Has anyone tried any of these wheel cleaners? Do they really work? https://www.some train store.com/woodland-scenics-n-tt4560-roto-wheel-cleaner/ https://www.some train store.com/ka...W540HdaJIjL4ee2RSrmcquf_CpSQfLABoCvIEQAvD_BwE https://www.some train store.com/tr...oSUjl6zdIKgs-xymuQt5gpdolquaNQ6hoC29QQAvD_BwE
Note, you can't put links to places that are not advertisers here so your links have been translated to "some train store". But I figured you were referring to that giant train store in Maryland so I edited it and was able to find the items you were referring to. Anyway, I've used the first one with great success. I don't own one but a friend does and he brings it to train shows all the time. The other two in my opinion I would shy away from since the metal brushes tend to leave (microscopic) scratches on your wheels. The gouges then will trap more dirt going forward.
I have one of the Woodland Scenic roto cleaners and I would recommend it. Stay away from the ones with metal brushes. They work but leave ever so small scratches that will fill with dirt and oxidation, hurt electrical pick up, and in the long run, cause you to spend even more time trying to clean wheels.
Now you have two answers voting for the same one! Once you use the other two and create micro scratches on the wheels you will have to constantly use them to dig out the dirt and oxidation. It becomes a rabbit hole. With the Woodland Scenic, we soak the felt cleaning strip with a little alcohol and away we go! And with the felt being white you can actually see what comes off. When they are too dirty you can peel them off and flip them over. But they also sell replacement strips.
I also use the Woodland Scenics model. Nice in I can just set it on the track and use track power or at the workbench clip it to a 9 volt battery.
I use the Trix for my locos and a Dremel with a wire brush attachment for my rolling stock metal wheels. Sometimes I use a paper towel or lint-free cloth with rubbing alcohol.
I to have the woodland scenics and it works great and I also have another and I'll have to find the manufacturer but it's Japanese and it has fine metal pads not brass wires and it's just like the woodland scenics but poloshes the wheels as it cleans. And it works great and cleaning is simple as I use contact cleaner to clean the pads and it's good as new.
Expensive toys ! BLAH !!!! Just use a new coffee filter across the track. Sprinkle a little 91% Isopropyl alcohol on the filter. Pull the edge of the filter tight across the rails with your thumb and index finger.Turn your throttle to max. Put your rerailer on the track. Slide your locomotive down the ramp and the leading truck onto the filter. Slide the locomotive back and forth a few times. Turn the filter. Slide the locomotive back onto the Isopropyl alcohol damp filter again. Do this about 3 times and you shouldnt see anymore black crud lines on the filter. Take your locomotive off the track. Turn the filter. Rewet it with the Isopropyl alcohol. Pull the filter edge tight across the rails with your thumb and index finger. Reramp the locomotive in the opposite direction and repeat the steps above to clean the other truck wheels. Its simple...works great...and best of all its CHEAP! .005 cents per filter/locomotive clean wheels ! You can buy a box of 200 coffee filters at the 'Dollar Store' for $1.00. You can buy a bottle of 91% Isopropyl alcohol at the same store for $1.00. A $2.00 investment will clean all your locomotive wheels for years ! You dont need some expensive fancy dancy do dad to clean locomotive wheels...LOL ** whether this method works for steamer I dont know...I run diesels. ***DO NOT use paper towel ! It will shread and you will get lint up in the axles and even up in the gears !
I use the coffee filter method too but boy that Woodland Scenic cleaner is sooo much more convenient when I use my friend's at the train show. One handed operation, all trucks cleaned at once. Basically single step!
I am all for doing things DIY on the cheap, but the woodland scenics cleaner has been ordered. I felt like my locomotives deserved the special treatment. Will try to mount it as a section of track they can roll into in a servicing yard. short rerailers before and after and a switcher to push the road engines onto and off of the cleaner, would that cause any problems? It can't be on the DCC power I suppose, so I would isolate, which the sections of rerailer should take care off. Use some gondolas or flat cars as pusher extensions, and have a SW1500 shove my road engines onto the wheel cleaning pad? Sound OK?
You can't really build the WS wheel cleaner into your layout and existing track. Once you get it you'll see what I mean. Even if you can, it won't really automate anything as you need to push down (it's spring loaded) on the loco to get power to it so the wheels can spin. You can place the unit over any straight track as there are power pickups on the bottom. You can also use the supplied alligator clips.
Automated pushing down, hmmm, I'll figure that out when I get to it I have made mechanical prototypes that functioned as intended, but only after quite a bit of design and revision. Fingers crossed I can integrate this to make it a switching operation to clean the wheels.
The intended operation of this cleaner is for the loco to spin it's wheels while stationary on the cleaner so I am not sure how it would even work with the loco running across it if I understand your concept.
John, here is how I imagine it. Locomotive pulls onto spur or siding with cleaner N scale building installed, something like the frames they use to clean Amtrak's maybe since I run passenger Amtrak on my prototype. Switcher with gondola(s) as extension pushes the loco into and through a section of rerailer or a scratch built rerailer that is about 1 inch long, onto the cleaner, some guides may be needed to keep the locomotive running straight through. N scale industrial looking lever with thin foam rubber protective contact surface comes down on top of loco in appropriate area to not damage the details, that mechanism holds the locomotive down initiating the cleaning. I suppose the gondola can remain attached. After the appropriate time the pressure is released stopping the cleaner, the locomotive is dragged back off the pad, or pushed forward through it, through rerailers to put it back on the spur or siding. Hopefully that explains what I have planned better. I imagine the push down lever will be manually operated at first, then later some kind of servo or stepper to push down using a switch or even through the DCC++ JMRI system. I have to look at this thing first and see if it's going to allow it with or without modifications. It may turn out this is totally not functional, but I love tinkering with little mechanical things so whatever it's gonna be fun to try anyway.
I have the Roto wheel cleaner, and it works absolutely fine with DCC! I just attach the alligator clips to the track, put the loco on the cleaner, set the locomotive number on the nce power cab and start it up. Nothing special needed.
If you want to integrate it to a layout, yoully also need to butcher the thick plastic tabs at one end that prevent the locomotive from rolling off.
Awesome! So glad to hear it works on the modified AC DCC waveform without a rectifier and has alligator clip leads as well, this should work I think. Plastic tabs are not a worry, I dont mind butchering it, even removing all the internals and 3d printing a new shell. I went to college for industrial design and learned how to redesign products and make functional engineering demonstration and marketing (exact visual representations with less function) prototypes so that side of it is not a worry. That said, the work I have seen the hobby model train world is amazing, beyond professional to passionate works of art that are more than any economic driven modeling project would ever find appropriate. I have a huge amount of respect for the work I have seen in this community and will take some time to even come close to.
