locomotive wheels

[John D]

what is the best way to clean the wheels on a diesel  loco

[jward]

most of my locomotives are two truck diesels. to clean the wheels, I soak a paper towel in alcohol, place it on the rails with one truck of the locomotive on the towel, and turn up the power all the way while holding the locomotive in place. once the first truck is clean, I repeat with the other truck.

[Hunt]

In addition,

After all wheels are clean, clean track where wheels spin - then repeat procedure using dry clean cloth to remove the Isopropyl Alcohol residue from wheels. Be careful to keep alcohol off your fingers to prevent marring the paint on the shell.

[jbrock27]

I have done what Mr. Ward has described, only substituting spraying WD-40 or PB Blaster on the paper towel in place of using alcohol.

If I have a diesel loco that I have apart and it has wheel-sets that are set up as half axle, meaning I can take each wheel out of their  axle gears, I will chuck the half axle in a drill, set the drill to run and polish the wheel tread and flange with Mother's Mag & Aluminum Wheel polish using a rag with the polish on it.  Then taking some balsa wood, the thickness or so of the wheel tread, I will polish up the wheel tread and flange with it. This is obviously more labor intensive but the results make a sintered metal wheel look like a brand new nickel silver wheel .

I hope this helps

*I forgotten when I first posted, that using a dry sponge with the wheel polish on it, works better than a rag.

[brokenrail]

most of my locomotives are two truck diesels. to clean the wheels, I soak a paper towel in alcohol, place it on the rails with one truck of the locomotive on the towel, and turn up the power all the way while holding the locomotive in place. once the first truck is clean, I repeat with the other truck.

I also use this method ,but care must be taken paying close attention to SPARKS! Using 90% Alcohol the spark jumped to the paper towel that had the 90% on it Luckily it was not done on the layout and on a short piece of powered test track.It lit up.I had done this method many times without a problem .Only takes once as a reminder that it can light!   

[jbrock27]

Why use 90%, which is what I use when I want to strip paint from loco shells, and not use 70% and decrease the concern for flammability