Wheel cleaning.

[Harlington Straker]

I have got myself a PECO wheel brush and scraper. Is there any tips to use them as a wheel cleaner for DCC.

I am planing to:

1. attach them to the controller unit;
2. dial up the relevant loco;
3. place the loco in a cradle with the speed set to fast; and
4. use the brush to clean the wheels holding the scraper on the other side to complete the circuit.

My experience with DCC has been reasonably poor to date and I don't want to muck this exercise up.

Cheers

Jamie

[96RAF]

I have a GM60 wheel cleaner. I sit this on my DCC track, select the loco and crank up the speed, so your method should work just as well using the cradle and Peco hand held cleaning tools.

[Harlington Straker]

Thanks 96RAF,

It seems effective wheel cleaning is the missing piece of the puzzle of DCC. For me at least.

Until now it has been rather frustrating with constant track cleaning, extra pins holding the points down flat, disassembling locos to chase fluff and lint etc.

The constant stopping and halting with no pattern, reason or predictability has practically disappeared. Points are now navigable over 90% of the time (even at crawling speeds)

When I read that DCC needed clean running conditions, I think they should have said surgically clean.

I am happy now and more importantly my son is enjoying the set with less down time and intervention from me.

Now if anyone could give me a pointer on cleaning the Pacer wheels I would be most appreciative.

The Pacer pickup seems to be shared between both engines. Have not been able to use the cleaners yet as I am worried about shorting the dcc chips inside.

Cheers

Jamie

[96RAF]

The problem is rotating the non powered wheels so this has to be done the manual way with Q-tips and cleaning fluid. Ditto picking out bits of fluff, etc between wheels and pickup wipers - careful use of tweezers, and then Q-tips and cleaner on the wheel backs.