Wheel cleaning

There has been a fair amount of playing operating trains on my Last Great Project 00 gauge layout and with good reason. Firstly I need to test the new wiring and track that it powers but secondly and more importantly, I am building the layout to run trains and that is what it is doing! However, and there is always a however in Woody's World, it also shows that I need to do maintenance of the rolling stock.

I have a rake of LNER wagons that ran reasonably well but would occasionally derail. Those derailments got more frequant and knowing that other rolling stock ran the same tracks without problems the issue had to be with the coaches themselves. Examination showed that there was a large build up of dirt on the wheels which is enough to cause derailments. The red arrow shows one particularly dirty wheel.

Some IPA or rubbing alcohol and cotton buds were enough to get the dirt off but with 6 carriages to do that took some time.

Was it worth it? Yes! Once the wheels were cleaned and the rake back on the tracks the W1 Hush Hush pulled them round for an hour or so with no derailments.