One of the biggest problems is not so much the track . It centres on the crud which rapidly builds up on wheels --and naturally deposits itself on the unsuspecting clean track .
Think about the mechanics of this , How often does a piece of track get hit by a wheel in , say 30 seconds --if it’s a 10 wheeler , no train , 5 times . OK , plus tender .That 10 wheeler’s wheels are going to contact a different piece of track many more times in the same 30 seconds . So , there’s your nice clean club rails , and everybody leaps in and sticks his dirty wheels on the track and blames the dirty track . Nah , too many lazy people wanting to blame their problems on anything but lack of maintenance .
Steven , that remark is NOT pointed at you .
When was the last time ALL of you cleaned your wheels ? Oiled the squeaky bits ? Don’t answer , we know .
So , we have this track then , innocently sat there gathering all the crud in creation that falls on it , and blimey , suddenly it’s at fault for bringing things to a sparky stop . Don’t carry your crud to the club .
Cleanliness is next to godliness .
I am a heathen also .
Mike M
PS .
In swimming pools , there is generally a foot bath to stop us all catching nasties . Perhaps we should offer a prize for the “best wheel bath for clubs” design .
hmmm…a shallow flat try or cooking pan with cleaner in it . SImple green, mineral spirits, smoke fluid or your choice of other poisons. Course the problem is it only gets the bottoms. Enough fluid to cover the whole wheel is likely to have adverse impact on things inside the power block.
Kadee makes a powered wheel cleaner for smaller scales. Don’t know if its made for large scale or not. Otherwise we are stuck with a small bit of cloth and cleaning solution and each wheel done individually. Whoa…eight wheels per car X how many cars? I’ll need to sit down fer a winter and do this chore! It gets worse trying to power the locos to turn the wheels to clean them.
Mike what have you started here???
Andre’
Wellllllll, clean wheels!!
It all depends if the layout has an indoor staging area or not.
But here’s my thought on this question:
Most of us know the cloth towel machines in public washrooms, right? Fresh towel from the top drum, dirty towel winds on to the bottom drum.
Construct such a gizmo to go across the tracks, towel as wide as the longest wheelbase. At end of track have a bumper with your favourite coupler attached, bumper can be quick-clamped to the rail in order to reposition as required.
Apply cleaning solution (contact cleaner works well for me) to the section of towel on the track, drive engine on to the towel and couple to bumper. Now reverse, wheels will spin, engine won’t move, engine wheels will be cleaned while spinning on the spot.
Towel gets dirty, advance by a few millimeters, nexr section of towel dirty, advance by 45mm.
I know, I know, probably much too simple, since the equipment stays on the track etc. etc. 
Anyone care put this through the “HWSS” filter 
??
Sounds like a good idea to me HJ. Now what ya got fer da unpowered stock?
Andre’
Sorry , it started as a joke .
But ,
Get a sponge–no , not the cadging bloke in the bar trying to get a free drink , a water sopping type .
Right , it’s got to be a generous one, but fear ye notte , it can be symthath…sintehi, pretend sponge .
Generously soak it in cleaner of your choice . Ah ! you may say . Ah ! How much bleedin’ oil d’ya think I’ve got ? Huh ?
So slice it thin like toast , put it in a tray , then soak .
Now , unpowered stuff , run back and forth gently until shiny stuff appears .You didn’t know that was there , didja ?
With a loco , easy . Get a Wheel Cleaner as sold by GRS (UK) . Or , do what I did and get a brass brush as used for cleaning suede . As in Swayed . Stick a piece of plastic in it half way along . Come on , we’re insulating one bunch of bristles from another . Right , now get two flying leads with croc clips on and connect to each end of brush . No , not the handle , dear , the metal fuzzy bits . There , now crank watts in and position loco gently against brush , preferably on the tyres . If it’s so dirty it won’t run , you’re on your own .
You can modify a rolling road to take such a modified brush , make sure you can move the brush to all wheel positions . Come on , the difficulties will argue for themselves when you try . It works . Being a flush old git I used two brushes and no plastic . Except as in credit card .
So no dirty wheels now , huh ?
Mike m
Andre Schofield said:
Sounds like a good idea to me HJ. Now what ya got fer da unpowered stock?Andre’
Andre,
That’s really easy: I have an ultrasonic cleaner, does a marvelous job!
BTW one of my friends sells LUX wheel cleaners http://www.mrsonline.net/html/wheel_cleaner.html Nifty concept for the smaller scales! The same mfg also makes vaccuum cleaners for track on MRRs.
Tried an ultrasonic cleaner on some EXPENSIVE brass and some of the coupling rods fell off . Just thought I’d mention it .
Mike M
Mike Morgan said:Mike
Tried an ultrasonic cleaner on some EXPENSIVE brass and some of the coupling rods fell off . Just thought I'd mention it . Mike M
We’re talking “non-powered” as in wheelsets removed from the trucks! And for cleaner one uses kerosene with a bit of “extra”. Gentle enough to not even harm those “metal wheels” LGB sells.
I am well aware that it would be desirable to transmit DCC data packets by RF.
Problem is the Elsema made TX-24 that I am now using, like all the previous versions, cannot transmit at a high enough baud rate.
Plus if I was able to convert the existing TX-24 to send DCC data packets, it would make the TX-24 incompatible with my existing equipment. I always make any new equipment backwardly compatible with pre existing RCS equipment. Unlike some manufacturers, Crest for example, who changed from the 27 Mhz frequency in order to (unsuccessfully) improve the range, but in reality force their customers to invest in brand new, incompatible equipment. The range of the 75 Mhz TE was improved, but only after a 42" long antenna was added to the TX part. Something that could have been done equally as well by adding a similar type collapsible antenna to the existing 27 Mhz TX handpiece.
Mr Crest, what did happen to the 27 Mhz daughter cards that were supposed to assist the owners of earlier on board TE’s so they could still use what they had?
Still I shouldn’t complain really as by going to 75 Mhz it automatically meant the 75 Mhz on Crest board equipment was effectively eliminated from most of the World market.
So I will be forced to utilise an interface card that generates the commands on board. Like a smaller type of command station.
I’ll keep you all posted as work progresses.
Might be awhile yet though.
Tony ,
You’ll do it OK mate , no worries . If it was easy , everybody would do it
Mike
Andre Schofield said:Kadee does indeed make a powered cleaner for large scale wheels. Part # 843. Works well, but only cleans locomotive wheels.
Kadee makes a powered wheel cleaner for smaller scales. Don’t know if its made for large scale or not.
Andre'
Gents
I pop in here once every now and then to read and be inspired by the worldy knowledge that your collective minds have to offer. I skip over the trash when 2 or more members start at each other. Whats the point of that ???
Regardless, I’am a Locolinc user and small time dealer of same. I have yet to find referrence to Locolincs products in the discusions here. I would really like to know what you chaps think of it. Tony I know of your system and your comments on Locolinc would be very interesting to me. I’am also an Aristo dealer and a past user of their RC product (hence why I went to Locolinc)
Regards
John
Hello John.
Professional etiquette prevents me from making any comments regarding a competitors products.
A does it prevent Locolinc and Crest etc from commenting about RCS.
I am sure there will be someone here using Locolinc who will be only too glad to tell you of their experiences.
Wow, this thread was brought back to life. Cool.
Read it from the beginning. Laughed where Dave says that I’m wrong because I live in Southern California, i.e. discounting my comments because I live here.
Kept laughing as I ran my DCC layout flawlessly today, have not run in 2 weeks, just took 2 F units out of the box, dropped them on the rails and ran. No cleaning, not even one lap with the scotchbrite car to get dirt or leaves off, just ran them over.
Continued to laugh while I reprogrammed (on the main line) the 2 units with custom speed tables so they were perfectly matched in speed at all speed steps.
Oh well, I guess because I’m in So Cal, it must only work here. I’m glad my layout does not read this forum, it would probably quit working!
Anyway, Locolinc? I think it was quite a system in it’s day, but I think DCC just ran it over. The advantage of an NMRA standard, the huge acceptance in HO of DCC, and the fact that all the major DCC manufacturers make a wireless cab is hard to compete with.
For example, today, I decided I wanted to make the afore-mentioned custom speed tables. More out of curiosity than necessity. I have never done it.
Well, I also decided that punching in values for each CV would take some time.
So I decided to use the free JMRI software. I downloaded it on my pc in the kitchen, but then, since my NCE controller is about 50 feet away in the back yard, ran a Cat 5 cable (in existing conduit) to the back yard (1/2 hour), crimped some RJ-45’s on it, and used a Gefan RS-232 extender set (2 boxes that extend RS-232 about 1000 feet over a standard Ethernet cable).
Connected one end to the pc, the other to the NCE controller, 5 minutes later reprogrammed a custom speed table and was running the 2 F units about 2 feet apart in a consist seeing how closely I matched the top speed.
Oh, decided I did not want to sit in the kitchen, so used a laptop outside wireless, and used Windows remote desktop (included in Windows XP) to remotely run the JMRI software.
So, sitting in the sun, smoking a Cuban, programmed the CV’s without even reading the manual, running my impossible DCC layout, and surfing the forums.
Well, maybe I’m just lucky. Or maybe that DCC has so much support that it makes things easy? My point is that there are a heck of a lot of tools and things to do just about anything in DCC.
OK, let the flames begin!
Regards, Greg
OK, just for the record I’m a Locolink user. Have been for 10 years now. I generally stay out of these discussions and just sit back and chuckle when I read post after post about transmitters dying, receivers dying, problems with programing, range ad nausium. I have never had any failure problems with any of their equipment. I have two handsets, a dozen receivers and several accessory boards. I genally don’t have range problems but I tend to walk with the train so I don’t really need much, on the few occasions where I have needed it I have had no problems but I think Tony would agree it’s as much an installation and terrain issue as it is equipment issue.
I bought Locolinc in the beginning because at the time they were the only ones that could control the number of remotely controlled switches I planned on having.
Downsides… Transmitter is too big, controls not ergonomic, some complain about too many buttons. It has fewer buttons than the remote for my TV and I seem to get along OK with it. Functionality sometimes comes at a cost.
Response from the manufacturer has not always been the best but I never have been completely ignored. I have met Mr. Reeves in person. One thing I shall never forget took place around the time of the 1999 GR convention. I E-mailed Mr. Reeves and asked he would have stock to sell at the convention as I was in need of several hundred dollars worth of receivers and accessory boards. He replied that he would not have any at the show. Several days later the items I had asked about showed up at the door purely on the hope that I would pay him at the show as I had sent him no money or an oder. I have never had a large scale vendor do anything like that.
I have used Crest stuff belonging to other folks and don’t really see any difference in the operation as far as response time, speed control etc. I have yet to try one of Tony’s creations but I know many folks who do and rave about them. I don’t use Soundlinc so I can’t comment on that. I find sound to be mostly annoying and not at all realistic at least as far as steam is concerned and priced way too high for the technology being used.
I will also add that I tend to be a gadget geek which may make using RC stuff easier for me than the average layman.