to clean rolling stock wheels, I added a second motor. By adding variable resistance into the power feeds to each of the motors, it enables independent varying of the speeds of each brush.

Bobby, just have the two cleaning wheels go in opposite directions, but different speeds.  That will rotate the wheels and clean them in the process.

Good idea John. A second motor makes counter-rotating wheels easy to do. I revised my sketch accordingly.

Great devices, but I don't see where the bourbon goes.

Earl

The mouth to receive the bourbon isn't represented in the drawings.

Well, if you build it, you can come here for beta testing!But on a serious note, wiping the goo gone off, before using the 91% alcohol, really improved cleaning.

I have see a lot posting in regards to cleaning track not so many in regards to cleaning the wheels.  My feeling on this topic is this you can clean the track all you want if the wheels are dirty your track will get dirty PDQ after the cleaning. I have seen and purchased cars that the dirt on the wheels are caked on. I have found that soaking the wheels of the car in an baking  pan with DW40 for a few mins will do the trick. Then carefully using a #1 slotted screwdriver pick off the dirt. For the heavy duty dirt I soak again and use a tooth brush to remove the dirt. Remember not to stay on one spot to long as you might cause a flat spot on the wheel. This method requires lots of elbow grease but it has worked for me in the past.

Excellent topic Marty.

I have a boatload of cars that need their wheels cleaned. Interested in what everyone does to accomplish this task.

Paul

I have a Christmas-time-only layout, 14'x11'.  I refuse to put away the track and cars without cleaning them first.

Typically, for the last 10 or more years, I have ballasted (loose, not glued down since layout is temporary and changes every year) the track.  But this year I didn't (lazy!).  When it came down to cleaning the track this year, I cleaned it while it was still screwed down.  That was SOOOOO much easier than in years past where I lifted it first (because of the loose ballast) and cleaned it at the table.  Makes me want to NOT ballast anymore, it was that much faster and easier.

As for car wheels, I used to own all RK stuff.  It was pretty easy to clean the wheels because when I would spin one wheel the other wheel would also spin, since they were not free floating on the axles.  But all of my cars now (tin-plate and PW family train) have independent spinning wheels and it is a LOT harder to clean them because I have to spin a wheel and clean it at the same time.  It's a real pain compared to my now sold RK cars.

BTW: I hit it with Goo Gone first, then denatured, then a dry cloth, and then a swig of beer

- walt

For the really dirty wheels, I use a screwdriver to scrape the dirt off when it's caked on.  Then I press this little tool on my Dremel into service to polish them up.  It's Scotchbrite on a mandrel for the Dremel, works great.