This is one of those things that just won’t go away. Every time that I think that the whole world should have one of these the old question pops up, “how do I clean those dirty wheels?”
I first wrote an article on this several years ago, and I cannot find the original text so I am going to do it all over again for those that missed it and for those of you who have forgotten it.
Ordinarily I would not do this. As with other things in this hobby you have to be care or things can get repetitious and then boring. However since clean wheels are paramount to a good running well performing locomotive I am going to make an exception in this case.
The Bill of Materials (BOM) that your going to need for this project is simple. Some of these items may even be laying around your house or shop as scrap or flotsam from other projects.
Bill of Materials:
-1 ea. 1 foot long section of 2x4 lumber or other suitable section of wood at least 3.5 inches wide.
-4 ea. Small brass brushes. These can usually be obtained in a bag of three for a dollar or so at the home improvement stores, usually in the paint area. It is important that they do have a wood handle, I have not tried the plastic and I am not sure if they can be used.
-10 ea. Small wood screws, you will need at least ten, and if necessary you can use drywall screws.
-2 ea Radio Shack jumper wires, these are not necessary but come in lengths of at least a foot long with alligator clips on each end. You can just use two sections of wire but these will make a nicer job and you can then just clip on to terminals or the track itself.
-1 ea. Roll of small gauge wire, must be single stranded and copper or brass works the best but steel will do.
-2 ea. Insulated staples or other means of se-curing the wire hook ups to the wood.
Tools:
-A small saw of any type
-A screwdriver
-A drill
-A small straight tipped screwdriver
-A small hammer or mallet
-A pencil
Here is How:
Ok I could do this with photos only as this is really a visual thing but I am going to write all of this out for those who need the words.
Your first step is to cut the handles off of the four brass brushes, making sure that you leave enough room to put a screw in each end.
Then drill a hole in each end of the brush with at least a 1/8th inch brush, you want the hole to be larger than the screws your going to use so you do not split the brushes when they are screwed down.
You then want to take a locomotive or four axel motor block, an 040 works about as well as anything as that is the same spacing for most axels on all motor blocks.
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Set the 0-4-0 or motor block on one end of the 2X4 and mark the location of the brushes with a pencil. You want to make sure that the wheel spacing is the same as that of a section of track so that when you set a locomotive
on the track the flat section of the tire and the flange is getting the full face of the brush.
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Screw these brushes in place with the small wood screws taking care not to split the wood handles.
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The next step is to take the small wire and go along the outer edge of the brush and punch the wire in each hole. You do not need to cut the wire, it is best to leave it on the roll and unroll it as you punch it in. If you do cut it with the screwdriver just start again in the same hole where you cut in and punch another wire in. You can try and wrap the wire around the bottom of the brass bristles where they come out of the brush but that is often hard to do. You can also try and solder the wire on but that may break off later. I have found that punching is quick and for the most part permanent. I am still using the first of these that I made 10 years ago.
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Once you have one brush done go on the to second brush on that side using the same wire. I usually give the wire a wrap or two around the wood screw at the end of the brush and then go to the next brush these wires do not need to be insulated. Do the next brush the same way, wrapping your wire around the screw at the end the same as you did at the other screws.
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The next step is to put another screw into the 2x4 and use these as terminals for the wires coming from the brass brushes and remove one alligator clip from each of the jumper wires and either solder or make a mechanical connection to the wire wrapped around the screw that you just installed as a terminal.
At this point you can start cleaning wheels.
Best method is to put some WD-40 on each brush and set the wheels lightly on the brush with the wheel cleaner hooked up to power and let the cleaner do the work. No need to push down on the locomotive just let the weight of the locomotive and the wheel cleaner do the work.
One improvement that I have made in some of the last of these that I have made is to glue a section of the non slip shelf liner to the back of the wheel cleaner to hold in place.
This is not rocket science and if you see a way to improve it share it with us. This was created to make railroading more fun and less
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