Wheel Cleaning

This blog cover the importance of cleaning wheels especially on a new locomotive

The loco shown is a Austrains 41 class that has been converted to sound at the shop. When unpacked it had traces of oil around each bogie especially on the base - this was cleaned up and then the decoder installed.

During testing it ran at best, erratically

The pickups were checked and all looked OK so Conducta Lube was added with some slight improvement but still not good for a sound locomotive. Marcus suggested that I clean the wheels and I did not personally believe it would help but at least it would no hinder.

A piece of a Chucks Super wipe was sprayed liberally with WD-40 and the locomotive was run at a intermediate speed with one bogie on the cloth then repeated for the other side. Not a lot showed up on the cloth but the improvement was dramatic.

This also could be because the WD-40 is a contact wetter and is generally creates excellent results after cleaning track and the excess film of factory oil was removed - yes squeaky clean track and oil is not good for pick.

Only use WD-40 not the cheap after market rubbish.