The odd reason is, gunky wheels are sticky enough to pick dirt off the track. Once they get gunky, they get gunkier pretty fast. Once they get built up, they're easy to scrape. I'm with you, but I keep passenger, fast freight and locomotive wheels clean. Let the drag freight clean the track.
Yes it is and I didn't notice that before. Funny what we will do to make things work. I've done the same thing early on when MTL trucks, became very important to me.
The problem with WD40 is it can kill the traction tires and they lose...well...traction. I don't much care for TT's (tracton tires) but that's another story for another thread.
It works! I used to clean my HO wheels with Wahl's Clipper Oil until my mother a seamstress found out. Not good, not good at all. There is a problem, with anything that leaves an oily or detergent based residual on our layouts. Positive and negative Ion thing. It's called Environmental Build-up. That's what the professional cleaning services call it. It's a build-up of dust, oil, dander (human and animal), lint, oil from skin, pollen, cigarette smoke and every other particulate in the air. That's where the gunk comes from in the first place. Nice little mashing and collection machines (wheels). Doing what they do best. I need to break. Need to do something risky. Have to go to town for groceries. Now where's my mask and which one of those is best? Back later.
Negative on the small flat head screwdriver. You'll scratch the metal wheels. Instead use a flat toothpick and it gets better as you use it since it splays out and becomes a very stiff brush.
Risky trip to town delayed. Waiting on package to arrive. I don't need anyone liberating it from my front porch. The flathead screwdriver. It's true and I should of said something and glad you did. A flat head screwdriver, knife, sand-paper will scratch the surface and remove the polished surface of plastic or metal wheels. Applies to track as well. Dirt or gunk is attracted back to it faster then before. If I use a small flat head screwdriver (last resort) I use a cleaning cloth, as in torn of piece of terry towel on the tip of the screwdriver along with Isopropyl Alcohol. Takes a bit but cleans up nicely. I've been known to use a stiff paint brush and the alcohol thing. I use this as my first option: Most of the time a paper towel and Isopropyl Alcohol laid over the track. Push the car with the dirty wheels over it. That usually takes care of the problem. Also, as George shared with us in a picture. I've used a very fine piece of polishing sand paper to clean my tracks. Those inaccessible places such as in tunnels. Where for some reason you loose conductivity. Rodent pee's or poop's on the track. Gunk on the rails. I'll wrap a piece of it on the Masonite pad of my cleaning cars and run it through the tunnel. Usually does the job without damaging the rails. Do not recommend heavier sand papers as an option.
Armchair modelers do not have this problem. Neither do those NTRAKers who converted their module to a 'rails to trails' theme.
Those armchair model railroaders got us all beat. That there Rail Zip is something I've not tried, but my friend swears on it. I run my finger over it and it feels a lot like WD40. So is Rail Zip merely WD40 repackaged at $25 per tiny bottle? I surely don't know. Wahl's, I can tell you, is more viscous than WD40, but much less viscous than transmission oil, another product I've heard in use. From a 1930's MR article, one gentleman proudly proclaimed spreading real sand on the rails to assist locomotives on steep 027 grades. Also, he was very proud of his snow capped mountain peaks- made with asbestos.
I like that you shared this. That's about it. No WD40 is basically fish oil, or so I've been told. MR articles haven't always carried the best advice. I've read some of the early ones cover to cover and found myself putting them down. Saying, "I don't want to do that." Know... I don't like the idea of Transmission Fluid actual Sand or Asbestos as viable options. Yikes! I've used brake fluid to remove paint and again, didn't like that. It would dry out the plastic they used to make the model. Did I ever mention the earlier projects that found the bottom side of a trash can. Yep, that was one of them.
I'm late to the party but.... I like taking the wheelsets out of the truck to clean them. Along with the wheel tread you should also clean the axle points and even the axle cups on the truck. If the wheels are dirty...so is the axle and cup ! Years ago I was at Ace Hardware and found this 3 brush set in their $1.00 special bin. The top one is a brass brush. The middle one is a stainless steel brush. And the bottom black one is a nylon brush, It wont scratch wheels or truck frames. I just pour some IPA in the little blue tray you can see on the rightside of the pic below. I drop the wheelsets...plastic or metal...into the IPA and let them soak while I clean them one at a time. I hold them by the axle and spin them between my thumb and index finger while brushing the wheel tread and also the axle and axle point. Another advantage...your fingers get nice and clean from the brushing and the IPA...lol I also run the nylon brush thru the center of the truck to get and 'gunk' etc off it. Turn the brush sideways and a few quick swipes back and forth and it will clean the axle point cups in the sideframe. Then just huff and puff and blow any excess IPA off everything.
George and of course everyone else tuned in here, Good to have you show-up at the party. I was beginning to wonder. You almost missed your chance. You've come up with something that works and apparently works well. How about that?
Anybody try Dawn, the dish washing soap. It cleaned oil and junk off of ducks after the Exxon Valdez oil spill so what's a measly ole wheel set gunk gonna do?
Yup. Unless your layout is inside a hermetically sealed 'cleanroom' or lab...your gonna get dirty wheels. Cleaning 'stuff' is inevitable and part of the hobby.
I'm trying to imagine the reaction of an employee at one of those places to a perfectly weathered old boxcar. It's clean. Honest.
