Wheel cleaning

Includes workshop practice, painting and weathering, model photography etc.
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Paul Townsend
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Wheel cleaning

Postby Paul Townsend » Thu Jul 04, 2019 6:41 am

My hobby horses include this alongside track cleaning, see another thread.

I have used a number of methods over the years and found all to have drawbacks.

I met Matthias from Germany last weekend at the superb Perth show. He was launching his machine which uses a cunning jiggler to rub wheel treads of all rolling stock in a moving train with felt and your preferred solvent.

Having seen his simple, elegant track cleaner wagons and having great respect for German engineers, I reckon this very new bproduct may well work in OO/HO for which it is designed.

Our shallow flanges are a major challenge which may preclude its use for P4 and even EM.

I discussed with him the possibility of a version for us and agreed the small market is not encouraging and diy mods will be non trivial.

Cogitation aided by Stan’s Malt led me to buy one anyway. It should arrive this month and I plan to evaluate it in OO first. If it works, a tear down and pondering mods for a P4 trial will follow....watch this space for my reports.

nigelcliffe
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Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby nigelcliffe » Thu Jul 04, 2019 4:56 pm

Paul Townsend wrote:My hobby horses include this alongside track cleaning, see another thread.

I have used a number of methods over the years and found all to have drawbacks.

I met Matthias from Germany last weekend at the superb Perth show. He was launching his machine which uses a cunning jiggler to rub wheel treads of all rolling stock in a moving train with felt and your preferred solvent.

Having seen his simple, elegant track cleaner wagons and having great respect for German engineers, I reckon this very new bproduct may well work in OO/HO for which it is designed.


I didn't discuss the device with the vendor at Perth. But I was struck with how similar it is to a device I've seen in use on the McKinley Railway (massive OO setup), where its been there for at least 8 years, if not longer. So, both an endorsement (the McKinley is fussy about getting high running reliability) and some confusion (it doesn't seem to be "new" to me). Perhaps this is cunningly different to the device I've seen before.


- Nigel

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Paul Townsend
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Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby Paul Townsend » Thu Jul 04, 2019 6:06 pm

nigelcliffe wrote:
Paul Townsend wrote:My hobby horses include this alongside track cleaning, see another thread.

I have used a number of methods over the years and found all to have drawbacks.

I met Matthias from Germany last weekend at the superb Perth show. He was launching his machine which uses a cunning jiggler to rub wheel treads of all rolling stock in a moving train with felt and your preferred solvent.

Having seen his simple, elegant track cleaner wagons and having great respect for German engineers, I reckon this very new bproduct may well work in OO/HO for which it is designed.


I didn't discuss the device with the vendor at Perth. But I was struck with how similar it is to a device I've seen in use on the McKinley Railway (massive OO setup), where its been there for at least 8 years, if not longer. So, both an endorsement (the McKinley is fussy about getting high running reliability) and some confusion (it doesn't seem to be "new" to me). Perhaps this is cunningly different to the device I've seen before.

- Nigel


Not having seen McKinley Rly I can't comment. All I know so far is that it was new to me and seemed to be viable in principle. Tests will reveal all!

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steamraiser
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Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby steamraiser » Thu Jul 04, 2019 6:50 pm

Pictures please Paul.

Gordon A

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Paul Townsend
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Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby Paul Townsend » Fri Jul 05, 2019 5:53 am

I replied but it got lost....PC struggling a bit just now.

I have a couple of wide angle pix from Perth but they don't show how it works.
I made a video which was better, transferred it to this PC on Tuesday but lost it when SSD got corrupted on Wednesday this week :(

My sample is due here this month and I will by then have a new PC in use so will make better pix to appear here.
Patience please.

David Thorpe

Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby David Thorpe » Fri Jul 05, 2019 7:34 am

I saw this wheel cleaning apparatus at Perth - indeed, I stood and watched it for some time. It certainly seemed very
clever and I don't doubt that it works as claimed, but I do doubt very much that the 00/H0 device that I saw could readily be converted to 18.83, if at all. I would have asked, but the gentleman demonstrating it seemed too engrossed with his paperwork to notice my interest.

DT

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Paul Townsend
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Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby Paul Townsend » Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:21 am

David Thorpe wrote:I saw this wheel cleaning apparatus at Perth - indeed, I stood and watched it for some time. It certainly seemed very
clever and I don't doubt that it works as claimed, but I do doubt very much that the 00/H0 device that I saw could readily be converted to 18.83, if at all. I would have asked, but the gentleman demonstrating it seemed too engrossed with his paperwork to notice my interest.

DT

That must have been in a tea break with relief in attendance.
I found Matthias, the designer, extremely chatty, no paperwork or laptop intruding.
I had three in depth conversations over the weekend which included asking him to make contact with the S4 and EM stalls present...which he did.
I agree that manufacturing a version for our fine flanges would be a challenge so possibly not commercially attractive to him.
Equally modifying my upcoming OO sample will be non-trivial and quite possibly a non-starter.

Lovely chap, Matthias, said no problem. If I dismantle it to ponder mods and abandon the project he will give a full refund.
Thus it is a no-risk-to-my-wallet route I am following. Just putting my time and brain at risk!

It maybe that the way forward is to rip off his ideas and start a P4 version from scratch. In fairness to Matthias we should only go down that route with his assent. I am very sensitive to this as IP theft has clobbered me decades ago.

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Will L
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Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby Will L » Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:47 am

I'm fascinated now. Pictures as soon as you get yours please Paul.

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Paul Townsend
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Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby Paul Townsend » Fri Jul 05, 2019 2:46 pm

Imagine a motorised window cleaner..... :D

David Thorpe

Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby David Thorpe » Fri Jul 05, 2019 4:06 pm

Paul Townsend wrote:Lovely chap, Matthias, said no problem. If I dismantle it to ponder mods and abandon the project he will give a full refund.


That's both generous and helpful. As a matter of interest, what's the retail price of the cleaner? Having seen it I suspect it's not cheap.

DT

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Will L
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Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby Will L » Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:19 pm

Paul Townsend wrote:Imagine a motorised window cleaner..... :D

Sorry but that isn't helping.

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Paul Townsend
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Re: Wheel cleaning

Postby Paul Townsend » Sat Jul 06, 2019 5:04 am

David Thorpe wrote:
Paul Townsend wrote:Lovely chap, Matthias, said no problem. If I dismantle it to ponder mods and abandon the project he will give a full refund.


That's both generous and helpful. As a matter of interest, what's the retail price of the cleaner? Having seen it I suspect it's not cheap.

DT

I don't know. The importer/ UK Agent is /will be Ten Commandments, so ask Dave there.

At the Perth show launch/demo Matthias had a special intro offer for that weekend only of £100 and took a number of orders, including mine for delivery later in July.

He says they are selling as hot cakes in Euroland in OO/HO format and he is committed to N and O versions. 2mm FS and ScaleSeven would have similar challenges to ours.

You can get a feel for his engineering skills and creative lateral thinking by looking at his track cleaners which have been marketed by Ten Commandments for several years in the three common indoor gauges .

I have bought one of those as it looks promising as a basis to solve my problem of cleaning mixed gauge track with a vehicle. Other gadgets struggle or fail to reach some parts ( thinks...must try Heineken ! )
Since we know well that a perfect 4 wheel waggon ( sic for the proper era) with rigid suspension will never have 4 wheels on track, it is no surprise that cleaners designed for 2 rails fail on 3.
Of course the same problem occurs on pointwork in 2 rail track.


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