Dirt on wheels

[truckman060473]

I can understand how rolling stock can pick up dirt deposits that may have been put down on the track by rubber traction tyres but the last set of wagons I cleaned were going round behind an "all steel driving wheels" Bachmann class 20. The wheels on the loco remain shiny and polished but the wagon wheels are dirty. Where does this dirt come from? the rails also, were clean to begin with

 

[MCR247]

I know this isn't going to be helpful, but is it possible that it would be from dust? Have you tried cleaning the track before you use it?

 

[truckman060473]

the railhead is shiny, can't see dust unless the particles are too small to see. the loco wheels don't gather dirt. but this is probably down to the tractive force - a bit of wheel slippage probably prevents dirt build up. It is on 18 HEA hoppers with loads.

 

[sprinterguy]

As far as I can work out, tiny dust particles in the air end up on the surface of the rail and are gradually rolled into the dark grey dirt that accumulates on the rails and on the wheels of locos and rolling stock. I too use all steel wheeled locos on clean track, where the wheels of the rolling stock in the train, and the track, gradually accumulates dirt. Longer, heavier trains are likely to cause dirt accumulation on the track faster than a short, light train.

 

[truckman060473]

what do other modellers do for the cleaning? It may sound harsh but the way I do it is to use a polishing wheel on the slowest Dremel speed and use one finger to resist the wagon's wheel spinning at the Dremel's speed allowing some motion so the whole wheel's surface is cleared in a few seconds

 

[sprinterguy]

Surgical spirit and a cotton bud. It's a slow process but it avoids causing any uneven wear on the wheels and is completely effective.

A lot of people seem to use the likes of wire wool or modelling knives to scrape dirt off the wheels. I advise against this as it causes uneven grooves on the wheels where dirt accumulates and it is extremely difficult to remove by any means after a few years.

 

[truckman060473]

I see yeah. I think that by spinning the wheel up on the Dremel is helping the wheel stay "round" - a knife like you say, may cause an uneven spot. mind you, saying this I do have one wagon where I have purposely dremelled a flat spot and it clunks round the track with a similar noise to a real life wagon which has a tyre flat. It runs fine and has never derailed on my Peco points, whereas one other wagon did and was found to be out of gauge by fraction of mm. The other wagons' wheels which were dirty never derail either, but I guess they must be cleaned sooner or later just to keep on top of things.

 

[spudfan]

Might seem odd but I have found the best way to keep track clean is regular use. The more it is used the less it will need cleaned. I have been running locos for over 25 years, many of them Lima with the much maligned traction tyres. I have never seen black deposits on my mainlines. Never had any problems with older plastic wheeled stock making the track dirty.Mainlines are nickel silver with some sidings of steel track. That is my experience for what it is worth.

 

[truckman060473]

funny you should say that, spudfan, as I have mostly nickel rails with some surplus steel straights on the sidings. I've only had an hour or so of running and got grey deposits on all wagon rolling stock but none on the all wheel drive locos

 

[sprinterguy]

Might seem odd but I have found the best way to keep track clean is regular use. The more it is used the less it will need cleaned. I have been running locos for over 25 years, many of them Lima with the much maligned traction tyres. I have never seen black deposits on my mainlines. Never had any problems with older plastic wheeled stock making the track dirty.Mainlines are nickel silver with some sidings of steel track. That is my experience for what it is worth.

Sounds like you are exceptionally fortunate then Your layout must surely be in a fairly dust free environment, it's interesting how different peoples' layouts are affected differently by dirt accumulation.